Graphic Design /Art Direction Freelance rates? How are you coming up with your estimates?

I’ve been a professional print designer for 10+ years. Retouching, Packaging etc.. mostly for larger companies.

The Graphic Artist Guild publishes an annual book, showing typical and pretty standard rates for various kinds of jobs. For some, standard flat rates apply. For others, an hourly rate is shown (and the approximate time it should take).

http://www.gag.org

Undercutting local prices is, clearly, NOT the way to go. If you have the “chops” then you should get paid what they are worth. If you can’t find clients that are willing to pay you what they are worth, then the problem is in your marketing skills. Low balling can only result in a “race to the bottom” with all the newbies, hobbiests and design students trying to “make a name” for themselves. In the end, it is quality that makes an artist an enduring fixture in the local market, not low prices.

The other half of the equation is to work under contract, and NOT “on spec.” On spec is working on a project and you don’t get paid unless the client likes the work. A contract obligates the client to pay as long as you do the work you promise. That’s why my contracts specify approval sign-off steps and a limited number of revisions (usualy one) at each step. Anytime the client “changes his mind” the CONTRACT is the first thing revised, to reflect the extra time spent on a project. Virtually ALL of my projects are charged by the hour, with my honest estimate going into each contract. I tend to double the estimated time it should take, so, the end result is that my projects come well under the estimate and the client is pleased. And I almost NEVER get caught, finishing the project at a loss, or late.

Keep in mind, that even pros make mistakes and the client shouldn’t pay for those mistakes. I remeber a project where I designed a company logo. The client LOVED what I had done and immediately wanted it designed onto a business card, stationery and printed on tee shirts. I laid out the files and sent them to a commercial printer for placement on the cards and letterhead. The tee shirts were a different matter. I usually give my clients the name and number of a couple of local shirt printing services, but, in this case, the client wanted me to broker the shirt printing job. The contract I drew up accounted for about an hour of travel time, each way to the printer’s and the cost of a half a tank of gas. I gave the printer the logo on an Illustrator file on disc.

The shirts came back with a horrible misprint. A circle, which represtented the hub of a truck’s wheel was offset, almost to the edged of the “tire.” I tried to blame the printer, but, when I had a look at the file on my computer, from which the disc was burned, I saw the offset. Somewhere along the line, after I’d sent files to the other printer, I did a quick “pre flight” check on the file before the tee shirt job. I must have “jiggled” something and moved the damn circle.

I had to “eat” the cost of those misprinted shirts. I made enough “profit” on the logo creation and the paper print jobs so that I didn’t LOSE any money, but, for the two week’s work, I didn’t make a dime.

Rex Ray: Art and Design

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