freelance graphics- pricing HELP!

amother

Mon, Sep 21 2009, 3:59 pm

I little backroung info:I work full time doing graphics in an office, and havent ever really seriously freelanced. I have done a lot of volunteer flyers and the like in my spare time though. I am looking to start freelancing soon, but havent started publicizing that yet...

I just got a call do a pretty simple flyer, should take 1-3 hours I would guess, depending on how picky they are and how many rounds of changes.

how much do I charge?? I have no idea what to say! any suggestions from designers, or people who have paid designers and know what the going rate/range is are welcome!

cityofgold

Mon, Sep 21 2009, 4:10 pm

Um. It varies depending on experience, really. And location, and size of company. If you're not a big name, you wouldn't charge a small place $75 per hour...etc. If you're in the US, you can charge more than in Israel (don't know about anywhere else, sorry Smile

)
I work by the hour--I find that people are more conscious of my time when I do that. Otherwise, projects that should take a short amount of time can turn into nightmares.
But, I do work with them first using a pre-made "questionnaire" that helps both of us determine what the client really needs,. which significantly significantly cuts down the time spent and gives the client a better awareness of what's going on.

As far as rates, I think in the US they're between $20-50 an hour given your background (not sure exactly how much time you've been in the field. can go higher if for a while, a little less if basically not at all). Israel, 50-100 shekel an hour. AFAIK. Other grapic designers should feel free to correct me Smile

amother

Mon, Sep 21 2009, 4:15 pm

thanks for your response!

I have been working in design for about three years, I work in the US, and as for the company... I guess I am the company Confused

or maybe you could say their is no company.

does $25 per hour sound reasonable?

cityofgold

Mon, Sep 21 2009, 4:32 pm

pleasure

I actually meant size of company as in "size" of the client, not designer...but then again, big places don't generally use newish freelancers...though designer co would def also affect it.
25 sounds totally reasonable to me. (some people might even say to charge more, but do what you're comfortable with)

amother

Mon, Sep 21 2009, 9:03 pm

depends where you live I think.
25 an hour seems like nothing to me but I've been in the business for a good few years and I've learnt that the way you charge also affects people's perception of you as a professional.
If your envision your clientele to be mainly community members who are looking for a metzia then you'll have to adjust your pricing accordingly.
If you expect them to be corporations then you need to charge a good deal more then $25

amother

Mon, Sep 21 2009, 9:08 pm

amother wrote:

I'm the amother who wrote this.
you also need to factor in the time it takes you to design a flyer.
If you are going to take 5 hours then you need to charge less per hour because a flyer should not take that long.
If you will take 1-2 hours which is what I think it should take for a basic flyer
then you can charge more per hour.

amother

Mon, Sep 21 2009, 9:18 pm

New amother here - I am a designer, too. I'm in the Boston area and charge $50 per hour ($40 for non-profits).

OP, one very important piece of advice: If the particulars of punctuation, capitalization, etc., are not your strong point or don't come naturally to you, please have EVERY flyer you do checked over by someone who can catch picky little mistakes. There is nothing more unprofessional than a flyer that LOOKS slick, but reads like a mess.

Paying attention to the details both in the text itself AND in the design (line spacing, line breaks, hierarchy of info, etc.) is what really separates a professional from someone who just knows how to use graphic design software.

amother

Mon, Sep 21 2009, 9:22 pm

I'm an experienced freelancer. People want to know what it's going to cost them at the end.
the problem is that sometimes the work is endless with all editing. This is what I do:

$75 a flyer, business card, post card etc.
this includes 3 rounds of editing.
I let the client know at the 3rd round that theyre on their last round of editing.
then it is 75 an hour

I have 2 beginer designers so if someone wants cheaper they can have the job
done by one of them for 45.

amother

Tue, Sep 22 2009, 8:53 am

OP again-
thank you so much for the very helpful responses!!
keep them coming- any hints, tips, tricks are all more than welcome.

I think I have a rough but working idea of how much to charge now, but any additional info on the topic is still welcome, as are other observations.

thanks again!!

punktfarkert

Tue, Sep 22 2009, 10:39 am

Hi... I'm amother from "the other side." I hire graphic designers for various projects for the organization that I work for (Jewish, not-for-profit). First of all, I'll tell you there's a huge range. For a two-sided postcard or brochure, the "going rate" is between $200 and $2,000. It depends on a lot of things - if you have a big name, experience, resume, who you have worked for before, etc. Just last week, I paid $200 for someone who is a freelancer, definitely has experience and a nice website, but is not quite "seasoned" yet. The big companies charge thousands, and we use them too.

I would say 75 per hour sounds ok.... 25, to me, sound like you're just starting out and not sure, etc. etc. etc.

PM me if you want to send me your resume and samples. Wink