COLO gives independent brand and visual designers a single workspace for scoping the brief, running rounds of revisions, handing off final assets, and getting paid — without flipping between a proposal tool, a project board, a file-sharing folder, and an invoicing app.
TL;DR
Independent brand and visual designers use COLO to scope the brief, run rounds of revisions, hand off final assets and get paid. Proposals lock the scope so an extra tweak is measurable against the quoted revision rounds, the project workspace keeps feedback in one thread instead of five, and invoicing is tied to milestones.
Who this is for
You are a solo graphic designer or a tiny studio shipping logo systems, brand identities, packaging, social templates, or marketing collateral. Most projects are quoted as a fixed fee with a defined number of revision rounds, and most of the friction sits in the same places:
- Scope creep eats the margin. "Just one more tweak" was three more tweaks ago, and tracking what counts as round-two versus a new request is happening in your head.
- Feedback lives in five threads. The client emailed the logo notes, Slacked the colour change, WhatsApp'd a screenshot of the social mock, and verbally said "can you make it pop" on the call.
- Hand-off is its own project. Final files, brand guidelines, web exports, print exports, and the source PSD all need to land somewhere the client can find them next year.
Three features graphic designers use every week
Proposals that lock the scope
Send a branded proposal that lists deliverables, the number of revision rounds, the timeline, and the fee — present your proposed solution or approach to addressing the client's needs with COLO. The client accepts and signs in one click, and the scope you both agreed to is on file. When round three becomes round four, the conversation about a change order is grounded in a document, not a memory.
Project workspace where revisions actually live
Run each project with milestones (discovery, concepts, refinement, hand-off), attach the working files to the relevant task, and capture feedback as comments against the deliverable instead of in a separate chat. With COLO's project system, you can implement your project plan by assigning tasks, allocating resources, and coordinating activities. Track your project's performance against the plan. The client sees only what you choose to share, so the back-end mess stays your business.
Invoicing tied to milestones
Issue 50% on signing, 25% at concept approval, 25% on hand-off — or whatever schedule fits the project — and let the client pay by card from the portal. Integrating invoice functionality into our application streamlines the billing process, enhances accuracy, improves cash flow management, and provides a better overall experience for both businesses and clients. No more chasing a final invoice while the client is already using the logo on their website.
For more on these pieces, see proposals and project management.
A typical project in COLO for a graphic designer
- Enquiry — a prospect fills your contact form or replies to a referral; the lead becomes a client record with the brief attached.
- Onboarding — you send a branded proposal with scope, rounds, timeline, and fee; the client signs and pays the 50% deposit; the project workspace opens with milestones pre-loaded.
- Delivery — concepts go up against the discovery milestone, the client comments against each option, refinement happens, and final assets land against the hand-off milestone with brand guidelines attached.
- Payment — the final invoice fires on hand-off, the client pays from the portal, and the project closes with all source files archived against the client record for future asset requests.
How graphic designers use COLO today
Monday morning, a referral lands from a previous brand-identity client — their friend needs a packaging system for a small skincare line. By 10am the lead is a client record, the brief is attached, and the "Packaging — 3 SKUs" proposal template is on screen. Forty minutes later the proposal is out: scope, three rounds of revisions, a print-rights clause, a six-week timeline, a 50/25/25 fee schedule. By Wednesday afternoon the client has signed, the 50% deposit has cleared, and the project workspace has opened with the discovery, concept, refinement, and hand-off milestones pre-loaded.
Through the next three weeks the work runs against the milestones, not against your inbox. Concept boards attach to the discovery milestone, refinement happens against round-two, and the client's feedback lives as inline comments against the file they are looking at — not as a paragraph in WhatsApp. When the client asks for "the other gold" in week four, you scroll to the round-two comment and the conversation is grounded in the actual mockup. The audit trail does the awkward "we approved that on the 12th" conversation for you.
By the end of week five the hand-off pack is ready — final files, brand guidelines, web and print exports, the source AI archive. They drop against the hand-off milestone; the balance invoice fires automatically; the client pays from the portal that afternoon. Six months later, when they ask about a t-shirt mock-up "in the same style", the colour palette, the contract, and the original brief are all one click away. No archaeology, no missed scope, no awkward chasing email.
What it costs vs your current stack
Most solo and small-studio designers carry a four-tool stack — a proposal-and-contracts tool, a project board for the rounds, a file-sharing folder for the working files, and a separate invoicing app for billing. The monthly bill comes to roughly $90–110 before the first identity job of the quarter is booked. COLO replaces the four with one workspace, and the Solo plan covers the cycle end-to-end at zero.
| Tool | Plan | Cost/month |
|---|---|---|
| Current 4-tool stack | HoneyBook + Trello + Dropbox + QuickBooks | ~$100 |
| COLO Solo | Free | $0 |
| COLO Pro | Per user/mo | $18 |
| COLO Grow | Per user/mo | $24 |
You swap a $100/month stack for one tool that already does this work. Pro adds the junior designer seat and per-project budget tracking; Grow adds the white-label client portal on your studio's custom domain.
FAQ
Q: Can I run multiple concept rounds without losing track of which version the client approved?
Yes. Each round attaches as a version against the milestone, and the client's approval comment is timestamped against the file they were looking at when they approved it.
Q: Does COLO handle source files, or do I still need Dropbox?
COLO holds working files and final hand-off assets against the project record. For very large source archives, most designers keep a Dropbox or Drive folder and link it from the COLO project — best of both.
Q: How do I handle out-of-scope requests?
Issue a separate proposal (or a change-order proposal) against the same client record. The client signs it and pays separately; the original project keeps its agreed scope.
Q: Is COLO better than running Notion plus Stripe plus DocuSign?
For most solo designers, yes — that stack costs more and adds copy-paste between tools. See our factual write-up at the Notion-stack comparison and our blog post all-in-one vs multiple tools.
Q: Can my client see the project without creating an account?
Yes. The client portal is invite-link based; clients see the bits you share and nothing else.
Q: Can I include print-rights, exclusivity, and usage-window clauses in the contract?
Yes. Contract templates are fully editable — hold one template per work shape (logo, identity system, packaging, social campaign) with the right rights language baked in. Every signed contract is timestamped and stored against the client record.
Q: How do I bill change orders without restarting the proposal?
Issue a separate change-order proposal against the same client record — it carries its own deliverable, fee, and signature. The original project keeps its agreed scope and budget; the change-order invoices separately.
Q: Can I track designer hours per project even on a fixed-fee job?
Yes. Time entries log against tasks, roll up to the project total, and surface on the finance view as effective rate per hour — useful for the next quote conversation.
Q: Can I link a Figma file or Webflow project from a COLO task?
Yes. Drop the Figma or Webflow URL onto the relevant task; comments and approvals happen in COLO, the live editing stays in your specialist tool, and the trail is intact.
Q: How does multi-currency invoicing work for international brand work?
Set the client's invoicing currency on their record — the invoice issues, sends, and accepts payment in that currency. The finance dashboard converts to your reporting currency on the day the payment cleared, so the year-end P&L reflects the FX reality.
Pricing
Solo plan is free forever for one designer. See our pricing when you bring on a junior designer or a project manager.