DESIGNERS, what RATE$ do yall charge for freelance
SouthCrackalack
3,853 Posts
A hip hop magazine out of ATL called and left a voicemail with me saying they saw some of my graphic design work, and even though they have an in house design team, they are always looking for "cutting edge designers"..and they liked my shit a lot. She said she wanted me to hit her back to discuss rates for my design services. Thing is, I am used to just doing flyers and mixtape covers and shit..mostly local stuff. I dont charge much at all for these things because honestly, I am dealing with cheap bastards usually, and honestly it doesnt take long to do those kind of jobs. But, dealing with a magazine is a whole new thing for me. I have no idea when it comes to what kinda rates to charge for that kinda thing. I am guessing they would want me to design graphics to accompany articles,ads,whatever(since the work they saw of mine was strictly logos and mixtape covers). I am surely no big name designer with some sick ass portfolio(basically I am just an ex graffiti nerd that started using Photoshop in '95 and started getting these little freelance jobs in the past year or two to earn some extra pocket change), so I am clueless about what people charge. Somebody help! I need MONEY, but I dont want to put my foot in my mouth and undercut myself!!!
Comments
comes out every year. I actually find it skews a little higher then a lot of my clients are willing to spend- but it gives you a good gauge.
Anyway, try to get a clearer picture as to exactly what they want out of you and how much of it (by email if you can, then you won't feel forced to give a price right there on the spot. You can mull it over and then call them).
2¢'s.
Not that a magazine will pay you anywhere near that, but i'd say $50/hour would be a start.
as an architect i have a rate of what i would usually like to charge but i tailor each proposal to the job at hand. something that only takes an week to do might go at a higher rate than a job that will go on for a year or two. an interesting project might get a discount over a project i need to take to pay the bills.
you should also ask for her email. it is best to try to keep as much of the correspondence by email giving you a digital record of most of your conversations. it's probably not legally binding but its far easier to use as records of your conversation than handwritten notes of phone conversations.
once you know more about what she wants i still would give ballpark figures and mention that you customize each proposal to the actual assignment, sent in writing at the start of each project. in your proposal i would ask for a retainer for each project as well. 20% or so of the project invoice.
ask how she found you. it always helps to know where people are finding out about you. you can focus your self promotion game in those directions.
I'm not a graphic designer, so have limited advice, but do contract product development/software development in LA.
Never undercut yourself. If you undercut yourself, the client will take advantage of you. What's messed up is the cheap clients who will pay the lowest rate possible will also demand the most of you. If they just think you're a little pricey, they will try to work with you and also respect your time more. Sell yourself and make them want you.
$50/hour is a basic starting rate, but depending on the client and market, could be much higher. Plus gauge how many hours the project will be: 4 or 40? I always figure that fewer hours and a bigger pain in the ass = higher rate.
If you deal on a per piece basis be prepared for corrections and minor edits that go on for weeks.... factor that in, if possible, because you want a happy client for references.
The best advice I've gotten since I got out here is, price yourself based on who the client is and how much your work is worth to them, not how much it's actually worth.
ALWAYS high-ball your rate since:
1) better you should negotiate down and still get more than you might have been willing to accept and
2) you never know how much more time you'll have to put on this without anticipating and as such, your higher rate might actually be justified. My wife, who is a freelance web designer, has gotten into the habit of overestimating by 30% because she realizes she had been underestimating by that amount consistently.
This is really good advice. Just shoot an email after every conversation with the high points in it: dates, rates, names.
I just got shafted (by a contract agency no less) for a week of work at a lower rate than I got verbal confirmation for. I had no recourse. Basically I called them up and said the paycheck was short of the hourly rate. They said in not so many words that wasn't the rate, and I wasn't worth that much anyways. So I told them my current gig, that I didn't get through them, pays 10% more than the rate they said I wasn't worth. I got my ZING in but I'd rather have the cash from the better rate.
I agree. I use this as a gage although it is a bit high. I breakdown my time based on cost of living. Figure out how much you want to make an hour (realistic). Stick by your rate. Get a grasp on her budget and be realistic and up front about the amount of work you can put in for the money. If you undercut yourself you will get taken advantage of.
Also, it depends on what you mean by graphic design. I think you might be talking more about illustration, and then you'd be talking $800-$1300-ish for a full page illustration. Illustration is a bit harder to qualify as an hourly rate.
EDIT: the above illustration price is based on what I have negotiated with illustrators on a quarterly magazine with a small-ish budget, FYI. I work for a decent size firm as a senior designer.
Again, thanks for the advice everyone. I wish I could sort of do a little investigating on the magazine but I couldnt really make out the name of the magazine she said in the voicemail(just my luck). If I knew that, I could check and see if this is a low budget shitty quality hip hop mag('cause ATL has plenty of those), or if it is in fact a higher quality magazine. I guess I am just assuming its a hip hop magazine since the work I have on my MySpace is all hip hop mixtape covers or hip hop related design. I guess I will just give her a call today and see how it goes...hopefully I don't shoot myself in my foot. Wish me luck!