You built a media brand.
It still looks like a mailing list.
Letterbox redesigns the three things that decide whether a reader subscribes and stays — the issue, the page they land on, and the site behind it. You get a fixed price in two working days, the first full design in ten, and every file in your name at the end.
- 01You'll know the price before we know your budget
- 02Nothing to book — the whole quote happens by email
- 03Built inside your platform, not just drawn in Figma
Fig. 1 — Issue template & signup page, drawn live by this page
Today
You send three links
Your newsletter, your signup page, and one brand you wish you looked like.
Within 2 days
We send a fixed price
Scope, number and delivery date in writing, after we've actually read a few of your issues.
Day 10
You're looking at the real thing
A finished design in your own platform — not a mockup, not a moodboard.
2 days
From your three links to a written scope, a fixed price and a date
0 calls
You can hire us, brief us and sign off entirely by email
10 days
To the first full design. Miss it and it's our problem, not a change order
100%
Of the files, fonts and licences end up in your name. Nothing is rented
Every week, people look at your newsletter and decide not to subscribe.
The writing isn't why.
They land on a signup page that looks like it took four minutes, so they don't give you the address. The ones who do get an issue that looks like the other nine in the promotions tab, so they stop opening it. Both of those are design problems, both are fixable in under three weeks, and neither of them shows up in your analytics as anything except a number that's lower than it should be.
— The whole argument, in three sentences
What it's costing you now
“This is a mailing list.”
- —Visitors who read the whole page and still don't sign up
- —Issues deleted from the preview pane, unopened
- —Sponsors pricing you as a list instead of a brand
- —An archive nobody browses twice
- —Four hours a month rebuilding the same issue by hand
What you get back
“This is a publication.”
- ✳A page built for one decision, converting like it
- ✳An issue recognised before it's opened
- ✳A media kit that makes your rate card look reasonable
- ✳An archive that reads like a reason to subscribe
- ✳A system your VA can produce issue 41 with
See your newsletter in two directions before you pay for either.
Four artefacts, three art directions, switched live. This is what a project produces — and it's how one starts, because you choose a direction from the real thing rather than from a moodboard and a hope.
Recognised in the preview pane, opened more often. Built in your sending platform, not just drawn.
Art direction
Serif masthead, generous rules, ink on paper. For a newsletter that wants to be read like something with an archive behind it.
Every artefact above is drawn by this page, not screenshotted — which is why it re-skins the moment you change direction. Your project opens the same way: two directions, built as the real thing, before you commit to either.
Eight things a newsletter brand needs. We make all eight.
One studio, one invoice, one set of files that agree with each other — instead of a template from one freelancer, a landing page from another, and a logo that matches neither.
Newsletter templates
An issue people recognise in the preview pane before they open it. Masthead, section furniture, pull quotes, sponsor slots and footer — built inside your editor, so you send Monday's issue without us.
Signup & landing pages
The page that decides whether a visitor becomes a subscriber, rebuilt to do that one job. Written as well as designed, and tested on a real phone before it ships.
Websites & archives
Turns your back catalogue into a reason to subscribe instead of a wall of dated links. Home, about, archive and a sponsor page that quietly sells your inventory.
Brand identity
A wordmark, type scale, colour and the rules that hold them together — a system your VA can apply on their own, not three logo files and a shrug.
Welcome & lifecycle emails
The first five emails decide whether there's a sixth. We design and write the sequence that turns a fresh signup into somebody who opens you in week six.
Covers & thumbnails
A cover system you refill in four minutes an issue — for the newsletter, the site and YouTube. No coming back to us for every headline.
Referral & rewards design
The mechanic already works; it usually just looks like an afterthought. We design the referral page, the reward tiers and the emails that push people through them.
Sponsor & media kits
A media kit that makes your rate card look inevitable, plus ad units that don't wreck the page — so sponsors renew instead of testing once.
Work out what a better page is worth before you buy one.
Same traffic, better page, one year. The assumption we're making is printed under the answer, so you can halve it and see whether the number still works. Most of the time it still works.
Your page today
Three numbers you already have.
They're in your platform's dashboard. If you're guessing, guess low — the answer holds up better that way.
Measured against
A page converting at 27% instead of 18%
+4,320
extra subscribers in the first year
$17,280
Worth, per year
21 weeks
Design pays for itself in
An estimate, not a promise. It models a 1.5× lift in signup rate — the low end of what a designed page tends to do against a default one, capped at 92% because no page converts everybody. Halve it if you like: if the number still works, the page is worth rebuilding. And if the rebuilt one loses to your old page, Letterbox rebuilds it again or refunds it.
We'd rather lose the project than sell you the wrong one.
Read the right-hand column first. If you're in it, close the tab with our blessing and come back when the situation changes — we'll still be here, and the price will still be on the page.
Worth every dollar if
- ✳You publish on a schedule and you're not going to stop
- ✳Somewhere between 2,000 and 500,000 people read you
- ✳You'd rather have one bill than a designer on retainer
- ✳Sponsors, a paid tier or a product depend on how you look
Don't hire us if
- —You want a logo by Friday for $300
- —You haven't sent an issue yet — write ten first, then come back
- —You want a design partner in every meeting for the next year
- —You want us to write your issues. That part is yours
You've commissioned design before. You remember how it went.
The quote that moved. The deadline that slipped. The beautiful Figma file nobody could turn into an email that sends. Here is the comparison with the parts left in that usually get left out.
| A freelancer | A design agency | Letterbox | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Hourly, until it isn't | Quoted, then re-quoted | Fixed, in writing, before we start |
| Before you can buy | A few days of DMs | Two calls and a proposal | Two fields and two working days |
| First deliverable | When they're free | After the kickoff cycle | 10 working days |
| What you receive | A Figma file | A Figma file | A template that sends, in your platform |
| Newsletter-specific | Sometimes | Rarely | It's the only thing we do |
| Who owns the files | Usually you | Ask your contract | You, editable, day one |
| If it underperforms | Your problem | Change request | We rebuild it, or refund it |
| After handover | Gone | Retainer conversation | 30 days of fixes, no retainer required |
The guarantee
If the new signup page doesn't beat the old one, you don't keep paying for it.
We measure the page we replaced for 60 days after launch. If it converts worse than what you had, we redesign it once more for free — and if the second one loses too, the design fee comes back. You are risking two working days of email, not five figures.
Get my fixed price →The prices are on the page. You weren't going to book a call for them.
One number, agreed before we start, revisions and handover included. If the scope changes we tell you what it costs before we do it — that is the whole billing policy, and it's why nobody has ever had a surprise invoice from us.
60-day rebuild-or-refund on every signup page we ship.
Launch
For the good newsletter that still looks like the default template.
First design in 10 working days
- ✳One custom newsletter template, built in your platform
- ✳A signup page designed and written to convert, not just to match
- ✳Cover template you refill in four minutes an issue
- ✳Two rounds of revisions
- ✳Source files and a one-page guide so your VA can run it
- No website, no brand identity, no automations — that's Studio.
Studio
For the established newsletter turning into a media brand.
Everything delivered inside 3 weeks
- ✳Everything in Launch
- ✳Website: home, about, archive (up to 3 pages)
- ✳Welcome sequence — 3 emails, designed and written
- ✳Six covers and a system for every one after that
- ✳Signup flow, from ad click to first issue
- ✳Brand mini-kit: wordmark, type scale, colour, usage rules
- ✳Shared board, Slack channel, two rounds per deliverable
Flagship
For the brand with sponsors, a podcast and something to protect.
Five to six weeks, milestone by milestone
- ✳Everything in Studio
- ✳Full brand identity, with a written guideline document
- ✳Two newsletter templates — flagship plus a second format
- ✳Website up to 7 pages, including a sponsor page and rate card
- ✳Lifecycle automations: welcome, re-engagement, upgrade
- ✳Referral programme design, end to end
- ✳Podcast and social kit
- ✳Platform migration, if you're moving
- ✳Unlimited revisions inside the project window
A mid-level in-house designer costs somewhere near $95,000 a year, plus the three months it takes to find one. Flagship is a seventh of that, once, and it starts on Monday.
3 projects a month
Two designers, one studio. We start three projects a month so nobody waits behind somebody else's flagship build.
Or, month to month
Letterbox On Call
$2,900 per month
For brands that ship constantly. One active request at a time, a new design every two to four working days, and a queue you reorder yourself. Pause any month you don't need us — you keep every file either way.
- ✳Unlimited requests, one active at a time
- ✳Covers, landing pages, ad units, decks, social, one-off emails
- ✳The same two designers every month, so nothing gets re-briefed
- ✳Pause or cancel at the end of any month, in one line of email
Add-ons, priced with the scope
Need less than Launch or more than Flagship? Send the links anyway — one-off pieces get their own number, usually $900 to $2,400.
You'll spend ninety minutes on this. We'll spend three weeks.
The whole process is built around the fact that your time is the scarce thing here, not ours. Nothing in it requires you to sit on a call.
Day 0
01 / 04
Three links, ten minutes of your day
Your newsletter, your signup page, and one brand you wish you looked like. No call, no questionnaire, no workshop. We read a few issues and reply with a written scope, a fixed price and a delivery date inside two working days.
Day 1–3
02 / 04
Two directions, before anyone builds anything
Each one shown as a real issue and a real signup page, not a moodboard. Pick one, or take the head of one and the type of the other. If neither lands you pay $600 and walk — that's the most this can cost you.
Day 4–10
03 / 04
Built where you actually send from
Not a picture of a template — the template, live in beehiiv, Kit, Substack or Ghost, rendering correctly in dark mode and on a five-year-old Android. You watch it on a shared board and comment in place.
Handover
04 / 04
You own it, and you can run it
Source files, fonts, licences in your name, a short Loom per deliverable and the rules written down, so issue 41 goes out without us. We stay reachable for 30 days for anything that breaks.
Everything you'd have asked on the call we're not making you take.
Still missing something? Ask it in one line — we answer questions from people who never hire us, because that's how a studio earns the next one.
hello@letterbox.designSix hundred dollars. You pay the first stage, see two directions built as real issues and real pages, and if neither one is right you stop there and keep the work. Past that point the price is fixed in writing, the signup page carries a 60-day rebuild-or-refund, and every file is yours whatever happens. There isn't a version of this where you're out five figures and holding nothing.
About ninety minutes in total: ten to send three links, an hour to choose a direction, twenty minutes of comments at the end. No kickoff call, no brand questionnaire, no workshop. If we can't work out what your newsletter is by reading it, we're the wrong studio and you should keep your ninety minutes.
Launch is ten working days to the first full design and usually finished inside three weeks including revisions. Studio runs three weeks end to end, Flagship five to six. Those dates go into the scope document before you pay anything, and if we miss one that's our problem to solve, not a change order to sign.
If a thousand people a month look at your signup page, a page that converts at 30% instead of 18% is roughly 1,400 extra subscribers a year — which is what Launch costs at under two dollars a head, once, forever. Below a few hundred visitors a month, don't buy this yet: spend the money on getting read, and come back when the traffic is there.
beehiiv, Kit, Substack, Ghost, Mailchimp and Buttondown, plus hand-written HTML if you send it yourself. We build inside the platform you already use, so what you receive is something you can send on Monday rather than a picture of something you can send.
Completely — editable sources, every illustration made for you, and fonts licensed in your name with the licence sent to your inbox, not ours. Nothing is rented, nothing phones home, and nothing stops working the day you stop working with us.
For the pieces design can't carry alone — signup pages, welcome sequences, sponsor kits — yes, and it's included in the price. We won't write your issues. That's the one part of this nobody should outsource, and you're already good at it.
Then don't buy a package. A single template, one landing page or a cover system is quoted on its own, usually between $900 and $2,400 depending on how much of your brand already exists. Send the links and ask for the piece you want — you'll get a number for exactly that.
Either. Site design is included in Studio and Flagship; the build in Webflow, Framer or your platform's native site is an add-on priced with the scope. Plenty of clients take the design to a developer they already trust, and the handover is built for exactly that.
Three links now. A price in two days.
Your newsletter, your signup page, and one brand you wish you looked like. We'll read a few issues and come back with a scope, a fixed price and a delivery date — inside two working days, with no call in between and nothing to pay until you say go.
- ✳Costs you two minutes to find out the number
- ✳Worst case: $600 and you keep two directions
- ✳60-day rebuild-or-refund on the signup page
Would rather talk? hello@letterbox.design