How much Graphics Designer should charge

I’m a freelancer doing from last 1 year, and I dont know what should i charge from clients for posters, logo, and other stuff. If any one can help me knowing this.

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Overheads + Costs + Profit margin.

There is no hard and fast figure, I’m afraid. Depends on a lot of factors. Your country, your marketplace, your experience, your ability, how in demand you are, etc, etc.

I’d say don’t undercharge, or you will get poor quality jobs and end up working really hard for it. Overcharge and you set yourself up for a fall, unless, you really can bring that much more value to the table than your competitors. Find the sweet spot that is enough for you to be taken seriously, but not so much that you are taking the piss. You have to be really honest with yourself about the value you bring, given experience. Don’t assume that because an experienced, established designer in your area charges X-amount per hour that you automatically deserve the same. It’s all about what you bring to the party.

I have a two-tier pricing structure. One for commercial clients and one for non-profits or community organisations. Actually, three. The third being pro-bono work for causes I consider need it and I can help.

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Depends on where you are. You need to find out what people with your experience (portfolio) and talent generally charge in the market you’re trying to address. If you have the experience, talent, and skills to start right away, then I believe the minimum you should charge is $40 an hour.

While it is all well and good to consider an hourly rate, you really have to learn to estimate “by the project.” Projects always take more hours than anticipated in one way or another. Especially if you’re a beginner. You really have to figure out your overhead, taxes and what you want to make for a living wage on top of that. You might find that what you need to charge to meet that goal is far more than the traffic will bear at your skill level.

Just something to be aware of…when you submit files to a printer, the hourly charge to “fix” them so they actually print can be up to 2x to 3x that suggested hourly charge above - just in system time. That can be on top of color work and proofs. If you don’t know what you are doing and can’t/don’t ask the right questions, you either have to pay up, or redo the files at your own expense. And that expense includes scheduled time. If your job is a rush, that’s what rush charges are for. No extra charges would be added to your print bill without a mutually agreed on change order on the project, but if your stuff is time sensitive you should be aware of it.

I do not recommend beginning designers starting out as freelancers, fresh out of school or otherwise. Way too many time-sucking pitfalls to fall into, whether doing print or web. The fact that there are no positions out there for fresh-out-of-school designers to fill to gain experience should tell you a whole lot about the state of this industry and the prospects of getting work.

Just sayin’…

(BTW, it’s GRAPHIC designer, no ‘s’. Using the ‘s’ denotes a lower skill level, along the order of being sig creator for gaming. Sorry if that sounds presumptuous, but don’t cut yourself off at the knees right out of the gate.)

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Hi there, I was always taught that you should change based on how much the design means to the person, for instance if you need to create a birthday poster for your aunts 50th, you wouldn’t charge as much as if an actual company asked you to create a poster for them. therefore how much you want to charge is solely related to that, with bigger projects looking at an hourly rate is most beneficial.

Fees probably shouldn’t be solely related to any one thing. If I were designing a birthday poster for my aunt, I’d charge less because she was my aunt. I’d charge more to design a poster for a company because that would be a business project, not a favor for a relative.

If one is trying to make a living from graphic design, one needs to charge enough to cover expenses and make a sufficient profit to cover everything else. With talent, time, and experience comes better access to larger clients with more money and more at stake.

A new takeaway brochure for a corner bakery probably won’t make the bakery millions of more dollars. A promotional brochure for a Fortune 500 company just might make that kind of difference, so they’d likely be prepared to pay more. With time, experience, and a growing reputation, you can start picking up more higher-paying clients and fewer clients who can’t pay as much.

Quite honestly? I wouldn’t charge my aunt for a birthday poster. I might consider it part of her birthday present though :wink:

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