Pricing Questions

I was wondering what’s a normal amount to charge for a Chanukah card for a Kollel? I’m pretty new in the field, but would love to hear even from an experienced designer just so I can get the feel of what’s normal…

What is involved in the creation of the card? Text only? Are you doing the illustration or just putting on an existing photo? Front and back postcard? For a Kollel you probably want to keep the cost relatively low, but makes a difference if you will be creating an entire illustration, for example, or just laying out a photo with some text.

Thanks, for now I came up with a basic quote… You’ll hear from me again if something else comes up:)

Ok, good. If you feel comfortable posting, I’m sure others would appreciate to see what you ended up charging and what it included, for future reference.

I said $100, which I assumed was a good in between, since I’m dealing with a Kollel. But so far I haven’t heard back from them, so I guess they weren’t expecting too pay even that. But for all I know, maybe it is too much. The way it looked, they want a folded card, with a designed front and back.
How does it work now? Is the “right” thing to do to let them know that I’m willing to work within their budget? At the end of the day saying that helps me get the client (and experience!), but in this case I’m not especially looking to get them if it means always working for much lower rates…
Any advice would be VERY appreciated!

I probably wouldn’t have charged that much, given that it is a kollel and seems relatively simple. But again, makes a big difference if you are creating a custom illustration, or just putting on a photo with the words Happy Chanukkah on the front, and then some text on the inside.If you are just putting on a photo and some text, I probably would say $35-$45. As I mentioned in earlier posts, it helps to think of things hourly, even just to give you some idea. For a layout of photos and text it probably shouldn’t take more than an hour, so if you charge $35 you still made a decent hourly rate, even if it takes a little longer. Of course if they are expecting a complete illustration that will take five hours, that is a different story. But a simple illustration with some text shouldn’t be more than probably two hours of work, so maybe charge $50-$65.
Whether or not you are back in touch with them is totally your call. At think at this point it might be worthwhile, like you said, to get them as a potential client and also they may be able to refer you to others (you can ask if you can put your contact info on the back of the card, for example, if you give them a discounted rate) You can always decide later that it isn’t worth working with them if they have a very low budget, or you can just price things higher later and then if they don’t agree, you won’t be dealing with them anymore anyway. Maybe send an email that you are just following up to see if they are interested. You can mention that if price is an issue, you are happy to discuss with them how you can try to make it work within their budget. That way you aren’t directly saying that you will lower the cost, but implying that you might do something simpler for less, or charge less in exchange for putting your contact info on back, etc.
Hope that helps!

Thanks for your help!

Hi, I have a question about pricing for a corporate identity project. I have been asked to create a logo for a start-up company, and once that is finalized, I would be creating business cards, letterheads, etc… the company would also like to continue working with me afterwords, to create symbols/logos for each new line of products they produce, as well as design T-shirts, apparel, and/or uniforms for the company. They are asking for my price and I have no idea where to even begin. This is way much bigger than anything I have ever done before. Any advice?
I have made it clear to the company that I definitely want to be working for them on a freelance basis only.

Edit: While I was working on their logo, they asked me to “fix up” a different logo and letterhead (They own another business).

Not sure if I should charge more for that, as they need both logos letterheads by the end of the week since they are trying to close a deal.

(Basically I only have a few days to work on the second logo and letterhead, and I won’t be doing as intense a job because they are primarily focusing on the creation of the new logo)

Hi, I’m making a journal 40-50 pages with lots of picture pages with different layouts… I was wondering how much to charge… it’s going to be printed in black and white (if that makes a difference in price since it’s a little harder) should I charge by the hour or one large job? How much does it make sense to charge? Thank you

HI,
I posted above regarding general logo pricing etc., did you see that? You could charge, say, $200 for the logo and an additional $75 for the business card and business suite. Or you could charge $300 for the whole package…Obviously you can adjust those figures, but you can think of different offers or ways of packaging what you are offering. Regarding tweaking the other logo, I would say it depends on how much work is involved. If it is something minor I would probably not charge them, especially if you really think they will give you a decent amount of work later. Customer service is invaluable in getting clients and referrals, so sometimes it pays to do a favor. But if you think it will be more work, maybe best to give them a package deal that is a little higher that includes the new logo, business suite, and edits of the other logo, for example $400 for everything. That way they feel like they know upfront what they are paying. True that you might end up doing a little more work that way, but might pay off in the long run to have a happy client. Check out the above posts for some more info…
Hatzlacha, and keep us posted as to how it went.

I would give them a price for the whole job, not per hour, as clients don’t usually feel comfortable with a price per hour as they don’t know how much they will be paying in the end. You can figure out that price, though, roughly around an hourly rate. If you want to make $20 and hour and thing it will take 10 hours, then you would charge around $200, or you can add a little bit if that figure sounds too low, or take a little off if you think that figure sounds too high. You shouldn’t charge differently in the design in black and white, that would only affect the printing costs. There were some other posts on albums at the beginning of this thread that you should look at, and I had posted about figuring prices in general so take a look at that. I don’t personally do photo album designs for clients so not experienced in pricing that specifically, though I noticed a lot of people seem to be working on them…so any advice from others on pricing photo albums would be appreciated!

I just posted a response to this on this thread, and I mentioned previous responses that you should look at, but just realized that they are in a different thread called Wedding Album, check out the posts there.

Posting on behalf of a student…

What would you charge for illustrations to go on clothing, like on a shirt or tunic? What if it is a simple illustration, such as a border of flowers going around the bottom of the shirt, and what if it is more of a complete illustration to go on the front of the shirt? Advice appreciated for anyone with experience in this field! Thanks!

I don’t have experience in illustration, so I can’t offer advice. However, it is a common business practice to charge more for a project that someone will be selling. Meaning, you might charge one price if those shirts are for handouts at a themed party, and a lot more if it’s for a store that will be selling your design.

Just an update about the second logo for the client… it turns out that they actually want the second logo and letterhead to be designed from the ground up.

I had been working on the first logo, going back and forth with them for 2 weeks, and am almost done with the letterhead, and then three days ago when they asked for the second logo and letterhead, I thought it was just some tweaking, so I agreed because I thought I should be able to get it done.

Turns out they wanted me to focus on both logo designs and letterheads simultaneously, but they told me about the first logo 2 weeks ago, and only mentioned the second logo 3 days ago (first I’m hearing of it) and they need it tomorrow!

I sent an apology for the misunderstanding, and that I would try my best to have something for them, but now I’m wondering, if they want the same level of design for their second company, should I charge them as two separate jobs, or because it was my misunderstanding, should I let it go, and do the work as part of the first package? (Without charging extra)

They did give me some more time, though.

Obviously it’s up to you, but if it would be my client, I would definitely consider it 2 separate jobs. Logos don’t just come 1-2-3. And the fact that you consider it a misunderstanding I don’t think is a reason not to charge them. If you were back and forth with them for the first logo, they could’ve asked what’s doing with the 2nd… If you want to be a little nice, give them a little discount since you did 2 jobs for them:)

I agree with Goldie. It’s not so clear, anyway, that it was your misunderstanding, maybe they didn’t communicate correctly. I think that you could offer a discount, like Goldie said, as a gesture of customer service, indicating that it is in case the misunderstanding was on your part. So, for example, you can say that you are sorry for the misunderstanding, but they should understand that the second logo is the same amount of work as a full logo and is now really a rush job, so you will need to charge them for a second logo. But as a goodwill gesture, you will overlook that it is a rush job, and also provide an x% discount for any misunderstandings.

Hi,
just wondering i done a job for a company,
a logo and a letterhead, is £150 a reasonable price?
(i think it works out to about $190)
thank you

Yes, I would definitely say so. Not sure about the pounds, but if you conversion is accurate then then $200 would be fair for a logo and a business suite. You could always throw in a basic business card design (if not already included) for good customer service (:
There is more info on pricing logos and branding systems in this thread, so feel free to read through them for more info
Thanks, hatzlacha!