For Designers & Architects
The Signature Design Program
Your drawings leave. Your reputation doesn’t. Everything you specified is still attached to your name on the day the client walks through it, whether or not anybody called you before it changed.
The Signature Design Program is a free build partnership for Phoenix Valley interior designers and architects. You and Matson Signature Builders hold two separate agreements with the homeowner and work as peers. We review your drawings for constructability and price them at no charge, and we commit in writing that nothing affecting your design changes without your call first. When the build is done, the client relationship returns to you and you get portfolio credit. Licensed Arizona contractor, ROC 336562.
The moment
You walk the site and something is different.
A tile you did not specify. A detail simplified because it was “easier that way.” A fixture substituted for something in stock. A wall that landed four inches off and nobody thought it was worth a phone call.
The client does not see a field decision. The client sees your design. And in six months, when they show the house to a friend, the thing they point at is yours whether you chose it or not.
The industry never decided who answers for that moment. So it falls on whoever is standing closest, which is usually you. This program is our attempt to settle it in writing before the job starts.
The structure
Two agreements, one team
Design, specification and design oversight through completion. Your fee, your scope, your relationship with the client.
Construction, schedule, trades and fixed-price delivery. Our scope, our accountability, our license on the permit.
The homeowner signs both. Neither firm reports to the other and neither is a subcontractor to the other. That structure is what makes the commitments below enforceable rather than aspirational.
- We call you before anything changes. Not after. That is the whole program in one line.
- If value engineering is needed, you get the options and you and the client decide together. We do not simplify your design and inform you later.
- You are in every decision that touches the design.
- Pricing conversations happen with everybody in the room. No side conversations with your client about your fee or your specification.
- We do not solicit design work from your clients, during the project or after it.
- When the build is finished, the client goes back to being yours, and you get the photos and the credit.
From rough number to firm price
Five stages. Nothing to pay until you build.
Every stage is free, including the plan review and the firm proposal, whether or not the project ends up in our hands. The more complete your set, the tighter the number that comes back. That is not a penalty. It is just arithmetic.
The Instant Number
Before anyone picks up a phone, your client can see real Arizona ranges for the exact thing they want to build. Seven services, all published, all taken off jobs we have actually completed.
The Walk
Dan comes out and stands in the space. He looks at what is actually there (framing, plumbing runs, panel capacity, roofline, setbacks) and tells you what is possible and what it will take. You get a written recap, not a sales call.
Roughly an hour. Available before your client closes on a property, which is when it is worth the most.
Plan Review
If drawings already exist, we tell you honestly whether they are ready to build in your jurisdiction, what is missing, and what will be a problem in the field before it becomes a problem in the field.
The Firm Proposal
A real number for a defined scope, in writing. Not a range that drifts. Once it is signed the price does not move unless the scope changes or something hidden turns up, and in that case you see it and approve it before we touch it.
The more complete the information going in, the tighter the number coming out.
Build
Dan runs the job himself. You get photos, updates and a direct line the whole way through, and the final payment is held until after the walkthrough and the punch list are done.
Licensed Arizona contractor, ROC 336562.
Why nothing is billed until you build. Plenty of good builders charge for planning, and their reasoning is sound. Design is real work and a fee filters out people who were never going to build. We have gone the other way. We would rather absorb that cost and lose a few hours to someone who walks, than put a toll booth between a homeowner and an honest answer. If that changes, it will be published here before it is charged to anyone.
How it starts
Three steps, none of them a contract
Have a coffee
Twenty minutes with Dan. Meet the builder before you put a project in his hands. You would not specify a fabricator you had never talked to.
Bring us a set
We review it for constructability, flag what is missing, and price it. Free. You stay in the room for every decision that touches your design.
We build it as drawn
And if we genuinely cannot, you hear it from us first, with options, while it is still cheap to solve.
Fit
This works well if
- Your projects start around a full bathroom and go up from there
- You want to stay involved through construction, not hand off at the permit set
- Your client cares more about the finished result than the lowest bid
- You would rather have an accurate number later than an optimistic one early
It doesn’t if
- You need a builder who works silently and takes no design input
- You are collecting three bids to hand the client the cheapest
- The design and the budget are still far apart and nobody wants that said out loud
- You need somebody to price a set that is not finished and then hold that number
On capacity. Dan is personally on every job we run, which caps how many we take at once. That is a deliberate ceiling, not a stage we are trying to grow out of. If we are full we will tell you we are full rather than take your project and under-serve it.
Designer FAQ
Questions designers and architects ask
What does the Signature Design Program cost?
Nothing, at any stage, through the fixed-price proposal. Plan review and pricing are free whether or not the project ends up being built by us.
Will you change my drawings without telling me?
No. That is the entire point of the program. If something cannot be built as drawn, or a material is unavailable, or the number comes back over budget, you get the call and the options before anything changes, not a photo of the finished substitution.
Who does the client contract with?
Two separate agreements. Yours covers design, specification and design oversight. Ours covers construction, schedule, trades and the fixed price. The homeowner signs both. We work as peers, neither firm reports to the other.
Will you solicit my client for design work?
No, during the project or after it. Design is your business. Building is ours. When the job is finished the client relationship goes back to you, and you get portfolio credit for the work.
Do you review drawings before pricing them?
Yes, and it is free. We go through the set for constructability and code, and flag what is missing or what will be a problem in the field. It is far cheaper to find a duct with nowhere to go on paper than during rough-in. What we look for →
What if the design comes back over budget?
We bring you options, not a unilateral decision. Usually it is roof complexity or a structural span rather than the finishes: simplifying a roofline or adding a bearing point can take a $9,000 beam to $1,200 without touching a single thing you specified.
What size projects are a fit?
Full bathrooms and up. Kitchens, whole-home remodels, additions, casitas and ADUs, RV garages and custom homes across the Phoenix Valley.
Do you work with architects as well as interior designers?
Yes, and with clients who bring their own structural engineer. The more of the team that is already in place, the better the pricing is going in.
For Designers & Architects
Bring us a set.
Email drawings to DMatson@MatsonSignatureBuilders.com or call 623-271-4172. Free review, free pricing, and an honest answer about whether we are the right builder for it.
Last updated August 2026 · Matson Signature Builders · Licensed Arizona contractor ROC 336562