How to charge for Graphic Design? It’s easier than you think.

As a Graphic Designer, whether Freelancing or with a full-time job you’ll surely come across the uncertainty of How to charge for Graphic Design? And yep It’s easier than you think but the answer to the questions varies widely, from country to country and from level of knowledge.

First I want to clear the waters by saying that Graphic Design pricing is entirely subjective, and your results may vary. What I will share below, is taken from knowledge of personal experience. If you are the type that wants to charge 10k for the logo without having a studio, I won’t stop you from doing it. Whether you get clients or not that’s an entirely different story.

Rather than leaving the question open-ended, we’ll attempt to answer in detail in this post. If you’re looking for quick and to-the-point answers here they are, in USD.

New Graphic Designers:

Logo: $300
Business Card: $200
Packaging: $500 (One-piece dieline included)
Social Media Graphics: 150
Brochures: $200
Menus: $200
Website: Shopify %900, WordPress $1600 (Five pages, five products 150 additional for each addition)

Each of these prices is only for 3 revisions. After that then you have to start charging. Be strict with it, if not they’ll have to change things non-stop.

At first glance, the prices above look rather low, and they are from your point of view, but what about the receiving end of your work? Any higher than this, and they’ll think twice before hiring.

It’s in your best interest to keep the prices low when you’re first starting so you can develop a reputation and a good-level portfolio. Once you get around 50 real-world projects and if 2 or 3 have seen rather a good amount of success you can start charging more and you would be considered a season Graphic Designer.

Seasoned Graphic Designers:

Logo: $400-600
Business Card: $200 don’t kid yourself. Do charge for changes.
Packaging: $700 (One-piece dieline included)
Social Media Graphics: $180
Brochures: $300
Menu: $250
Website: Shopify $1600, WordPress $2400 (Five pages, five products 150 additional for each addition)

Now we’re in business.

Remember these prices are subjective and should only be a baseline. You should be aiming to make $45-50 an hour max until you land a dream project. So, keeping track of how long it takes you to make a logo should be something you’re doing during this process. Keep track of everything.

By the way. Your hourly rate should > ABSOLUTELY < include any administrative time where you should be getting paid the same. This includes emails, invoicing, and Zoom calls. All of this, this way, running a Graphic Design business or side gig will be doable and rather enjoyable.

Why $45-50 an hour max you ask? I’m glad. This is a common price point for most professionals across several industries. It’s commonly accepted as doable, and it won’t break the bank of small businesses looking to get some Graphic Design work done. However do be careful on how you structure yourself, and don’t throw out $45 an hour at a small business. Giving them a flat rate would be a much easier pill to swallow.

Talking about small businesses, there are also micro businesses or startups without cash in desperate need of Graphic Design work. These businesses are often the target of ridicule when it comes to their in-house design work as they just simply can’t afford good graphic design.

Let’s take this Reddit post for example: Reddit.

Here the Graphic Designer is talking about how bad is the design, and most other graphic designers join her mentioning that it was probably done on Canva. Which may be true.

But what they fail to see is the business side of this. This is not a high-end place. It’s probably a small business struggling to make ends meet. They’re doing what they can to advertise and even may have consulted a Graphic Designer before trying it themselves. To pay a decent wage for their brochure they’d have to do, NUMBER waxing while the Graphic Designer can flip this whole thing around in 2-3 hours.

It’s important that while you’re out there and if you truly want to stay busy in the world of design, you know who you’re giving the price to. The prices above are a simple ballpark and can be moved up and down depending on the business. If you cannot help a small business out that’s also ok, everyone has their priorities just don’t make fun of them.

Now let’s talk about that dream project.

A dream project is when you either get something you’d like to work on and or the client has massive pockets and the correct vision to make it succeed. This is important. It will be the cornerstone of your final round of pricing adjustments.

Landing a project that goes far is massive for your portfolio and experience. This will open the doors to you basically being able to charge whatever your heart desires. Once you have a home run in your portfolio larger businesses and entities will be willing to part away with larger chunks of money for your work. Here’s where you ultimately want to be, charging whatever you like for work.

Please do note that this is not a common scenario. And although you’ll often see inflated prices online of Graphic Designers claiming to charge absurd amounts of dough, take it all with as a grain of salt.

Most businesses can simply NOT afford a $10,000 logo.

Do this instead.

When giving out prices for your Graphic Design first ask yourself how busy do you want to be? Do you truly want to work or if you rather wait for the easy money to come in?

Sorry. I’ll be the first to tell you that easy money doesn’t really exist. It’s a Myth. Not Sorry.

That leaves you with only one question. How busy do you want to be?

Flat fees for design are the easiest and fastest way to get overlooked when attempting to secure work. Unless you’re on somewhere like Fivver with set gigs or something.

Before giving out the price take your time to analyze your potential client and business. See how long it will take them to make the money they’re paying you.

By doing this most of the time you’ll land above the ballpark prices we first talked about and sometimes below and that’s ok.

Always be willing to negotiate, and bring up changes, and past experiences if you must. When you feel like you’re losing them, it’s ok to ask them what their budget was. If you can do it within their budget, then do it. If you did in fact track how long things take you to accomplish, you’ll know right away.

Be flexible so you can stay busy doing what you love while living your best life.

Charge what makes you happy.

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