New User Guide

Our guide for new users. Learn how to sign up, start a project and provide feedback.

SketchDeck has a unique approach to design – we blend software and a global design team. If you’re on our membership plan, you will also have a project manager dedicated to your account.

This guide is for new users, especially those who are in organizations that already work with us. If your company does not currently work with us, please reach out here and we’ll get you setup.

Why SketchDeck?

We built SketchDeck to deliver on all the design projects that come up on a day to day basis. We believe that well designed materials bring more impact. We believe a consistently executed brand, strengthens the brand. We also know you are busy and have tight deadlines. We built SketchDeck to deliver on this and work with the realities of modern teams.

To make this possible, we use software to manage the design process. This helps us move faster and work more efficiently. We also hope this makes you more productive too.

Capabilities

We support almost all graphic design needs. Here’s some examples of projects we support:

  • Presentations of all forms: Sales, all hands, investor, board, keynote.
  • Content marketing: infographics, blog graphics, white papers, ebooks, illustration
  • Website, email and landing page design
  • Video & animation [beta]
  • Growth marketing: display ads, print ads, printed mail
  • Sales support: case studies, data sheets
  • Event materials: event branding, booths, flyers, swag
  • Brand: Templates, brand guidelines, sub-brands, logos, brand polish
  • And more…

We focus on design only, we require you to provide the content and copy.

Signing up

Before you need to start a project, we recommend getting an account set up so you can see the platform and browse your teams existing projects. The best way to do this is to ask you account admin to invite you to SketchDeck using the “Invite your colleagues” section at the bottom of your dashboard.

Once you receive an invite, follow the link and sign up. You’ll be asked to validate your email address then you’re on board!

Starting a project

You can start a project through the platform brief page. You’ll find many “start project” buttons throughout the website and platform. You can also click this link. When you click “start a project” you’ll be brought to a blank project brief where you can describe what you need.

The first page of the brief is all you have to complete. Here you give your project a title, explain what you would like us to do, and provide the content files that we should work from. The content files can be rough PowerPoints, word documents, sketches, pictures or a whiteboard photo – whatever gets your content across. Once you have provided this content you can press “checkout” and get the project straight to us. However, if you have more details for us to follow, press “next”.

The second page is focused on delivery. Here you select the speed you would like us to work. Our standard service is fast – get your first delivery in 2 – 3 days, then typically 24 hour iterations after that. If you need it faster you can select express. If you’re not in a hurry, select relaxed. Express projects charge a 50% price premium. Relaxed projects provide a 20% price discount.

There are two other options on this page – you can specify a deadline and request a call before we start work.

On the third page you can specify the details of the design, for example the project type, service level, template and format.

Finally, we have the checkout page. This summarizes the choices you’ve made and asks a few questions regarding payment:

Price: We recommend “charge by the hour” for most projects – this means you only pay for the work done on a project. If you need a quote before you get started, you can request this, but will add a delay to getting started.

Payment: Credit pools allow you to allocate your project to a cost centre. If your organization has pre-bought credits, your project will directly debit from these. If you have not pre-bought credits, you next need to select a payment method. You can also add a credit card if you want to pay for the project directly.

When you’re ready to start – hit the “start now” button. This will get the project over to your PM who will review the brief, get back to you if there are any questions (or you have requested a call), then get it to the design team.

Feedback & collaboration

SketchDeck works iteratively. We believe it’s better to get your feedback early so we don’t go too far in the wrong direction. The more we work with you the better we get as we learn about your preferences.

When there is design ready for review, you will get an email. You will also have an item on your dashboard. Click either link to review the project. When you click the link you’ll see your design in the browser. Scroll up and down to see all the pages.


You can click on the design to provide feedback. Add as many pins as you like – we recommend one point / change per pin to make it easier to track the changes. You can upload files to pins – this is great if you want to sketch something out and share this with the design team.

If there are other people on your team that you want to get input from, you can request their review by clicking the “request review” link in the bottom right corner. They will get an email and be able to provide feedback. If you want someone to be included in every round of the iteration, you can invite them to the project by clicking the “share” button top right.

Once you have finished leaving feedback, press the “send for more work” button in the bottom right corner. The project will automatically go back in 24 hours if you forget. Once back with the design team, we’ll continue work on the design and the cycle will repeat until it’s done!

Before you leave the page, please take a moment to leave feedback. This helps us ensure we’re working well for you. If we’re missing the mark, please provide details so we can correct things.

Completing a project and downloading assets

When your project is complete, you can close it by clicking on the arrow on the bottom right button and clicking “close project”. You’ll be asked for feedback one last time – please provide this as an overall feedback for the project.

You can download the project files once complete (or at any time) by clicking the download button top right of the screen. You can download any or all files, including the source files.

Finding old projects

All the projects you and your team work with us on are stored on our platform for easy retrieval. You can even re-open old projects to get a few tweaks made (great for things which need an update each year).

There are two ways to find old files:

Search: If you know the name of the project, you can click the magnifying glass icon in the nav bar and type your search term. If you find the project you need, just click on it. If it doesn’t show up, click “see all results” to get a list of all the projects.

You can also browse projects. You can do this from the dashboard or the projects page. This is a great way to see all the recent projects worked on:

Getting help

If you need further help, please reach out to your project manager or email us at support@staging-sketchdeck.kinsta.cloud and we’ll get you to the right person.

SketchDeck

SketchDeck

Redefine what's possible with SketchDeck.

Related reading

Frequently asked questions
SketchDeck design credits
What to expect during a project
Payment methods
What we need from you to start a project
Guide to a great case study

Redefine what’s possible
with SketchDeck.