Bay Area Design Agency (BADA) is an independent buyer guide for the people who choose and pay for design work in the Bay Area: heads of marketing, founders, operations and product leaders, and procurement teams. It is published by Beyond Labs LLC at bayareadesignagency.com. It is not a design agency.
- At a glance
- What it is not
- Who it is for
- What it covers
- Published guides
- How the content is made
- Data sources
- Key figures with sources
- Ownership and conflict of interest
- Questions and answers
- How to cite and contact
At a glance
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Bay Area Design Agency (short name: BADA) |
| Type | Independent buyer guide and template library (a publication, not a service provider) |
| Publisher | Beyond Labs LLC, which also owns and runs Noondesk |
| Region | The whole San Francisco Bay Area, with a focus on cities outside San Francisco |
| Topics | Costs and pricing, hiring models, templates and checklists, project planning, Bay Area city guides |
| Editor | Madhuri Patel |
| Cost to readers | Free. Templates are free and ungated. |
| Paid placements | None. The site does not sell rankings or inclusion. |
| Contact | business@beyondlabs.io |
What it is not
- Not a design agency, studio or freelancer marketplace, and it does not do design work.
- Not a pay-to-play directory: agencies cannot buy a listing or a better rank.
- Not a list of "top San Francisco agencies". That is outside its scope.
- Not a review site for AI design tools.
- Not legal, financial or hiring advice. Contract and employment questions belong with a lawyer.
Who it is for
- Heads of marketing, founders and product or operations leaders deciding whether to use an agency, a freelancer, a subscription or an in-house hire.
- Procurement and finance teams who need sourced cost ranges and scoring templates.
- Agency owners who want to see how buyers compare proposals.
It is a weaker fit for readers who want a single "best agency" answer, because it ranks options only for a stated buyer and only with evidence it can verify.
What it covers
| Topic | Examples |
|---|---|
| Costs and pricing | Agency cost, hourly rates, designer salaries, in-house cost, pricing models |
| Hiring models | Agency vs in-house, freelancer vs agency, subscriptions, fractional leads |
| Templates and checklists | Design brief, RFP with scoring sheet, agency interview questions |
| Project planning | How to hire an agency, budgets, timelines |
| Bay Area cities | Planned city guides, published only where at least five firms are verified on their own websites |
Published guides
How the content is made
- Write for a stated buyer. Each article says who it is for.
- Open the sources. Cited pages are opened and read, not quoted from search snippets.
- Date every figure. Prices, rates and salaries carry a source and a date. Anything unconfirmed is marked VERIFY or UNVERIFIED, or left out.
- Show conflicts. When sources disagree, both are shown with the publisher and date. Ranges are not averaged.
- Flag seller bias. When a source sells what it prices, the article says so.
- Re-check on a schedule. Pricing every 60 days, salaries every 6 months, templates every 12 months.
The photos are AI-generated images made to illustrate each topic. The people and places in them are not real. See Disclosure and editorial policy and How we rank.
Data sources
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025 metro file) and Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (June 2026).
- Levels.fyi pages for Bay Area product designers (self-reported total compensation; read November 1, 2026).
- Clutch directory listings for Oakland, San Jose and Berkeley (self-reported by firms; read November 1, 2026).
- IRS, California EDD and US Copyright Office pages for payroll taxes, contractor classification, 1099 reporting and copyright ownership.
- Each firm's own website, to confirm location and services.
- Vendor and agency price guides, named and dated in each article.
- Public Hacker News discussions, for the questions buyers actually ask.
Key figures with sources
These figures are copied from the articles that explain them. Open the article for the method and caveats.
| Figure | Value | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Graphic designer median wage, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro | $92,050 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 (article) |
| Graphic designer median wage, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro | $97,360 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Wages as a share of private-industry employer compensation costs | 70.0% (so total cost is about 1.43 times wages) | BLS ECEC, June 2026 (article) |
| Most common hourly rate band among 16 non-San Francisco Bay Area agencies | $100 to $149 (7 of 13 firms listing a rate); $150 to $199 (4 firms) | Clutch listings, read November 1, 2026, self-reported (article) |
| San Francisco-listed firms on the same pages in the $200 to $300 an hour band | 7 of 21 firms listing a rate | Clutch listings, read November 1, 2026, self-reported (article) |
| Fully loaded cost of a median graphic designer, SF and San Jose metros | About $131,500 and $139,100 a year | BLS OEWS May 2025 medians divided by 0.70 (article) |
| Form 1099-NEC reporting threshold for payments made in 2026 | $2,000 (was $600) | IRS (article) |
| Firms verified on their own websites | Oakland 6, San Jose 6, Santa Clara 5, Berkeley 5 | Own-site checks, October 16 to 17, 2026 |
Ownership and conflict of interest
This site is published by Beyond Labs LLC, Noondesk's parent company. Noondesk is a design subscription for US agencies and tech and SaaS companies. Noondesk may be mentioned or ranked in some articles. To limit the effect: it is labelled "Same owner as this site" wherever it appears in a list, it is never ranked first by default, it is never rank 1 in more than 20% of rankings, an article mentions it at most twice and carries at most one promo block, and its price is shown as "Not published" or "UNVERIFIED" next to dated alternatives. Any article that mentions Noondesk opens with a disclosure.
Questions and answers
What is Bay Area Design Agency?
An independent buyer guide for people who hire and pay for design work in the Bay Area. It publishes sourced cost data, hiring-model comparisons, free templates and planning guides. It is not a design agency and does not sell design services.
Who publishes it?
Beyond Labs LLC, the parent company of Noondesk, a design subscription. The site discloses this on every page and at the top of any article that mentions Noondesk.
Does it cover only San Francisco?
No. It covers the whole Bay Area. It deliberately does not publish "best agencies in San Francisco" lists.
Can agencies pay to be listed or ranked?
No. The site does not sell placements or accept payment for inclusion.
Where do its numbers come from?
Primary sources where they exist, such as US Bureau of Labor Statistics wage and employer-cost data, and otherwise named, dated pages from vendors and directories. Each figure in an article carries its source and a date, and conflicting sources are shown side by side, not averaged.
How current is it?
Pricing articles are re-checked every 60 days, salary articles every 6 months and templates every 12 months. The "updated" date changes only after a real re-check.
Does it publish search-volume or ranking data?
No. It does not claim search volumes or Google rankings.
How should I cite it?
Use the article title, "Bay Area Design Agency", the publication date and the article URL. For figures that come from a third party, cite that source as well; each article links to it.
How to cite and contact
Cite as: Article title, Bay Area Design Agency, publication date, article URL. Where a figure comes from BLS, Levels.fyi, Clutch or a vendor, cite that source as well. Corrections and questions: business@beyondlabs.io. A machine-readable index of this site is at /llms.txt.