Label Pricing request

I’d consider myself a decent designer. A client I’ve worked with just came back to be asking if I’d be willing to design a protein powder label and if I could figure out a price.

Ive never done anything like this and was wondering where do I even start haha.

Figure out her budget, how many styles, revisions. Then you have costs like…do you want a specific font. Are commercial licenses involved. How many of these are being made.

I dont want to over look anything haha

How have you costed any other jobs you have done for them – or any other clients – in the past? Only you know your business overheads and expenses and profit margins.

I have worked with them prior. I’ve never designed for packaging so I’ve determined I’d be asking about their brand, how many labels they need, what the product is selling for, what ideas they have, and what brands do they look for when on the shelf. What don’t they like about other brands and how their brand is different.

The only business overheard I have is the computer and adobe creative cloud. I dont want to quote a price too outrageous for what is being asked.

In terms of the original brief, research, sketching and actually designing out revisions would probably be 6 hours or so. If I work at 50 dollars a hour. 300 may be fair. However if this is being mass produced and sold in stores. 300 is too low.

Prior knowledge of this product looks like it could be custom for each client they have.

If you feel it is a fair price for your work, then that’s a fair price. Any more would, arguably, be greed.

However, you are basing that solely on hours worked and Not value added. How much – and only experience will tell you this – does what you do add to the saleability and profitability of their product? Are you good enough and experienced enough to create something that will make that fly off the shelves and turn them into overnight millionaires? Naturally, I am exaggerating a little, but that has to be factored in. If they produced a label themselves in Word and the product languishes on the shelves or you produce something that does it’s job well and it sells well against its competitors, that has an affect on the value you add.

Is it a new company, or an established market leader? I think you need answers to all your questions from them before you can price it up.

Just to temper that. It’s just a label. The overall brand is what will do just as much to sell the product, if they are an established brand. Did you design that? If so, this two has material affect. It’s your vision for the company. Is it working? Have you raised their game with your brand design?

I haven’t helped at all have I? Hopefully, it’ll help crystallise your thinking though.

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A couple of things.

Label and packaging design can look deceptively simple. Don’t shoot yourself int he foot by pricing too low. Chances are, it will take more time than you think.

Do some research upfront before working up your proposal to see what’s out there and who your client will be competing against. This will help give you a good idea of what kind of work the packaging will take.

Be very clear and upfront about who is responsible for any sort of legal review or compliance. I’ve never worked on a protein powder label, so I can’t tell you if there are any legal requirements in terms of what needs to be included, minimum font size, regulatory approval, etc.

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I started to do some research and I’ve looked at brands. It looks like it’s going to be bagged which seems a little more complex than a label around a cylinder.

Level review of compliance is something I didn’t even think about. The client wanted a direct quote right away so I gave them a quote an hour ago explaining I wanted to not rip myself off or them. (Not in those words)

The original offer was 50 usd an hour. Which more solid pricing at 200.

The client pushed back saying they were shopping around and haven’t taken a paycheck yet, reinvesting in their own business. (which I was prepared for).

Its a single label, on a bag. Im responsible for making sure it goes the printer prepared for everything.

I changed my offer, 15 usd an hour with a quote at around 6 hours of work. research, brief, revisions.

Maybe I lowballed myself? I’m not sure. I haven’t done this type of project and would like more clients to return. I suppose its a learning experience

That was my main figuring is that its a single label. I have nothing apart of the existing brand.

ope. I think 6 hours for a single label must be doable. Especially with revisions. I believe the client would be writing the content out because thats her expertise.

I do a lot of packaging work. To design a food product of this nature you’ll need to fully read the FDA labeling guidelines and understand what you can and cannot do. This alone will likely be a mind bending experience and will create some design obstacles you may not be prepared for. Also, depending on the design you go with and/or production process, you may be faced with even more design obstacles in adhering to printing specs.

Obviously I’m not aware of the full brief here, but I’d say 6h seems pretty light. Considering you are new to packaging, I’d suggest setting an hourly rate you are comfortable working at and simply provide the client hour updates as you go along on the project (don’t set a cap). I’ve had seemly simple label jobs end up taking 40+ hours due to unforeseen challenges in the process.