Sideline for creative & design studios
Every "one more tweak," tracked to done.
Sideline collects the revision rounds, asset requests, and quick asks that fill a studio's week, and keeps every file and decision findable long after the thread would have buried them.
Free concierge migration · No credit card
Creative work is iterative. Email is amnesiac.
A studio's inbox is a graveyard of almost-final files. Feedback arrives in five formats from three stakeholders, v2 gets approved in a thread nobody can find in March, and the "quick tweak" from Tuesday quietly becomes the fourth revision round nobody is billing.
None of that is a talent problem. It is a container problem: conversations, files, and decisions all live in a medium designed to forget them. The studio absorbs the cost as unbilled hours and re-exported files.
Sideline gives the iteration a container. Each request holds its own thread, files, and history; approvals happen where the work is; and when the client asks for "that teal from the spring shoot," it takes one search, not one afternoon.
For the work between the briefs
The unglamorous requests are where studio weeks actually go.
Every file you have ever traded, one search away
The whole history of files between you and every client, in one searchable library, sortable by client, type, or who shared it. Click any file and the request opens at the exact message where it appeared, so the approval and the context come with it. "Which version did they sign off on?" has a definitive answer.
The file from March is findable in March of next year.
Files 4,182
every client, every request- Open in thread
teal-colorway-04.jpg
#846 Product photos · Grace K. · 2h
can-label-v3.ai
#198 Summer can label · Dana R. · Jul 12
teal-swatch-ref.png
#712 Brand guidelines · Maya R. · Mar 4
hero-brief.pdf
#847 Homepage hero · Grace K. · Feb 20
Opens the request at the message where it was shared, so you get the conversation, not just the download.
Grace K. Client
These look great, can we brighten the teal one before Friday?
Dev P. Your team
On it. @Maya can you grab the reshoot tomorrow AM?
MMaya was notified, no forwarding, no CC chains.
Feedback lives on the work, not in five inboxes
Each request carries its own thread: client feedback, your replies, @mentions to pull in a teammate. When round three starts, rounds one and two are right there, so nobody relitigates a decision that was already made.
need three more days
Write for meHi Grace, a quick update on timing. We want the teal reshoot to be exactly right, so we're taking three extra days; new delivery is Thursday. Everything else stays on schedule.
Even the emails you've been putting off.
Client updates in studio voice, on the first tryAI
Type "concepts ready, want feedback on direction b" and one click writes the polished update, in the tone you set once for the whole studio. Designers get to be great at design without also being great at client email.
Product photos, new colorways
Your statuses, your words. Drag to reorder in settings.
Phases named the way studios actually work
Concepting, In Design, With Client, Approved: your statuses, your words, and the board and client portal follow. The dropdown finally speaks your language instead of software language.
Thanks, these are approved! 🎉
Grace K. · Alpine Supply Co. · just now
Suggested
Mark this request FINISHED?
One click accepts. Ignoring costs nothing, and nothing ever changes on its own.
"Love it, approved!" becomes a closed requestAI
When the conversation implies the fields should change, Sideline quietly suggests it: mark approved, bump the due date, raise the priority. You accept or ignore with one click, and nothing ever changes on its own.
New
Update footer links sitewide
In progress
Email template for July
Landing page copy, v2
Email template for July newsletter
NEWRun the week on the board
Revision rounds and asset requests as cards, moving through your phases. One glance answers who is deep, what is waiting on a client, and what is quietly stuck.
My Team
Invite- GKGrace K.Active
- TLTom L.Invited
Clients add their own colleagues, so you stop being their IT department.
Stakeholder sprawl, contained
Your client's brand manager, marketing lead, and founder can all be in the portal, seeing one shared queue, adding requests through one form. They coordinate with each other there instead of CCing your whole studio.
Insights · Alpine Supply Co.
2h 14m
avg first response
23
requests / month
214
completed all time
activity, last 6 months
Your client sees these numbers in their own portal, all year long.
Proof for the retainer review
The Insights report in each client's portal shows the requests handled, completion pace, and response times all year. When the retainer conversation comes, the volume of invisible work you shipped is suddenly visible.
When Sideline is not the right tool
Sideline does not do frame-accurate proofing or on-canvas annotations; if your review process lives on markup tools like Frame.io or Ziflow, keep them and paste links into requests, links are free and never touch your storage quota. And for a giant one-off rebrand with phases and dependencies, use your project tool; Sideline carries the ongoing stream around and after it.
Questions we hear from teams like yours
How do revision rounds work in Sideline?
Each deliverable is a request with its own thread, files, and status. Feedback lands on the request, new versions attach to it, and the whole round history stays in one scrollable place, so round three never reopens a round-one decision.
Can clients mark up designs directly in Sideline?
No, Sideline is not an annotation tool. Studios that need frame-accurate markup keep Frame.io or similar and paste the link into the request; external links are free and do not count against storage. Sideline holds the request, the decision trail, and the files.
How much file storage is included, and what about big design files?
500GB on Studio with files up to 10GB each, expandable at $19 per month per 500GB. Heavy media teams link out to Drive, Dropbox, or Frame.io for masters; links never touch your quota.
Can we find a file a client sent us a year ago?
Yes, that is the point of the Files view: every attachment ever exchanged, across every request and client, searchable and sortable. Opening a file takes you to the exact message where it was shared, so you also get the approval context around it.
How do multiple stakeholders on the client side stay coordinated?
Invite them all. Everyone on the client team sees the same queue and history, and they can add their own colleagues without asking you. Conflicting feedback becomes their conversation to resolve in one visible place, instead of arriving as three separate emails.
Can we keep internal critique away from clients?
Internal notes sit right in the request thread but are team-only and visually unmistakable. "The kerning on their pick is rough, push direction B" stays in the studio.
Our designers hate writing client emails. How does the AI help?
Two tools, both opt-in and studio-controlled: Polish cleans spelling, grammar, and tone in one click without changing what was said, and Write for me turns a typed fragment into a complete, tactful update using the request's context. You set the studio voice once and every reply matches it.
Will our least technical client actually use the portal?
That is the design constraint the portal was built under: a magic link, no password, only their own work visible, nothing to learn. Clients who refuse portals can keep emailing, and their messages become tracked requests anyway.
Can we run brand retainers for several clients on one team?
Yes, that is the normal shape: unlimited clients on the flat plan, auto-assignment routing each client's requests to their designer, and per-client reports showing what each retainer actually consumed.
How do rush requests get flagged?
Priorities and due dates are on every request, urgent work is visibly marked in the queue, and Smart Focus ranks it up with the reason stated. The client can set priority at intake, and you can change it, or accept Sideline's suggestion when the thread implies it.
Does Sideline replace our project management tool?
For the ongoing request stream, yes. For a large structured engagement with dependencies and milestones, keep your PM tool; Sideline is deliberately not that. Most studios run the big builds in one tool and everything else, which is most of the volume, in Sideline.
Can freelance designers work under our studio brand?
Yes. Freelancers sign in with their own email, personal contact details stay private, and every reply goes out at your studio's standard. When the project ends, deactivating them is one click and reversible.
What does migration from Asana, Trello, or a shared inbox look like?
Concierge migration is free: we bring over clients and open work and set up your intake form, typically within 24 hours of the trial starting. Your team keeps working; your clients just get a magic link.
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