In the chaotic world of startups, speed is life. But moving fast can break things – like your brand and your marketing focus – if you’re not careful. As a founder, you’ve got a million balls in the air and every dollar is precious. It’s tempting to treat good design and UX as a “nice-to-have,” something to worry about later. Think different: great design isn’t a luxury; it’s a competitive advantage. Imagine having a world-class creative team at your fingertips without adding a single full-time hire. GameStrat, a fast-growing tech startup, discovered exactly that. They embraced Fractional Design Services as their secret weapon, and the results changed everything. This case study isn’t just about one company’s win – it’s a wake-up call for startups and small businesses everywhere to prioritize design as a smart investment, not an afterthought.
Background and Context
Before partnering with Design Centered Co., GameStrat’s brand and marketing efforts lacked consistency. Their visual identity was fragmented, marketing materials varied in quality, and they had no structured way to measure the success of their campaigns. They relied on different resources for design work, but without a startup design accelerator to unify their branding and UX strategy, they faced roadblocks in scaling their marketing efficiently. Like many small businesses, they needed high-quality design but weren’t in a position to build a full in-house team. This is where Design Centered Co. stepped in.
Challenges
GameStrat’s struggles came down to a few critical hurdles that any startup founder can relate to:
- No Clear ROI on Marketing: They were running marketing campaigns without a reliable way to track what was working. Design assets were being created, ads were running, but there was no clear framework to measure their effectiveness.
- Inconsistent Branding and Design Quality: With different people contributing to design work over time, GameStrat’s brand was inconsistent across platforms. There was no single source of truth for their visual identity, leading to marketing materials that felt disconnected.
- High Cost of In-House Talent: Hiring a full-time senior designer or UX strategist was cost-prohibitive. As a lean startup, allocating a significant budget to a permanent design hire didn’t align with their growth stage. They needed high-quality design support without the overhead.
Solutions
Design Centered Co. – a different kind of partner that stepped up to tackle GameStrat’s challenges head-on. Instead of insisting the company hire a full-time team, Design Centered Co. provided a fractional design team, offering branding, UX strategy, and measurable support on demand.
Here’s how this solution addressed each of GameStrat’s pain points:
- Establishing Brand Consistency: The first step was developing a centralized brand guideline. Design Centered Co. created a structured repository of templates and design assets to ensure every marketing effort aligned with GameStrat’s identity. With this foundation in place, marketing execution became seamless.
- Design Testing and Validation: With significant UX design expertise, Design Centered Co. conducts rapid A/B testing, accessibility assessments, and usability reviews to refine GameStrat’s design solutions. Using persona-based feedback, we ensure that their brand is not just visually appealing but also intuitive, accessible, and conversion-driven.
- Measurable Marketing Support: Design isn’t just about aesthetics – it’s about impact. Design Centered Co. introduced frameworks to track the effectiveness of GameStrat’s marketing efforts, providing future clarity on what was driving engagement and what needed refinement. With the right tools in place, GameStrat can measure success and make data-driven marketing decisions.
- On-Demand, Cost-Effective Talent: Rather than committing to an expensive full-time hire, GameStrat gained access to a fractional design services package that included a roster of experts. Whether they needed quick-turnaround design work or strategic UX insights, they had the flexibility to scale support up or down as needed.
Design Centered Co. delivers high-quality design solutions without the overhead of a full-time team. Their fractional design services have streamlined our branding, marketing, and UX, helping us scale efficiently. If you need design expertise on demand, they are the team to call.
—Tunch Akkaya, Founder & CEO, GameStrat
Benefits and Outcomes
This fractional design approach led to meaningful improvements for GameStrat:
- Cohesive Brand Presence: GameStrat now projects a consistent, professional image across all channels. With established brand guidelines and a centralized asset library, every piece of content – from the website to social media ads to investor pitch decks – aligns with their identity.
- Data-Driven Marketing Results: With tracking systems in place, GameStrat now has a clear view of its marketing ROI. They can measure campaign performance and adjust strategies based on real data, leading to smarter budget allocation and better results.
- Scalable Design Muscle without Overhead: With a fractional design team in place, GameStrat has access to premium UX and design expertise whenever needed, without the burden of full-time salaries. As the startup continues to grow, their design support scales right alongside it.
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