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In this post we'll talk about Penji, an innovative graphic design service created with the objective of helping businesses with their graphic design needs. We're not talking about a SaaS graphic design or visual content platform such as Canva, which require the user to actively draw and learn how to work with the software features & tools: in Penji we don't have to do anything specific, except to explain what we need using a high-level "design project" and wait for the low-level (design + source files) outcome.
However, that's just the tip of the iceberg: let's see how it works in detail.
How Penji works
The best possible way to understand how Penji works is to take a look at the following diagram:
As we can see, we're talking about an on demand graphic design process involving three main step:
- Create design project. The first (and only) thing we need to do is to fill out a simple form to help Penji designers understand what we are looking for: the form allows us to attach graphic files, PDFs, and everything we feel like using to better explain our idea or concept.
- Draft & revisions. Shortly after we upload our request, Penji will automatically assign the related tasks to its internal workforce of graphic designers. These designers have been carefully selected from the market and have a wide variety of graphics skill sets. We can communicate with the chosen designer using the Penji platform, which works like a chat: this mean that we'll be able to further explain our project and its goals to the designer itself, which will act accordingly to fulfill it - until a "draft" is ready. When this happens, we can either accept the draft (and move to phase 3) or ask for a revision, requesting some changes that will eventually (typically within 24 hours) lead to another draft. This sub-process (draft > review > draft) can go on for as long as we want, unless we are happy with the outcome.
- Complete & download. Once the draft gets accepted, we'll be instantly able to download the final project.
Sources ownership
As for Penji's Terms of Services, the requesting user will retain complete ownership of source files, meaning that he/she will be able to use them at will. Furthermore, all the generated files will be stored on Penji and can be accessed from the user's dashboard, so that they can be recovered even in case of a software or hardware loss.
Timing
Penji ensures that their designers will only work on one project at a time: the first draft is typically delivered within 24/48 hours from the request, and each subsequent revision is usually completed within 24 hours. Furthermore, if we don't like the designer style, we can request a "swap", and Penji will provide us with a different designer.
Supported Project Types
Penji will accept basically any print or digital graphic type: advertisements, marketing materials, logos, website/app designs, book or magazine covers, album convers, banners/ads, business cards, brochures, cards, catalogs, posters, t-shirt designs, and anything like that. However, some of them will be only available when purchasing a specific plan (see Pricing and Rates below).
Unsupported Project Types
Here's a brief list of requests that will NOT be accepted, as listed on Penji's websites:
- 3D modeling
- Animation
- Content writing
- WordPress
- Motion graphics
- Programming
- Video editing
As we can see, none of them can be classified as "digital graphic".
Pricing and Rates
Penji's pricing model is based upon a monthly subscription, with a variable price depending on the choosen plan:
- Pro: $499/month, featuring unlimited design projects, unlimited brands, unlimited users, and 1 designer. This tier is limited to Graphic Design. That's the perfect choice if we need book/magazine/album covers, logos, business cards, and the likes.
- Team: $699/month, featuring everything available in the Pro plan plus Illustrations, UX/UI projects, and Infographics. That's a good match for those who need a web design (UX & UI) service.
- Daytime: $999/month, featuring everything available in the Team plan plus a dedicated Daytime designer, which can guarrantee a same-day turnaround. That's ideal for those who need fast-paced projects with strict deadlines.
As we can see, the agreement between Penji and the user entirely depends on the chosen plan: a no-contract model with a fixed billing and no hidden fees, which makes it perfect for the average company that wants to keep its budget under control. Moreover, all monthly plans are backed by a 15 day, 100% money-back guarantee, without further conditions or strings attached.
If we have a non-profit company we can also ask Penji to be accepted in their Nonprofits program, which can provide the Team plan for free for a limited number of months.
Conclusion
Penji service might seem expensive at first, but if we think that it's mostly suited for companies it can be very convenient - and much cheaper than hiring a full-time graphic designer to fulfill the exact same task. A typical company will use Penji to handle most - if not all - the internal graphics designs tasks, from logo, to brochures, to websites. If the company is selling graphics the gain might be even bigger, since it will be immediately able to deliver a good quality product to their customers thanks to the passionate, hardworking and extremely responsive service that Penji provides. This can be a game breaker for most small and medium-sized companies, since they can gain a competitive advantage at a fraction of the cost.
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