What Are Fractional Creative Services?
Most companies don't have a creative problem. They have a creative leadership problem.
The deliverables exist. There's a designer somewhere, maybe even a whole team. There are tools, templates, brand guidelines collecting dust on a shared drive. But the work still looks inconsistent. Campaigns still miss. The brand still feels like five different people made it, because five different people did.
That's not a production problem. That's a leadership gap.
Fractional creative services are how you fill it.
The Short Answer: What Are Fractional Creative Services?
Fractional creative services means a senior creative professional or studio partners with your company on a part-time or retainer basis. They handle creative strategy, direction, and execution the same way an in-house Creative Director would, without the full-time salary, benefits, or headcount.
You get the expertise, the oversight, and the output. Without the full-time hire.
It's not a freelancer. It's not a traditional agency. It's a different category entirely: an embedded creative partner who shows up like part of your team and owns the work from strategy to final delivery.
Why Fractional Creative Services Exist
Let's be real about what the alternatives actually look like.
A full-time Creative Director costs anywhere from $120,000 to $200,000 a year before benefits. For a lot of companies, that's not a realistic hire, especially when the need is real but the volume doesn't justify a dedicated role. So they piece it together. A junior designer here, a freelancer there, an agency for the big stuff, and a marketing director who ends up making creative calls they weren't hired to make.
It works, kind of. Until it doesn't.
The junior designer needs constant direction. The freelancer does good work but doesn't know the brand well enough to operate independently. The agency charges for every revision and still hands off to someone mid-level. And nobody owns the whole picture, so nothing looks like it belongs together.
Fractional creative services exist because there's a real gap between "we can't afford a full-time CD" and "we're just going to figure it out." Companies in that gap need a senior creative brain in their corner without committing to a full-time headcount.
What You're Actually Getting with Fractional Creative Services
This is where it matters to be specific, because "fractional" gets used loosely.
At FifthHouse, fractional creative services means your company gets embedded senior creative leadership that handles both strategy and execution. Not just one or the other.
Strategy means having someone who can look at your brand holistically, understand your business goals, and make creative decisions that actually move things forward. Not just "make it look nice." Creative decisions tied to outcomes.
Execution means the work gets done. No briefing a separate team and hoping for the best. The creative lead owns the work from concept to delivery.
And when a project needs additional talent (a specialist, photographer, or developer), the right people get brought in. The creative lead owns QA and final approval before anything reaches you. You're not managing contractors. You're not wondering if the work is on-brand. That's not your job. It's ours.
What you're not getting: a junior designer pretending to be a strategist, or a strategist who can't execute, or an account manager playing telephone between you and whoever's actually making the work.
Who Fractional Creative Services Are For
Two kinds of companies show up for this, and both are dealing with a version of the same problem.
Marketing Directors at mid-size companies who have strategy and budget but no reliable creative execution partner who works at their level. They know what good looks like. They're tired of over-explaining briefs, babysitting revisions, and defending work to leadership that doesn't land. They need a creative counterpart, not another vendor to manage.
Founders who are scaling and whose brand looks like a side project. They know it's a problem. They've seen it in sales conversations, pitch decks, hiring. But they can't justify a full-time CD salary, and they don't want to manage a rotating cast of freelancers. They need someone who thinks about the whole brand, not just the next deliverable.
Both need the same thing: a senior creative partner who shows up like part of the team, owns the creative function, and delivers work they don't have to fix.
How Fractional Creative Services Work
Fractional creative services are an ongoing creative partnership model.
A monthly retainer that gives you embedded senior creative leadership for as long as you need it. This is for companies with continuous creative needs, whether that's because you don't have an in-house creative team or because you need senior oversight you don't currently have.
Project-based work is for defined scopes.
Brand identity. Web design and development. Campaign creative. A clear start, a clear end, and a clear deliverable.
Either way, the studio model is the same.
Senior-led. QA-controlled. Execution included. You're not hiring a freelancer who'll invoice you and disappear. You're getting a studio that acts like part of your team. Some clients come in through a project and stay on once they see what it's like to have senior creative leadership in their corner.
Not sure which engagement is right for you? The Creative Services Quiz takes less than two minutes and points you in the right direction.
What Fractional Creative Services Are Not
Because there's a lot of confusion here, worth being direct.
It's not a retainer for "design hours."
This isn't a time-buy where you submit requests and wait for something to come back. Fractional creative services means strategic leadership. Someone who's thinking about your brand and your goals, not just executing tasks.
It's not a consulting arrangement where you get a deck of recommendations and then have to figure out how to implement them.
Strategy and execution happen together.
It's not a junior hire dressed up as senior support.
The whole point is that you're getting someone with real creative leadership experience who's run creative at scale, navigated complex organizations, and knows what good actually looks like.
Quick Answers
What is fractional creative services?
Fractional creative services is an ongoing engagement model where a senior creative professional or studio embeds with your company on retainer, owning creative strategy, direction, and execution without the cost of a full-time hire.
Is fractional creative services the same as hiring a freelance designer?
No. A freelancer executes what they're briefed. Fractional creative services means you have a senior creative leader setting the direction and managing execution, not just delivering files.
How is fractional creative services different from hiring a creative agency?
Agencies have layers. Account managers, project managers, and a lot of overhead. With fractional creative services, you work directly with the senior creative leading your work. No handoffs. No middlemen.
Do I need an in-house team to use fractional creative services?
No. The studio model handles both strategy and execution. If a project calls for specialist support, that gets built in. You don't need to bring your own team.
How much do fractional creative services cost?
At FifthHouse, fractional creative services is a monthly retainer scoped to your needs. The right starting point is a creative audit, which clarifies exactly what your company needs before any commitment is made.
Where can I find fractional creative services in Nashville?
FifthHouse is a Nashville-based fractional creative studio offering embedded senior creative leadership for companies across industries. We work with clients locally and remotely.
Is fractional creative services only for ongoing work?
No. Project-based engagements follow the same studio model. The difference is scope and timeline, not quality or approach.
The Takeaway
If your creative output doesn't reflect your company, the problem usually isn't the work. It's the leadership around the work. Fractional creative services fill that gap without the full-time commitment.
You get a senior creative partner who knows your brand, owns the quality, and handles strategy and execution together. You stop managing contractors, explaining the same brief six times, and defending work to leadership that still feels off.
The companies that get the most out of fractional creative services aren't ones with no creative resources. They're ones who realized that what they actually needed was someone at the front of the room, not just someone at the table.
If you're not sure where your creative is breaking down, start with the Creative Services Quiz. It takes less than two minutes and points you in the right direction.
If you already know you need a closer look, book a Creative Brand Audit. In 30 minutes, you'll know exactly what's costing you and what to fix first.
