Graphic design is critical to just about any business, but what will it cost? This is not normally something graphic design companies discuss on their websites, but as this is a question that we are asked on a regular basis we want to publish ‘our’ answer.
Graphic design costs are dependent on many things: talent, experience, demand, as well as the work type.A good comparison is, how much does a 3-course meal cost? It obviously depends on what restaurant you go to, what day of the week it might be and also what food is chosen from the menu.
Talent - Every graphic designer is essentially a graphic artist. It does not matter if they are designing logos or brochures or web sites. In the end, what is designed will depend on the imagination, skill and talent of that particular graphic designer.
If you want the very best, you have to be prepared to pay a little more. If you want something done urgently you might have to pay more. If you want more options you might have to pay more. Depending on the level of talent, costs can be based on what the market will bear rather then how long something takes multiplied by an hourly rate.
Experience – The more experience a designer has the swifter the process will be to generate and execute the ideas. This time saving could be passed on to the client... or not. It all depends on the designer. It could transpire that if their services are in demand that price becomes less of a driving factor. Greater experience in most instances however is likely to cost a higher hourly rate.
Work type – It would appear at first glance that a small logo would require less actual work to produce than a multi-page brochure. Although at the art-working stage this would be true, the logo requires more time and artistic skill at the concept stage, while a brochure designed to tie into an existing brand or corporate style needs less original creative time and more production and artwork hours. So in reality while their sizes are vastly different they might cost the same to commission.
Our way…
As the above has shown there is no easy way to give a fixed reply to “How much will this cost?” because of this Maria Dispirito has created a system to try and answer this question, which puts our clients in control of what they spend.
At Dispirito we put a fixed price on an hour of time based on our talent and experience which means we are not the cheapest but nor are we the most expensive. Thereafter we cost jobs based on how long we think they will take to complete.
Once a brief has been received we can give you an outline cost for your project - this is generally in the form of an upper and lower price (e.g. £500-£800).
If clients are organised they can benefit from the lower cost, as each client is only billed for the time they accrue. Once a trading history is created we will be in a position to reduce the difference between the two prices, giving clients more accurate and ‘nearly fixed’ project costs.
We also offer another way of charging our clients, based on monthly invoicing of time accrued. This process can work out to be more cost effective for clients who need to make frequent updates, changes or revisions to numerous files, or will be booking in lots of adverts or frequent smaller jobs, as it saves the cost of time required to process and invoice individually. We run a time sheet for each job and send out a fully itemised time sheet with the monthly invoice. We also use this system if a larger project will be spread over a number of months as it breaks the fee down into accurate stage payments.
Having said all of the above about costs, and recognising that price is an important factor, we would also add that so are delivery times, guarantees, customer support and overall quality. We are likely to turn down a job if the client’s main focus is price over quality. Our preference would be to devise a solution where quality and creatively is not sacrificed to cost – you would be surprised how often this is possible.