Project phases, retainers, freelance handoffs — held together.
Plero is built for the way a design studio actually ships work — brand systems in phases, retainers on a cadence, freelance designers cycling through the projects that need them. Chloe lives inside Plero and runs the operational rhythm.
Design studios ship brand systems, identity work, and product design in phases — research, exploration, refinement, delivery. Some clients run on retainer; the rest run on phased contracts that bill against milestones. Freelance designers cycle in for the work the in-house team cannot cover. Plero knows this shape and Chloe runs the operational mechanics inside it.
Real interactions, sized for your work.
“Find the brand-system project for Volta. What phase are we in?”
She returns the project record with the current phase, the last activity, the deliverables shipped, and the deliverables outstanding — without you opening the project file.
“Write the estimate for the new brand engagement. Five phases, sized like the Arcline project.”
She pulls the phase structure, durations, and rates from the Arcline project as a starting shape. Writes the estimate scoped to the new client's brief.
“Bill the next milestone for every active brand engagement this month.”
She drafts the milestone invoices for the projects ready for them. Queues them for your review before they go out.
“Pull a freelance designer from my library for the Volta concept-direction phase.”
She filters your existing contractor library by specialty, past work on similar engagements, and current workload. Returns three options ranked, with rate ranges drawn from their records.
Scale $59/mo annual
Design studios doing real client work need Pipeline (to track the prospects), full Estimates (to bid against your phased structure), AI-assisted estimate review (to catch the line items a tired eye misses), and the advanced reporting that ties margin back to the phase that produced it.
If you cycle freelance designers in regularly and the contractor side has become its own operational concern, Ultra ($99/mo annual) adds the Talent OS for onboarding, assignments, and 1099 reporting.
Run the design studio from inside Plero.
Founding design studios and creative teams are joining now. A short engagement to import your client list, your past project structures, and the freelance library you actually work with — and start running the next phase from the same record the rest of the studio sees.