How Much Money Do Great Freelance Designers Make?
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- breadlegz
This is the question we secretly want to ask isn't it.
Anyone brave enough to answer?
- sureshot0
nothing.
- fate0
Couple hundred thousand.
Not me personally.
- breadlegz0
@fate .. any examples? I'm trying to work out what the difference is between those that break the 100k barrier and those that don't.
- talentmonospaced
- if not talent its the ability to suck ass and back stab, theirs always 1 or 2 but they dont lastmoldero
- not design talent, business talent.monNom
- vaxorcist0
do you mean by hour? month? year? per unit project difficulty?
what matters? talent, chutzpah and picking the right clients / projects... pretty much in reverse order of importance....
Oddly I made the most $$$ on a project that almost burned me out, so enjoyment has its own value....
I'm a developer more than a designer though, so this may be different....
- studderine0
So much money that they don't even care. $30.00 lunch? Yeah, whatever.
- nb0
Name: Jim
Job Title: Sr. Web Designer and partner
Location: Detroit, MI
Salary/Income: 190k/year and some company benefits
- Maaku0
Are you a GREAT freelance designer?
- ETM0
The biggest thing, besides volume of work is what you charge. If you worked the average year with 2 weeks holidays and a week off at Christmas, you'd work about 1960 hours a year. 1960 x $50 = $98,000
Freelancing is far more complicated, but based on a 'typical' job, there you go.
- $50/h?!?!? where do you live? I can never find talented freelancers for that cheap.zarkonite
- That seems an average rate across a broad scope. I wasn't being specific.ETM
- That doesn't account for the fact that at least 20% of any freelancer's time is non-billable.nocomply
- more like 50% unless you're connected to a few agenciesmonNom
- but i suspect you don't have much pricing power there.monNom
- Well, I DID say freelancing was more complicated than the example. And most freelancers work more than 40 hours a week.ETM
- week. It's just a simple example, people.ETM
- breadlegz0
Maaku - who you asking?
- fyoucher10
Like fate said, 200k+ easily.
Most freelancers, like that, end up starting their own agencies too. So you won't find many 'freelancers' that make that much nowadays. They're also typically top-level creatives from top agencies who end up teaming up with other uber-talented creatives.
Obviously, you have to do great work. But in the end, it's who ya' know.
- Frosty_spl0
there are some not so hot freelancers that make $75 per hour for 6 months straight, then got brought on full time for around $90k yr. And they kinda suck. But they had connections and made friends with the ECD/CEO.
Honestly, talent doesn't really matter so much.
- doesn't matter if they suck when you work in advertising, sounds typical and it's happened to medoesnotexist
- Continuity0
Let's face it, where you live/freelance matters an awful lot, too.
In cities like London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Montreal, you could easily be billing anywhere from 450 to 650 per day. Hell, here in Munich, a UX/IA freelancer I hired several times for project work billed us for 550€ ($732.37 USD, £462.66)/day, and I know she's pretty much busy the whole year.
On the other hand, if you live in the Suburbs of Nowhere, and you're doing freelance design work for the local pool hall's karaoke night posters, and the summer volunteer fire brigade barbecue fundraisers because that's all there is for clients in your little spot of the world, you're not going to be pulling in nearly as much per year. By a long shot.
- i started in a small suburb of nowhere and it sucked hahahektor911