Logo Pricing
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- youriisbest-2
$200 cdn if its some guy
if its a company like Microsoft i would say pay me what you think is fair.
- showpony0
hourly rate x number of hours required to complete = base price
if you get $1000 after doing the above math, you're doing it wrong.
beyond the base price of time and materials as stated above, you also have to account for licensing. licensing and rights is where you protect yourself. i'm sure you've heard how the nike logo cost $600? we all know that can't be fair, and it's not. licensing is how this is made fair.
if the client wants rights in perpetuity, they have to pay more for that. when it comes to licensing, there are a million factors at play — industry, size of company, number of impressions, types of usage etc. etc. etc. google logo licensing contracts, and you'll find tons of resources.
hope this is helpful.
- Thanks, but I stay away from licensing issues. Keep the copyright, grant unlimited usage, one fee keeps it all simple. Obviously depends on the client.formed
- totally.showpony
- I can't imagine telling a client it costs extra to use the logo longer.monospaced
- @mono... again, it would totally depend on the industry and size of company... a lot of fortune 100 procurement teams bring up usage before i do. very normal.showpony
- interestingmonospaced
- formed0
Thank's all. It's interesting how much difference there is out there. $5, $500, $10k, etc.
I wonder how a client could qualify one proposal over another (assuming there is no lavish office to woo them with) assuming the quality of the portfolio is similar....?
- showpony1
if you're a local coffee shop and you just need a logo on your door, that's obviously way different than a more complex business.
in terms of raw design hours, i've found that most AGENCIES are around 350 hours — again, DESIGN only. this includes two designers in the beginning providing three options. once a direction is picked, they'll take it to completion, including a (light) standards manual (scale considerations, color standards, spacing rules etc.). that 350 hours would also include CD oversight.
if you're working with a proper agency, you probably need to add 10% or so on top of that for account services/project management etc.
one of the biggest reasons for the range also is that often a "design my logo" request is only part of the real ask. do you know your brand (pyramid, archetypes, voice/tone etc.)? do you have your positioning? do you have a real brief? are there multiple stakeholders that i'll need to meet with to get this thing approved? i can go on and on, but it's usually not as simple as a coffee mug "logo" on a piece of glass.
- Yup. I've been burned a couple times with flat rates that would have been many times more had they been hourly because of this stuff.monospaced
- I typically break contract up into 3 phases with 1/3 deposit upfront. If client doesn't get past phase 1 in the agreed timeframe then we readdress terms...whatthefunk
- this way if we have to part ways I've been paid and client doesn't feel burned. Plus, if they get litigious, expectation damages come into play and protects mewhatthefunk
- Yup. I do that too. Clearly outline rates for each stage and cost of scope creep. Works very well.monospaced
- You guys are fancy :-) . Thanks!formed
- Wait, so you put that at, what $50k?formed
- What could possibly take 350 hours?freedom
- @mono... Do the same thing with phases. Payment is linking to defined deliverables. SOW has to be tight.showpony
- @freedom... 350 hours... Dude, try working on an ID for a Fortune 500 company for less than that.showpony
- I'm way fast as a designer, but a). rigor takes time and b). dealing with corporate beurocracy is no joke. Time. Suck.showpony
- I think those are fair hours for large Corp.Hayoth
- whatthefunk9
- It's not funny if it's too close to being accurate.SoulFly
- Yup. Gotta just start at the bottom.formed
- Looks like $3,400 was spent on "designing" this image.chukkaphob
- Colors. layout and especially the "PRICELIST" type treatment are all brilliant work!chukkaphob
- somehow this price list gets into the frontpage every yearsted
- Judging by the design of this graphic I wouldn't pay to design anything.microkorg
- Please guys, how to do that LED monitor grid effect in illustrator?fruitsalad
- This makes some sense if the price is for a guarenteed auccessful design project.cannonball1978
- _niko2
logo design is such a subjective thing and one of the hardest to quote on, biggest factor is the size and sophistication of the client.
BBC might have paid 1.8 million for this logo which is just Gill sans characters in black boxes but your buddy who's looking for a logo for his small company "wouldn't give you a $100 for that piece of shit logo that you whipped up in 5 minutes"- Please remember that fees quoted in the press include production. That logo is on a lot of things. You're thinking like a client.monoboy
- sothere1
Worlds gone mad.
People are creating logos, guides and cards for $140!My partner is part of a business mums group on FB they often call out for graphic designers to quote and the prices are sooo low they must work mostly for free and eat baked beans for dinner.
Creativity is dying folks there's no respect for it and no money for it. Put it in the RIP thread. Game over.
- it's how this business works for low-end clients ever since I can remember.sted
- happening at the other end too. Company i worked for used to charge 25k for a mid size company to rebrand. lucky to get 10k now.sothere
- the way to make money these days is to create a web portal to connect low paying clients with low charging designers and take a % of the commissions.fruitsalad
- that's how it's all going these days. Taxi's hotels, airbnb etc. the big earners are the few running the portal. which connects the low paid with the low payersfruitsalad
- Some, but I've been surprised at how many small agencies are getting well into the 5 figures for a single logo/branding. Same goes for web.formed
- Had a client drop me because they decided to go with some dude in India who is 1/3 my rate. Hahahaha, shit is wack now. Got what he paid for.monospaced
- showpony2
real talk? too many designers are just decorating these days. they forget that design is a verb more than it's a noun.
form follows function. when i was younger, i was obsessed with form (still love it, obviously). but the older i get, i realize that defining the role of the work — i.e. the function — is way harder. and frankly, more valuable.
everything is commodified these days, but the verb of design can't be. design thinking leads to better questions and unexpected solutions. design thinking makes you valuable. downloading DIN and typing the business' name isn't.
- This is the gap I am really interested in - between the $500 and $50k logo - how you bring that value to the table (and convince a client to spend $50k)formed
- set7
The beauty and the bane of logo design is that you can basically charge whatever the flying fuck you think the client is prepared to pay.
- universal truthsted
- yepfadein11
- Sadly, few of us really have the balls to do so. And then we see apparent slight tweaks to a known logo, know it was probably billed half a million ...Continuity
- ... to the client, and then kick ourselves for not billing our own clients more.Continuity
- That's part of my question, I guess, how much is the "team and office (and process)". Plenty of expensive logos that are crap and vice versa.formed
- Truth right heredesmo
- Yep, if you haven't had a client balk at a quote in awhile then you're charging too little...whatthefunk
- That goes for everything captain.Hayoth
- probably why clients all run to crowdsourcing sites. we just make up numbers based on what we think we can fuck out of 'emscarabin
- fruitsalad-2
Standard "logo" pricing...
The 'l' is pretty easy to draw, I use ruler for that so about £2.
The 'o' is also easy, I use compass for that, but my compass cost me a little more than my ruler so £3, and there's two o's in logo, so total £6.
The g is well hard mate, might have to freehand it, so about £8.
Total price for 'logo' to A4 size is £16. Ta mate.
- monoboy2
Important to know your process...
http://johnsonbanks.co.uk/though…If you just offer a 'logo' as a styling exercise it has less value. Not saying it has no value but it's merely an aesthetic one.
Brand is the difference between doing a logo for Uncle Bob's fishing tackle shop and shaping a multi-national organisation.
- This is still relevant...
http://www.slideshar…monoboy - And just to add for those quoting massive re-brand fees you see in the press. That price includes the production. Which is often substantial for large orgs.monoboy
- This is still relevant...
- phobos790
I'm shocked by the prices here! Of course it depends on the client but anything lower than 500 euros is a very very low price, and probably not worth your time. For 500 euros it would be only a 1 logo presentation with minimum amount of changes to be worth it.
For a high profile client prices can easily start from 2000 euros and up.
A "fair" price for a small business would be around 1000 euro. This would also include only 2 variations and minimum amount of changes.
- Gnash0
pfff. you can design a logo in 15 minutes. $100 tops.
- +10 years practicested
- + very convenient briefFax_Benson
- It's the client process that's the hardest, not the actual design (that's the fun part, right? :-) )formed
- 15 minute video covers much more work though ... sketching alone takes a couple hours minimum. Then there's calls, etc.monospaced
- and the inevitable rush and wait...rush and wait...formed
- 1/2 — ha. love draplin — much respect. as other's have mentioned, though, cranking in illustrator is the fun/easy part.showpony
- 2/2 — getting alignment on the brief, dealing with notes from multiple stakeholders etc. etc... that's where the time suck comes in.showpony
- formed1
Great discussion! I think QBN is great again :-)
Does anyone have good examples of the process behind a branding exercise? I've got tons of style guides and some basic post-rationalization (a sketch or two, shapes, etc.), but nothing that clearly outlines the full exercise and process.
(my example of a small business is mostly local reach, logo, web, brochure and a few other very basic items - nothing crazy with reach, collateral, and not really anything to coordinate and oversee beyond a basic style guide)
- cbass990
$1500 minimum. I've done some logos on the cheap only to see the company get huge.
I think the lady who designed the Nike logo got paid $50..but later got reimbursed with stock..
- even then, 1500 barely covers research and exploration really_niko
- no matter what the client i find that a decent logo requires the same amount of time and effort. You end up eating most of it for smaller clients/friends._niko
- $1500 minimum for small clients etc..obviously much higher with bigger companies..cbass99
- Chimp0
In this talk they give some really good advice.
- formed0
To answer my own question (a little)....I know these guys have always been generous with sharing their process, but it looks like they've stepped it up a few notches since I last visited:
http://www.movingbrands.com/work…
Looks like their clientele have moved up the payment chart, too. Happy to see some recognizable ones on here, always loved these guys. Also happy to see that a company generously sharing their process is being rewarded for quality work. I do like that new HP logo.
- love those guys. again, rigor takes time. their work is far from just a logo.showpony
- fate-4
Design is dead.
- Chimp5
I wrote a post about the logo design process.
Hopefully you'll find it useful. :)