Graphic Designer pay rates.

[WARHURYEAH]

Quick question if there is any here.

I have a potential client who wants me to design posters, menus and other promotional things for a club.

What should I charge him?

Hourly?

By piece?

Quality of work?

Any help will be brilliant!

 

[gord]

By the hour is a true representation of your effort on the work. It's fairly standard, but depends on your work ethic.

You also have to be strict recording what you are doing when.

 

[WARHURYEAH]

How exactly would I go about recording the hours? So the client knows I'm not ripping them off? And how much an hour would you suggest?

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

Whatever you think he'll pay.

 

[Russinating]

Whatever you think he'll pay.

 

[DJMK4]

A good test is to build yourself up with rates to "test" the water for the first few jobs you get, you will get an idea then of how much people are willing to pay.

Besides my main job in the networking industry I advertise locally for any PC/Networking repairs fixes etc. Didnt put a price my adverts, I started off quoting £12ph (realised it wasnt worth it, upped it to £15ph), customer didnt mind paying aslong as the work is done, then again upped it to £20ph (again customer was happy, aslong as the work was done) so for 3 hours work im now taking home £60.

 

[schnipps]

I always cost up per hour to work it out then give 1 cost to the client, you need to get more familiar with the work you do as you will know if and when to cost in extra for them changing things too much, its hard when you first start to get it right and as said what you can charge them all depends how good you are and how much they have to spend.

For Media work not PC repairs
You should do a mini spec before any work is started so you and the client both know what will be delivered, when and what you will change ammend etc. Its much safer to do this as it stops any hassle later on. Get everything agreed on email so you have a paper trial and make sure that they send you emails to confirm costs and to start the job (and also when they are all happy with it), always think of the worst case scenario and cover yourself and it will be fine. You never know 6 months down the line a new MD starts and might not like what you did, you never know.

 

[Tripnologist]

It's kind of like asking, how much should I sell my car for? You'd need to know what kind of car it is, what kind of condition it's in etc.

What I'm saying is that what you charge should be completely dependent on how good your work is. Use base charges + amends.

I wouldn't charge per hour for graphic design.
What if you charge £30/hour and happen to knock off a logo in under 60 minutes?

 

[schnipps]

It's kind of like asking, how much should I sell my car for? You'd need to know what kind of car it is, what kind of condition it's in etc.

What I'm saying is that what you charge should be completely dependent on how good your work is. Use base charges + amends.

I wouldn't charge per hour for graphic design.
What if you charge £30/hour and happen to knock off a logo in under 60 minutes?

Aye, you would never charge per hour on a job like that, you have to do 1 cost up front then you would quote per hour after the work is delivered.

So in the spec you would say, upon delivery of final artwork any ammends and additional work would be chared at £35 per hour and costed up seperate to this job.

They dont know how long it takes to do design wok though so to them its meaningless anyway, fixed cost up front and spec it out

 

[Liquidfox]

For example, the company i work for charges £59/hour+VAT, and that's considered fairly cheap from a business front.

If it's just you, try around £30-£40 per hour

 

[meghatronic]

Surely it depends how good you are? And what the project entails, in terms of time, skill and quality.

I imagine anywhere from £20ph up to several hundreds if not thousands per hour.