How do we charge for graphic design?
Fee schedules for graphic design are a mystery to just about everyone who is not a designer .. and also to a lot of designers themselves! If you go to a major design firm and ask the price for a business logo you may be quoted everything from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars! If you go on a freelance site such as CrowdSpring, Freelancer, or Upwork you may find designers doing logos for less than a hundred dollars! Hmm ... how can those guys charge so little compared to the big firms? Let's look at the way the major design firms work. First of all if they are a well known, established firm they probably have a large number of employees, a brick-and-mortar office (in addition to designers who work from home) and a fair amount of overhead. They most likely advertise their services in major design magazines, newspapers and trade publications. With high costs come high fees. Simple economics. So what about those guys working freelance? Many of these designers have managed to make a living by sitting in front of their computer all day plugging info into design templates and submitting dozens of examples every day of which they know they will not be paid for the majority. They rely on sheer numbers. If a designer of this sort submits 12 - 15 logos a day and manages to sell 4 - 5 a week at $100 a logo they will make a living ...albeit not a plush living. And many (if not most) of these folks are working other full or part time jobs in addition to the money they make from their designs. Now let's be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with either of these two approaches. For the customer you must ask yourself what is the most important aspect of your project... do you need the lowest possible price even if the end result is not exactly what you were looking for, or are you willing to pay whatever it takes for a first class, quality design? At Todd Day Graphics we pride ourselves on finding that often elusive middle ground. We treat every customer like our ONLY customer. Just the way a large design firm would. Be we try and keep our fees more in line with the freelancer. We know that if you are a small business your…