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Pricing Your Work


S

Spectrum

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Your PS skills are hard earnt by your time and dedication to mastering your craft - don't undersell yourself!

After quite a bit of market research, here is what professional graphic designers (on average) charge in Australia.

Logo:$450.00 - $600.00

Website:$1,000 - 1,200 (for a 6 page site)

Image editing: Set quotes are impossible to know as each image is different, but its around $35 per hour for design students, and between $50 - $80 per hour for qualified, experienced designers.

Of course if you work for a large "photography" business, you won't get paid very well as a retoucher. These are average rates from design studios.
 
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well lets all move to Australia then all though I have no idea what an Australian $ is worth.

I am sorry but if you are an up and coming freelancer in this world with little actual client interaction within your own company then you can not charge anywhere near this, even if your company is 5 years old and is not a full sized design studio you will struggle.

That does not mean your work is not worth this kind of value you will find as an independant designer you will undercharge for better quality work than the larger companies.

Why because unless you are starting your company off with a few million spare for marketing and advertising individual people starting up a business etc not related to our industry will be drawn to the big flashy billboards or tv adverts for the large international companies that offer website hosting, website design and graphic design for $10 a month whilst you host your site with that comapny.

They will use cheap quality templates from large online companies that offer business printing with a few clicks using online editors, They will go to these build your own site for free using our very own online website builder for $3 a month
They will go to the cowboy designers that offer you the world for $200 including website, logo design hosting etc.

The truth is our industry is getting rarer for the true graphic designer/web designers everybody downloads ps illegally and then maybe progresses onto other software and they are suddenly graphic designers after following a few youtube videos and have a basic understanding of how the software works.

I am sorry to say this but I am willing to bet almost every large town or city has a company that has people offering this work for a fraction of the price of what it should cost because they are running it off illegal software etc. I am a callout IT engineer as part of my skill sets the other day I was called out to a retail outlet that also offered graphic and web design you would not believe the software setup they had 1 of them was using gimp (which I prefer than people making money of pirated adobe products) whilst the other 2 were using adobe products on illegal copies of windows 7 which is what my callout was windows wont load. of course I had to refuse to get it all working and it made me angry this is what we are competing with. Being in this trade legit is expensive not only the software but the thousands of dollars/pounds we pay to be trained and have student loans etc and then we have to find £50 a month to have adobe £4000 to have cinema 4d and when you try adding that costs to your clients to try and recoup some of your expenditure back they run off to the cowboy shop.

Of course most of my work comes from fixing the mess ups under qualified or inexperienced people have done so it costs them more than if they went to a proper designer in the 1st place.

but the moral of the story is people will not put a price on quality they put a price on cheapness before they think about what they are really getting.

My biggest income is from taking over projects where the original so called "designer" can no longer be reached I am often redoing shoddy work poor website builds and then charging them maintenance fees to update their sites properly.

I am still a newbie when it comes to running everything for myself and lucky enough to have worked for some major companies that will pass on work to me still to this day. But I have not designed a logo or created a website from scratch in ages possibly 4 packages in 2 years. Now luckily with my recommendations from my clients and larger companies I am doing alright for myself but all my income pretty much comes from call outs and general maintenance.

I do 3 large jewelers and 2 retail catalogs companies that send me over gigabytes of photos just to do quick and easy almost fully automated batch processing every month which pays a lot more than it should but they accept it and I always get a nice birthday present or xmas present from them. The reason I mention that is because they came about because I did 1 freebie job on this forum about 18 months ago and it has got me continued paid work since.

My point is dont get hung up on what you should be charging initially set your prices you would like and be negotiable. dont turn away work because they are not willing to pay your fees 9 out of 10 times 1 job will lead to a 2nd job if you do it well It is better to get a pay day even if it is less than what you would like than no pay day at all. Because I tell you many people will ummm and aaar at your quote but I would rather take $100 hit on that and still get paid $700 as an example than not get any money at all.

Of course when you have no spare time and your hours are full because you have so many clients on the go then of course you can start charging what you want, you have put all the hard work in to get the clients in the first place but I am telling anyone reading this you can not go register your company and expect to have a list of clients the very next day throwing this kind of money at you, maybe you will have friends and family that will expect mates and family rates you will more than llikely have to do freebies to build up some kind of portfolio up, sometimes something to put in a portfolio will do you more good than a quick buck here and there. And trust me when you start getting to the bigger clients they dont want to hear your using their company as your portfolio so make sure you stress that when quoting people I will do it for this price as long as you agree I can use this work as part of my portfolio. even if it is a freebie job make sure you add it to your portfolio with permission.

And if your just starting out then make some fake company names and businesses and design work based to their needs. doesnt matter how good you are at photoshop/illustrator/web design if you cant work to a clients needs or understand what they want and are looking for then your in for a long rocky road, sometimes you will sell work you cant justify the charge you charged them but they are happy they always have the last say as they are the 1s paying you.

And if you are new to going self employed their are many sites out their where people ask for a design and what they are willing to pay (usually quite good money compared to many smaller freelance sites like here) where you have to submit your design against hundreds of other designs from professional designers I dont want to give a link to the 1s I use as I would like to see a bigger better freelance section here but you will soon get a knock back to reality on How good you really think you are. But I have yet to see 1 person that has had designs chosen constantly since day 1 there. some have submitted hundreds and still havent been picked but it is good as you get a proper client spec and job description and in fact that would be something we need to work on here gettiong a better freelance job brief and instructions for posting jobs as they are not always best examples.
 
Most companies and businesses who require a logo or rebrand are taking the direction of logo contests rather than 1 on 1...
 
Thats true I have even seen multi million pound companies putting ads up logo design contest and not offering to pay the winner instead just have an honorable mention in the small print of the company text somewhere because of course it is our honor to work for free but I guess it is good portfolio work.

Whenever I see contest for work being done it usually means hey who wants to work for free, I have seen it with website design as well.

Dont get me wrong some of them are very worth while and usually come with huge prices for the larger companies.
 
The days of big bucks is gone with the invent of gobal web access. The availability of people of who can work with graphic programs has multiplied 10 fold. If not, more. Every company is looking for that cheap way to get things done.
Your going to say working for some poor smoo that wants a logo for a startup web page that has no chance in hell to make more than a few bucks a months should pay hundreds of dollars for an designed image that takes an hour or two to make?
Sorry but that where greeds steps in and there's your problem with the world " I'm damn good and you better pay my price or settle for second rate" not everyone is out to cash in. There are still people in this world that are willing to except fair pay for an hourly wage. Someone can say don't sell yourself short but one mans ten bucks is a families meal for a week.
Who's to say what's fair when you have one person in a mansion with everything he ever wanted and another man in a flat somewhere just barely making ends meet but trying like hell corporate greed has ruined the world.
It's a bit of a rant but nobody's going to tell me they are worth more than they really are because of what they know. There are too many people on this planet suffering because of greed. Sure education is a must its always good to know more than you need to. But it's not always good to Cashin at somebody else's expense.
Anyways that's where I stand, take it or leave it.....blah....blah....blah
 
As people starting out will soon discover your work is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Doesn't matter how you price yourself because your mum tells you that you are talented if no one buys your service then it's worthless.
 
Inkz said:
Most companies and businesses who require a logo or rebrand are taking the direction of logo contests rather than 1 on 1...
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You mean crowd sourcing? Absolutely refuse to do that. Its slave work.
 
Spectrum said:
You mean crowd sourcing? Absolutely refuse to do that. Its slave work.
Click to expand...

I'm no slave...

But I do take part in several contests. It's good practice and if you win, everyone's happy.

How much of a price tag would you put on your work?
 
Hoogle said:
As people starting out will soon discover your work is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Doesn't matter how you price yourself because your mum tells you that you are talented if no one buys your service then it's worthless.
Click to expand...

That hasn't been my experience. Your work is worth what you say it is, and its part of your job to sell yourself as a designer, and show the client (if its their first time dealing with you) that they are getting everything they are paying for. People who go cheap on design often get burnt by using third world services where language and quality are a problem, then they realise its cost them more to be a tight arse, and just pay what you want. I've never had a client actually refuse to pay what I ask. They sometimes take a bit of time to think about it, but they eventually pay, in my experience anyway.

I got some great advice from a veteran designer a while back - stingy clients are often a nightmare to work for. They hold you up, make unreasonable demands, and often don't come back for repeat business. He even said sometimes it is necessary to fire clients because they are more trouble than they are worth. This guy has run his own business quite successfully for 16 years.

At first I thought "What?? Fire a client!?" and then the day came when I did exactly that. This one client, for whom I was creating a book cover, after paying for the cover and receiving it, wanted me to format her ebook. I said no problem. The usual 30% up front, and gradual payments as the project progressed. She said no. She told me we had a working relationship, and her word should be good enough. I said well the book was a lot of work, and the 30% was my standard operating procedure.

She got angry over it, and then and there I decided she wasn't worth it, told her that I'm sorry but I can't help you, and referred her to another designer I know with a warning of her attitude. He accepted the job anyway, but I heard back later that he too had let her go, and now she had nobody to work on her book.

If you value your skills, accepting pitiful pay because unqualified amateurs and hacks do isn't the only way to get work. You show yourself to be a cut above them. Anyway, like I said, maybe things are different here to where you live, but I've never had problems with price, just attitude.
 
Inkz said:
I'm no slave...

But I do take part in several contests. It's good practice and if you win, everyone's happy.

How much of a price tag would you put on your work?
Click to expand...

It depends. How many revisions do they want? I sell design packages, which means if you want a logo, and you only want to pay $100, then you provide me with a description of what you want, along with a couple of reference images, and I make the logo, but you don't get to complain if you don't like it.

If you want to pay $350, then you can ask me to revise the logo 4 times, and you get two variations of the logo. $500 and you get 6 revisions and 3 variations. A revision is anything which takes me 15 minutes or less. Revisions beyond the quota for the package are charged at $20 per revision. Any work which takes longer than 15 minutes is not a revision, its a redesign, and is charged at $50 for more than 15 minutes, and $50 for every hour after.
 
I'm actually planning on moving away from making sites/logos/business cards. Getting into UI design for Android and iPhone apps. Did some checking around, called one of the most successful UI designers in the country and picked his brain for about 20 minutes. They make between 70-120K depending upon who you're working for, and how experienced you are.
 
we are to late in the industry to become millionaires from our trade every trade has a demand at some point and everyone leaving school jumps into that market and go into higher education studying it after 4 years of learning that trade is flooded by people who are in the same boat and not enough work to go around.


This is my point the more services you can offer the more chance you have of getting a paycheck 80% of my work is IT based every company needs working computers 7 days a week (maybe 5 if they are smaller) but will only need logo design and web design once with a few rare updates inbetween seasons or however they work,

Which suits me just fine I get more work and at a good price I dont have cutting edge raw talent in design compared to other people however I do provide a good solid honest service. And yes sometimes I may take a few days to do a job that someone else could do in a few hours.

I decided very early on I was not the right person to be competing to be at the top of the food chain when it comes to Graphic design so I play to my strengths.

didnt take me long to realise I was never going to be Britney spears personal photoshop artist (yes they exsist obviously back when she was big not fat but big all over the media)The guy that was a full time ps artist to her that edited every image that went to the media was paid $200,000 a week US dollars.

I like to think of myself as a fixer/ problem solver I probably do work better as a team or running a team but I just got fed up with the enviroment and needed a change. so I would rather be doing what I am doing now that pays more than enough for me not to go without, I can still afford to treat myself to nice things once in a while, But there is no way I would survive if I just sold myself as a graphic designer. I probably could but I am to lazy to be throwing myself out there and competeing for for what little work there was going.
 
Hoogle said:
we are to late in the industry to become millionaires from our trade every trade has a demand at some point and everyone leaving school jumps into that market and go into higher education studying it after 4 years of learning that trade is flooded by people who are in the same boat and not enough work to go around.


This is my point the more services you can offer the more chance you have of getting a paycheck 80% of my work is IT based every company needs working computers 7 days a week (maybe 5 if they are smaller) but will only need logo design and web design once with a few rare updates inbetween seasons or however they work,

Which suits me just fine I get more work and at a good price I dont have cutting edge raw talent in design compared to other people however I do provide a good solid honest service. And yes sometimes I may take a few days to do a job that someone else could do in a few hours.

I decided very early on I was not the right person to be competing to be at the top of the food chain when it comes to Graphic design so I play to my strengths.

didnt take me long to realise I was never going to be Britney spears personal photoshop artist (yes they exsist obviously back when she was big not fat but big all over the media)The guy that was a full time ps artist to her that edited every image that went to the media was paid $200,000 a week US dollars.

I like to think of myself as a fixer/ problem solver I probably do work better as a team or running a team but I just got fed up with the enviroment and needed a change. so I would rather be doing what I am doing now that pays more than enough for me not to go without, I can still afford to treat myself to nice things once in a while, But there is no way I would survive if I just sold myself as a graphic designer. I probably could but I am to lazy to be throwing myself out there and competeing for for what little work there was going.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with that, and yeah I agree, more skills the better. I have built 5 of my own rigs, and I know how to fix most computer issues. Do a lot of stable OC treatments to friends machines, but I'm never going to be an IT tech.

I never expected to make millions from design, but I do expect when I reach the 10 year mark, to make art director and be on 90K, minimum. I don't need millions to be happy, I just need a fast, stable machine, a copy of PS, and interesting projects.
 
Inkz said:
I'm no slave...

But I do take part in several contests. It's good practice and if you win, everyone's happy.

How much of a price tag would you put on your work?
Click to expand...

Sorry I wasn't implying you were a slave. If you're happy doing crowd sourcing, nothing wrong with it, I just can't bring myself to do it.
 
Spectrum said:
This one client, for whom I was creating a book cover, after paying for the cover and receiving it, wanted me to format her ebook. I said no problem. The usual 30% up front, and gradual payments as the project progressed. She said no. She told me we had a working relationship, and her word should be good enough. I said well the book was a lot of work, and the 30% was my standard operating procedure.

.......
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I understand that one has to value one's skill . But sometimes a designer (in this case, a freelancer) has to give clients the benefit of a doubt.

If this client of yours were mine, I'd take the job. This may be shocking to you but bear in mind, we don't how good or bad a paymaster she is. The cover was an ice-breaker job.

If I were you, I would have gone ahead and do what she asks . Somewhere along the way, I'd ask her if it were possible to throw in a bit of money to offset some of your expenses (imagined or otherwise... lol) A good paymaster usually will oblige. If she doesn't, then the final pay out will tell how she is as a paymaster when the job is finished. If she pays in full, it was a job well worth it.

That's out of my experience and some of my clients started out with me in this manner. And till today, are in my loyal client base.

A designer should also bend a little bit. In this way, trust and a good relationship with the client is built. How can you if you've fired the client at an early stage in your relationship with them. They may not have repeat business with you, but by giving them good service, they will refer you to others. This can make your job of finding clients easier. Not to mention this adds more credence to your repute.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Spectrum said:
I never expected to make millions from design, but I do expect when I reach the 10 year mark, to make art director and be on 90K, minimum. I don't need millions to be happy, I just need a fast, stable machine, a copy of PS, and interesting projects.
Click to expand...

Surely if it is your own company you can give yourself what ever title you like Art Director, Senior Creative Designer, Head arts man, top dog, creator of [insert company name here], chief designer, visual stimulant director, creative penmanship, inbetween the lines director, Ok you get the idea lol thats just me having a bit of fun.

I like the idea of not going mainstream and specialising in something like ui design apps are a big market at the moment so why stop at ui design why not make your own app top grossing apps are the 1s that are free go figure give a product away for free and you make more money than if you sold it, See thats the beauty of selling advertising space generates more income than actually selling your app would.
 
Sorry I forgot one important details - after the book cover was done, she then implied that she would have to speak to her husband about more money, which of course meant it wasn't her money, and if I started work, the husband might just say no, or say no half way through it. She had a pissy attitude anyway.

Sometimes, you have to know when to let a client go. Taking sh!t from them and still working makes you look desperate and they will think they can get away with insulting your value as a professional. It also leads them to think they are in control, when you should be. Its your business, and you set the terms and conditions of how and when things are done. Thats why every client gets a project agreement to sign before any work starts. All terms and conditions are stated in plain english, and if they have a problem with anything, I'm willing to discuss it and explain, but I won't change the way I work because whenever someone has wanted me to do that, its so they can get the work for less, or they are obviously trying to screw me over in some way.

Written agreements people - trust me, it saves you a lot of grief. Same as a design brief is a written agreement on what the designer will do, the project agreement is so the client knows what is expected of them.

Hoogle - currently Android is getting bigger and bigger and will eclipse iPhone in a couple of years, but for now, the way most app developers make money is selling directly to users if its iPhone, and selling advertising space if its Android. It used to be all about generalists, but now specialists are getting all the work with all the emerging mobile tech - they need people who can understand and design for it.
 
Hoogle said:
this is the kind of app you want to make I would love to be earning $633k a day ah shame I dont have the skill set to create a top app like this.
seems to me you make what is relatively a simple game make it a free download, sell advertising, sell lots of ingame purchases become a millionaire in a week.

http://9to5mac.com/2013/07/08/top-grossing-app-candy-crush-raking-in-an-estimated-633k-a-day/
Click to expand...

Those high earning app stories aren't the norm. Why? Because a lot of people don't do their research before making apps. They just come up with an idea they like and make it. A designer might like something, but that doesn't make it a successful app. Then they wonder why only 200 people have downloaded their app. Failure to update the app to new Android versions and device specs is also a reason apps fail.

I don't have the programming skills for it either, but I have a friend with whom I work who is very experienced. I come up with the concept and design, and he comes up with the code.
 
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