How to Price Yourself as a Freelance Designer

Money Money Money

When it comes to pricing yourself as a freelance designer, the topic of money can be really awkward. You don’t want to appear too greedy and you definitely don’t want to undersell yourself! I think there is a fine balance between fitting within the client’s budget and charging what you are worth as a designer. You want to be practical and strategic when pricing yourself, but you also want to include what you are worth since you’re providing unique value and expertise that you went to school for and/or have gathered along the way through years of experience. The more design work you do, the better you get :) The more experience you have, the more you should charge. Every year think about increasing your rates depending on the experience you’ve gained, how long/how much work you have done for certain clients and how booked you are!

There are two types of ways you can price yourself: Hourly Rate and Flat Rate. I’m going to give my “2 cents” (lol) ;) on the topic, share my pricing experience with clients and how to decide which rate option to use.

Pricing Tips

Do you ever feel stuck when a client asks you, “What’s your rate?” Do you think: “Are they going to think I’m asking for too much? Am I charging too little?” I’ve definitely thought those questions and have struggled coming up with rates that I think are fair for the client and for myself.

What I have found though that is a great way to gauge what to charge a new client is to ask them, “What do you usually pay designers for this type of work?” Or you can ask, “What is the company’s budget for this project?” I don’t think one universal rate for all your clients is the best idea since every client is different with varying budgets and design requests. A small business would have a smaller budget compared to a high profile company that can afford to pay a lot more. With any client though, keep in mind the value you are providing and never undersell yourself.

When pricing Brand Packages, these can be a universal standard rate you charge and can fluctuate slightly on a sliding scale depending on some factors that are unique to each client.

Also, the design software/subscription needed to create all client design work is expensive and should be factored into your rate. Same with taxes.

You can choose whether you want to charge hourly or a flat rate, however some companies have a preference and will let you know which one they prefer. Others will let you decide. The tricky part about hourly rate versus flat rate is that you can work quickly while still providing high quality work so an hourly rate would be underselling yourself. Or you can charge a flat rate, but end up needing to spend way more time on the project than you originally thought. It really is a personal preference which one you would like to charge your rate as. Think about which one best suits you and the project.

$.01 Hourly Rate

An hourly rate is charging a certain rate by the hour. You keep a running log of when you start working on the project and when you end for that day. When putting together your invoice at the end of the project, count up how many hours in total you worked on the project and multiply it by your hourly rate. Now, the tricky part: what to charge as your hourly rate. I think it’s a good idea to do some research about what the average hourly rate is for a (insert level here) Graphic Designer in (insert your city/state here.) When I was freelancing after my full-time design job, I decided to make my hourly rate the same as I was getting paid there. It’s a good stepping stone in figuring out what you should charge. I highly recommend researching average pay rates and varying your rate depending on the type of client you are working with.

My client, Event Network, prefers to pay me an hourly rate. One project was needed to be done in a quicker time frame than normal around the same time I was going to be out of the office for a trip. They offered to pay me a rush fee to send the art for review before I left. I looked up the industry standard for a rush fee, which is charging 25% on top of the total amount billed. A good thing to note for when you need to charge rush projects :)

Every year consider increasing your prices and let your clients know your rates have gone up and if that’s ok. You can negotiate a rate that is fair to you and your client.

$.02 Flat Rate

A flat rate is charging one amount for the entire project up front. This really depends on the type of project and how much is involved. I recommend charging a Flat Rate for Brand Packages since there’s a lot of elements and research that goes into creating a brand identity from scratch. Plus, you want to work within the client’s budget. Product design, illustration, packaging, etc. projects can be a flat rate depending on the amount of work involved + the type of client. Edits for any project can be charged hourly or you can charge another flat rate just for edits, unless edits are already included in the total flat rate with the package offered.

My client, Passion Planner, pays me a flat rate to design and illustrate stickers for their sticker books. I asked this client what are freelance sticker book artists usually paid for this type of project and I was told what the average is per page. That was very helpful because I wasn’t sure what to charge and by asking them what the average amount is I was able to get paid very fairly :)

One time I was hired by a company to design a marketing banner and I decided to charge a flat rate. After creating a few options and needing to work on a few edits that they requested I was told by the person who hired me to please not undersell myself and that I can charge them more and can charge for the edits they asked for too! I thought that was so awesome that the company didn’t take advantage of my low rate I must have initially charged and that they were happy to pay me more for my work, talent and time on the project. That experience made me realize how important it is to never undersell yourself!

*Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions regarding pricing yourself as a freelancer in a general/broad manner based on my own experiences. I am not providing official financial advice.