I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but the kind of thinking you're asking me to do on your behalf is quite tricky, and it's not something I'm comfortable doing for other people. I'm not comfortable doing it for myself either, but I have to! I wish you the best of luck! Wow, thank you for responding so quickly. I totally respect your policy and I'm sorry if my question implied I wanted an exact price, I was looking for more of an estimate, and if that falls under your same criteria I apologize again.
I really appreciate your response and insight. I do have the final design, and I suppose I am a little bit confused as to how the order of charging for a logo would go. I have the final design, but am still working on finalizing it digitally, it is not currently in my dads possession, but we have agreed on the final design. So what you were saying is that most experienced designers come up with a price up front then give the logo once it's finished?
I agree that a reference would be very beneficial, and that it would be a great start, and I don't want to sound greedy or ambitious, but it'd be cool to be paid for something I designed. With my dads company being an upstart and he's waiting for the patent and Thank you again for responding to me, and I apologize if it sounded like I was asking more of you than I had meant.
Hey Dominic, no need to apologize, it's OK to ask! Normally designers state the fee before signing the agreement and starting to work. That way, the client knows whether they agree with the price, or they need to look further for someone who's in their budget. We don't want to spring a price as a surprise, because what if the client doesn't want to pay that much? We've spent all this time working on a solution we can't sell to anyone else. If the client tries to haggle, we can either agree to the lower fee, or refuse to give them the logo, and then we're out of both time and money.
When working with someone who is not your dad and has no incentive to remain in a good relationship with you , there's too much potential for things to go wrong if all the conditions are not spelled out in advance. And as you gain experience and work on more projects, raise the price a bit with every new project, and eventually you'll get to a livable wage :.
Dominic, in case you're wondering "how do I determine how much to charge before I've done the work? I've spent years tracking my time so now I know how much it takes me on average to complete a project, depending on the number of deliverables logo variants, number of revisions, size of branding guidelines, additional graphics, consulting sessions Don't worry about it for now, but when you start working professionally, it's something you'll need to figure out.
Thank you so much again, Nela, this helps so much, I really appreciate the time you took to respond to the best of your ability, and helping me out. It was great getting to converse with you and learn a bit more about the ins and outs of the whole process. I am getting a good response and value of my creativity. Thank you for a career-boosting suggestion and article. Thank you, Pankaj. We all start by charging too little, especially as students.
The important thing is not to stop there : Your work is worth so much more! I worked for many businesses and we already pay as much as we possibiliy can on a logo design. Cheap logos are not good. Hi Sarah, thanks for sharing your experience. That figure is within the norms for Western Europe and North America, and an established business should factor that into their budget. I really enjoyed your article! I am noticing plenty of interest in my design work but I am having a truly difficult time with gaining customers due to my logo pricing.
I have been in business for over a decade and have raised my rates throughout the years. The conversation flows smoothly up until I give a logo price quote and then I either don't hear anything back or I get a "I was able to get it cheaper somewhere else" or "it is not in my budget" response. At this point I am at my whits end and not sure if I need to adjust my pricing as I am losing out on new clients and work. Thank you for your comment, Lizzy!
I'm glad you've enjoyed this article : As you've seen for yourself, not all interest is made equal. If your fees are a deal-breaker for these folks, it simply means they are not your clients. I have many articles on "ideal clients" and "dream clients" on this blog, so I recommend that you read a few to see how you may improve your approach to attract your RIGHT clients.
If quoting the price usually bombs your conversation with prospects, I'd say you need to be more up-front about your fees from the start. I know your instinct may be the opposite — to hide your fees — but that's only delaying the "moment of truth".
You want to know the truth as soon as possible: are they your right client or not? That way neither of you will waste any more time. I know stating how much you charge can feel awkward, but it gets easier and less emotional with practice. I'm a big believer in stating your package rates or minimum project rates on your website and other marketing materials.
That way you will for sure get less inquiries, but they will be qualified inquiries, from clients who are prepared to pay your rates. Also practice how to respond to the question "how much you charge? No one likes to hear that we're "too expensive" and it can mess with out self-esteem.
But your prices are totally reasonable. Good logo design really cannot be cheaper than that. It's specialized creative work. You have over a decade of experience. That is not too expensive! But for some folks it is simply out of their budget, and that has nothing to do with you. I personally don't want to pay for an expensive phone or a brand name handbag, but there are plenty of people who do.
Phone companies and luxury bag companies know how to reach their target demographic who will spend a lot of money on their products. They don't care that I think their stuff is overpriced. Us designers also need to be smart about reaching business owners who understand the worth of a logo for their business, and have the budget to pay our rates. That's called marketing and sales.
Focus on this. It's not easy, but really what alternative is there, to accept working for whatever anyone is willing to pay? You deserve better. I wish you all the best. Yeah, sorry, I'm going to have to disagree on this one. You should never charge a customer by what they might do with the product. Who cares if they make a million dollars or nothing at all. You sell a logo design another thing I take issue with, but more on that later and the customer can decide what they want to do with it - your job is done, you've been paid.
Now, on this last point, I really take issue with designers wanting to be paid for their work, but still retain ownership over the design. This is just wrong and I see it everywhere in design. What makes design any different from other tangible products? Unless you specifically lease a design, the ownership changes hands when you get paid. Imagine a designer asking IBM not to use their logo in a certain way - I don't think so. Feel free to disagree, John, but this is a factor every designers and artists' guild I've researched has placed in their pricing guidelines for members.
The size of client number of employees and annual turnover as well as the size of market local, national, multi-national absolutely matters.
There are even project pricing formulas and calculators available. I don't know where you live so I can't speak to legal rights in your country, but in the country I live in, moral rights of authors are inalienable whereas commercial use rights may be sold. The author has a right to forbid any kind of use that would negatively impact their reputation, until their author right expires long after their death.
That's not an opinion we can agree on or not, it's literally the law. Let me explain the difference with an example of a fine art painting. I painted an acrylic painting. At the time of finishing the painting I own two assets: 1.
The canvas itself and the rights to use the image are two different types of property, which I can sell independently.
Some person named Jane can buy the canvas and hang ii on their living room wall. A publishing house may purchase the exclusive right to use the image on a book cover and pay a licensing fee to use it in one print edition of copies. Jane is not allowed to reproduce the image anywhere in print or in digital media without my permission.
She's not allowed to make copies of it. She owns the physical canvas a tangible product that she's allowed to re-sell to someone else, even at a higher price than I sold it to her for. But she doesn't own the copyright the "image". The copyright remains mine, and I sold some of the rights to the publishing house.
The publishing house cannot sell the copyright to any third party — that's how the law works. Another example: an architect designs a home for a buyer. The buyer owns the house, but they don't own the design of the house. They can sell their home to anyone for any price they wish, but they can't grant rights to other people to build their house based on the same blueprints.
The blueprints are protected by copyright which remains with the architect. Intellectual property rights are a separate category from physical ownership. That's why copyright expires some time after the author's death, whereas land, buildings, money, furniture, sculptures and paintings can be inherited for generations without ownership ever expiring. There are different rules for each category. I suggest that you research the copyright law in your country or consult an IP lawyer before you get involved in any design projects because these are the basics than any creator and consumer has to understand.
Thank you for the highly informative, comprehensive post! You do get what you pay for, to a certain extent. What I'm finding very difficult is to find someone in the middle price point who's actually providing a mid-range service. Stuff that was clearly put together with pre-made shapes from AAA logo builder or similar. I'd be super grateful!
Thank you, LG! I'm glad this post was useful to you : That does sound very frustrating! I'd suggest that you ask around if anyone knows a graphic design student that would like to take on this project.
If there's a local university, maybe you can get in touch with a professor and see if there's a way for them to connect you with someone. There is probably a way you can look up current students on LinkedIn and Behance using advanced search.
If you're new here, please read the commenting guidelines before posting. A professional design or branding agency is another option for getting your logo designed, and often includes a top-to-bottom branding package for the cost. Design agencies often conduct market research and competitor analysis to figure out how your brand can stand out in a good way. Agencies employ creative teams that will approach your project from all angles, ensuring thorough work that is backed up with business data.
Of course, one of the biggest hurdles to hiring a design agency is the cost. Additionally, not all agencies are created equal. As with hiring a freelance designer, you should do your research into their work, style and client satisfaction. For more information about different logo design options, check out our post on the best way to get a logo designed. Be sure to read how to create a brand style guide to get started on defining your brand, which will help you develop a great logo with your designer.
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