Graphic design support for performing arts organizations that can't afford a Full-Time designer

Theater companies, dance studios, orchestras, and touring productions run on tight margins and tighter timelines — but your marketing materials still need to look like you have a full creative department. Whether you're building season campaign assets, designing a digital playbill, or pulling together last-minute promotional graphics for a run that opens in two weeks, a Trusty Oak EA can take that off your plate. You get consistent, on-brand design work without the overhead of a salaried hire.

Fractional graphic design support for performing arts organizations

How Trusty Oak handles graphic design for performing arts organizations

A Trusty Oak Specialist assigned to your graphic design work will start by getting familiar with your brand kit — your fonts, color palette, logo files, and any existing templates — so they can produce assets that look like they came from inside your organization. Day-to-day, that might mean building out a series of social graphics in Canva or Adobe Express for an upcoming production, resizing a poster for print versus digital distribution, or laying out a season brochure in InDesign based on a draft you've approved. You review, request revisions, and approve — the back-and-forth happens over whatever project management or communication tool you already use, whether that's Asana, Slack, or email. Your role is to provide the creative direction and final sign-off; the EA handles the execution.

What your EA takes off your plate

Before your first project, pull together a single shared folder with your logo files in vector format, your brand style guide if you have one, and two or three examples of past materials you liked — even if they weren't perfect. The most common mistake arts organizations make is handing off a design request without a reference point, which leads to a first draft that misses the aesthetic entirely and costs revision time. If you don't have a formal brand guide, a quick voice memo or a few bullet points about your organization's visual tone goes a long way.

1

Production Poster and Flyer Design

Design print-ready and digital versions of show posters and flyers using your approved production photos, typography, and brand standards — formatted for venues, lobbies, and social sharing.

2

Digital and Print Playbill Layout

Format playbill pages in InDesign or Canva, incorporating cast bios, sponsor acknowledgments, director's notes, and production credits according to your established layout.

3

Season Campaign Social Graphics

Build a set of consistently branded social media graphics across Instagram, Facebook, and email header formats to support a full season announcement or individual show launch.

4

Sponsor and Donor Recognition Materials

Create recognition graphics, acknowledgment slides for lobby displays, and branded sponsor collateral that meet the deliverable commitments in your sponsorship agreements.

5

Email Newsletter and E-blast Design

Design audience-facing email templates in Mailchimp or Constant Contact, including event announcements, presale alerts, and post-show recaps with production imagery.

Tools our team works with

We adapt to your existing stack — no forced migrations.

Dropbox
Google Slides
Microsoft PowerPoint
Canva
Adobe Express
Unsplash / Pexels

...and many more!

Trusted by performing arts organizations

Trusty Oak supports performing arts organizations including Boston Court Pasadena — handling everything from graphic design to broader operational support.

What graphic design support costs for performing arts organizations

Drag the sliders to build a monthly plan that fits your workload.

Executive Assistants
~$35/hour
10 hours $350
Specialists
~$50/hour
20 hours $1,000
Fractional Executives
~$95/hour
0 hours $0
Your monthly budget
$1,350

Starting at $1,000/month. One-time $300 onboarding fee includes your Strategic Delegation Plan.

Book a Discovery Call

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, but clear communication about turnaround expectations matters. When you onboard, your Client Success Manager will help you set up a workflow that accounts for rush requests — most clients establish a standing lead time (typically 48–72 hours for standard assets) with a protocol for urgent needs. Building that structure early prevents bottlenecks when opening night is close.
Trusty Oak Specialists typically work in tools like Canva Pro, Adobe Creative Suite, and similar platforms. If your organization has existing licensed templates or specific software you require, let your Client Success Manager know during onboarding so the right match can be made. Most performing arts design workflows are well within standard toolsets.
Absolutely. Coordinating file specs with a print vendor or pulling the correct ad dimensions from a ticketing platform like Tessitura or Eventbrite is exactly the kind of task an EA handles well. You can loop them in directly with vendors once you've established the working relationship, which keeps you out of the back-and-forth on technical details.

Get consistent design support for your next season

Trusty Oak's monthly talent budget starts at $1,000 with a one-time $300 onboarding fee — including a Strategic Delegation Plan built around your production calendar. Unused hours roll over, so slower months don't go to waste.