Creative partnership
Creative partnershipWe don't spread thin.We go deep.
Splash Creative takes on a small number of ongoing creative partners each year. If you want an embedded team that knows your business as well as you do, this is what that looks like.
Trusted by founders and teams at
Sound familiar?
You're the creative director by default.
Every brand call lands on your desk, between everything else you run. Decisions back up, and the work waits on you.
Every new agency starts from zero.
New project, new team, new brief, and weeks spent explaining a brand you've already explained five times.
The pieces don't talk to each other.
The site says one thing, the emails say another, and the ads were made by someone who has seen neither.
You have hands. You need a head.
Freelancers do what's asked, and do it well. Nobody is asking whether it's the right thing to do next.
Our view
Our viewWhen you're on retainer with Splash Creative, we're not executing a task list. We're inside your business. We know the brand history, the decisions that got made and why, the customers you're trying to reach, and the direction you're building toward. That context is what makes the work good, and it's what makes us useful when the question isn't a design question at all.
The conductor model
Most founders who hire us on retainer aren't looking for a vendor. They're looking for someone to hold the creative operation together: someone who knows every moving part, from brand and web to email, copy, and campaigns, and can direct all of them from a single strategic foundation. Not a pair of hands. The conductor. We'd rather know your business cold than know twenty businesses passably.
Where we've done it
At HUUG, custom Shopify features, Klaviyo flows, and brand copy are one ongoing relationship, so what we learn on the storefront shows up in the emails. For Roadway Moving, the identity, the campaigns, and the customer communications were built to work together, down to the trucks. Yid to Yid's brand, website, appeals, and email sequences all came from the same team.
Featured project
HUUG
An intimates brand where custom Shopify work, Klaviyo flows, and brand copy run as one ongoing relationship. We've managed the account since November 2025, and each piece of work builds on what the last one taught us.
- The challenge
- How do you make a product range easier to choose from and keep the shopping experience and email program working together as the business develops? HUUG needed a team that could move between custom Shopify functionality, lifecycle communications, and copy without treating each as an isolated request.
- Reported results
- Conversion rate increased 29 percent
- Average order value increased 19 percent
- First-purchase rate increased 40 percent
Reported business results for the periods shown in the case study, not a controlled test of our contribution.
More creative partnership work
All work
“Splash Creative's creativity, ability to deliver, and communication are impressive.”
What an ongoing partnership covers
- 01
Embedded partner
We operate like a member of your team. Monthly hours, no rigid scope, just showing up where you need us. The model for founders who want a creative director in their corner without hiring one full-time.
- 02
Hours-based retainer
A committed block of hours each month, applied wherever it's most valuable. Some months a campaign, some months a site update, some months a new deck.
- 03
Creative direction and brand decisions
The calls that have been backing up: what to launch, how it should look, what to say, and what to stop doing. We make them with you, from the same strategic foundation every time.
- 04
Web, Shopify, and email
Site design and development updates, Shopify improvements, and Klaviyo strategy and execution, handled by people who already know the brand instead of a new vendor for each.
- 05
Copy and campaigns
Copywriting across every touchpoint, plus campaign creative and ad design that look and sound like one brand.
- 06
Decks and sales materials
Pitch decks, sales materials, and the documents your team sends every week, designed so the next one doesn't start from a blank file.
How we work, for free
Five habits we use to run a brand's creative week to week.
This is how we keep a brand consistent when a lot of work, and a lot of people, touch it. None of it needs us. Start using it on Monday.
- 1
Keep one source of truth
One living document with your positioning, your voice, and the decisions you've made and why. Every brief links to it. Brands rarely drift because of one bad call. They drift one reasonable decision at a time, after the why gets lost.
- 2
Brief the problem, not the deliverable
'We need an email' is a deliverable. 'Customers aren't coming back after their second order' is a problem. Brief the problem and you'll often find the email was the wrong answer, or only half of it.
- 3
Pick three things a month
Keep a running list of every creative request, then choose the three that move the business this month. Everything else waits, on purpose. A team doing ten things at once does none of them well.
- 4
Give every launch a check-in date
Launch day isn't the finish line. It's the first day of data. When a page, flow, or campaign ships, put a date on the calendar to look at what people actually did, then remove the steps they skipped.
- 5
Treat every touchpoint as marketing
List every place a customer meets you: the receipt, the shipping box, the reorder email, the truck that shows up on moving day. If a customer interacts with it, it's marketing, whether you planned it or not. Most brands design five of these and ignore the rest.
Getting into a retainer with Splash Creative
- 01
The conversation
We start with a real conversation about your business: where you are, where you're going, and what's eating your time creatively. No pitch deck. No proposal before we've talked. Just an honest discussion about whether this makes sense.
- 02
The audit
If there's a fit, we look at what you have: brand, site, email, content, all of it. We want the full creative picture before we commit to anything. This is where we find what's working, what's not, and where the biggest gains are.
- 03
The structure
We agree on a monthly commitment that reflects the actual scope, hours or embedded, depending on what fits. No bloated retainer with services you don't need. No underbid that means we're always behind.
- 04
We go deep
Once we're in, we're in. We learn the business, get in the Slack, attend the calls that matter, and start making the creative decisions that have been backing up. The goal is to know your brand well enough that starting over with anyone else has a real cost, without holding anything hostage.
Why not a full-time creative director, a freelancer bench, or a big agency retainer?
All three can work. The difference is who holds the whole picture, and how long it takes to get there.
Splash Creative
- Who does the work
- A senior team led by David, who stays on your account
- Range
- Brand, web, Shopify, email, copy, and campaigns under one direction
- Who holds it together
- We do, from one strategic foundation
- Getting started
- A conversation and an audit, then we're in
- When priorities change
- Effort moves to wherever the business needs it that month
Full-time creative director
- Who does the work
- One senior person, who still needs designers, writers, and developers
- Range
- Direction, with execution hired or contracted separately
- Who holds it together
- They do, once they're hired and up to speed
- Getting started
- A search, a hire, and onboarding
- When priorities change
- Limited by one person's time and skills
Freelancer bench
- Who does the work
- Several specialists, each seeing their own piece
- Range
- Whatever skills you've assembled
- Who holds it together
- You do
- Getting started
- Finding, vetting, and briefing each person
- When priorities change
- Depends on who's available
Large agency retainer
- Who does the work
- Senior people in the pitch, a wider team on the day-to-day
- Range
- Broad, often across separate departments
- Who holds it together
- Usually an account manager
- Getting started
- A pitch, a contract, and an onboarding phase
- When priorities change
- Often a scope change in the contract
You're the right fit if...
- You have an established brand and need a team that already knows it, not one briefed from scratch every time.
- You're making creative decisions every week and want a thinking partner who helps you make them faster and better.
- You're running Shopify, email, and content at the same time and need someone to hold all three together.
- You want senior creative thinking, not an account manager relaying notes to a junior team.
- You'd rather pay for ongoing depth than one-off projects that reset the relationship every time.
- You think of your creative team as a competitive advantage, not a cost center.
Not a fit
If you're looking for the cheapest way to get tasks done, we're not it. If you want to own the creative direction and just need execution, a freelancer will serve you better. We do our best work when we're trusted to think, not just produce.
In short
Splash Creative works as an ongoing creative partner for businesses that make creative decisions every week. A senior team led by founder David Herskowitz holds the context across brand, website, Shopify, email, copy, and campaigns, helps set priorities, and does the work. You can work with us as an embedded partner or on a committed block of hours each month, with scope and fee agreed in a written proposal before we start.
- Who it is for
- Businesses where creative decisions come up regularly and brand, web, email, and campaigns need consistent attention
- What it covers
- Creative direction, site development, Shopify improvements, lifecycle email, copy, and campaign design, as agreed
- Who does the work
- A senior team led by David Herskowitz, Founder and Creative Director
- How it is priced
- From $2,500 per month. Scope and fee confirmed in a written proposal
Questions, answered.
What's the difference between a retainer and a project?
A project has a defined end. A partnership keeps the same senior team on your business, so each new piece of work builds on what we already know instead of starting with a fresh brief.
Embedded partner or hours-based retainer: which is right for us?
Embedded suits founders who want a creative director in their corner and work that changes week to week. A block of hours suits teams with a steady flow of known work, like site updates, emails, and campaigns. We'll recommend one after the audit.
Who actually does the work?
A senior team led by David Herskowitz, Founder and Creative Director. We don't hand your account to a junior team once the contract is signed, and we don't disappear between invoices.
How do you get up to speed on our business?
Through the audit. We look at your brand, site, email, and content before committing to anything. Once we start, we join your Slack and the calls that matter, so the context builds every week.
How is a creative partnership priced?
Ongoing partnerships start at $2,500 per month. It reflects the capacity and support agreed, embedded or a block of hours, depending on what fits. The proposal sets out the fee, scope, and terms before we start, and we don't pad it with services you don't need.
Can we start with a single project first?
Yes. A defined project, like a website or a brand refresh, is a good way to see how we work together before you commit to something ongoing.
If we're in, we're actually in.
Tell us where the business is going and what's eating your time creatively. We'll look at what you have, tell you honestly whether a partnership makes sense, and send a written proposal if it does.
- 01
You tell us what needs to change
An unfinished brief is welcome. The business situation matters more than a list of deliverables.
- 02
We talk it through
A first conversation about the business, what's already in place, and what should happen next.
- 03
You get a written proposal
Scope, responsibilities, timing, and fee, agreed before any work begins.
Rather talk first?
Book a call with DavidTell us about the project