What should I charge a client for a re branding of their identity?

Question

I'm a freelance graphic designer. I mostly work with posters and flyers. A client has approached me to re brand their identity to include logos, fonts, colours etc.

Answer 1

Charge what you would normally charge for your "regular" work, if you charge by the hour. If you charge by the job, then you'll have to assess how much work you'll have to put in with your client's project and weigh that against what you'd charge for a similar per-job project.

Answer 2

That's what I do! Branding is a very important element of any business and to design a "brand" can be time consuming for a graphic person with a lot of back and forth's.

First consider the client realistically --Will he or she ever be "big"? If you think there is a chance that they have potential to be "big", then charge them more--but if they are going to be smaller fry, charge them less. Put two packages together for your client ---one is close ended with a finite sum for your work--let's say $500.00 for one logo allowing only 2-4 revisions and 10 hours of work max on your end. The other way is to be open ended and charge by the hour and give an estimate of your time (with a base set at $150 to start)--I do not know where you are, but compare prices with others in your area and set your rate. An hourly can vary widely depending on what you are doing and for whom. Oh----very important, get 1/3 or 1/2 as a down payment before you begin the job unless you know the client well because they have to pay you even if they do not like any of your designs....

Tell the client exactly what you will do and stick to that--check contracts and agreements for free on line and work an agreement up on paper before you start otherwise you may fall into the black endless hole of small business problem areas. Logos and branding is very subjective and can be emotional for the client and exasperating for the designer unless they are both very experienced. Protect yourself and keep it simple---good luck!!!

Answer 3

I'm in this position myself (as a freelancer) right now, and I actually HAVE corporate identity experience from a major New York identity firm. I need to give my client a number, and I'm scared to death about scaring him off.

Some basic truths:

1) A brand identity (for a significant company) is simply not to be priced like a brochure or poster, because the identity will have LASTING EQUITY for perhaps many years. For example...the most valuable thing that Coca Cola owns (besides the formula for Coke) IS the Coke Brand identity. It's not just something that some guy with a copy of Adobe Illustrator does.

2) Very, very few clients on this planet realize the above truth, and think that an identty should be priced as if it were any other project. Based on hours spent.

This is why I have rejected most requests to bid on logo/identity projects for smaller companies. It rarely ends up being a good deal for the designer. The price I quote inevitably scares them away, and they find some schmuck to do it for a thousand bucks.

An interesting story. Look up the company "Cobra Golf"...Back when they were young and had little capital, they asked their advertising photographer to create their current logo. When they balked at the price he wanted to charge them, he gave them a yearly rights option. They pay him each year for the rights to use his design.

Years go by, and Cobra grows and grows and grows into a giant golf behemoth, and the company changes ownership. And the logo payments suddenly end. Their (now former) photographer approaches them and says "pay up"...either honor the leasing contract, or he sues them. They refuse and he sues them. They think that the logo is theirs, and he has proof to the contrary. He takes them to court and he eventually wins a HUGE settlement. By hanging onto the actual ownership of the logo, he'd made quite an investment.

And most designers do not know this:

Unless you have a contract with your client specifically stating that the client will retain all future ownership rights to the artwork (this is called "Work for hire"), the designer actually still (technically) OWNS the copyright to the design work.

My suggestion is that you try and place a fair "value" on what this brand does (and will) mean to the client....forget the number of hours you put into it...and attempt to convince your client of this value.

An alternative solution is to suggest a smaller up-front fee and you (as the designer) retain copyright ownership rights, along with a (fairly priced) yearly licensing fee. You can adjust this yearly fee based on which direction the company goes in the future (up or down). And you might re-approach the client (at a later date) to discuss what full ownership of the brand would mean to them.

Then again, you could be asking about a logo for a small coffee shop in town, in which case, this stuff is all a lot of hot air...you needn't bother them with this. Charge a flat fee of however many thousands of dollars you think is fair. But good luck getting them to pay...Everyone now has a cousin that's a great graphic designer these days, right?

Answer 4

For most graphics work, I charge an hourly rate. That rate may depend on the type of work, complexity and medium.

However, a corporate identity can be EXTREMELY complex and sensitive. It requires tremendous research and time cosuming meetings with the client, HIS clients, staff and employees. The designer needs to "know" the corporation in an intimate way, often closer than people KNOW other people.

This kind of work also depends on the client's initial market. If it is a local company, doing most of it's current business in t the local area, I may consider doing the entire project for a couple of thousand dollars. (logo, letterhead, packaging design, signage, etc.) I national and international company should expect to pay tens of thosands of dollars for a similar work up.

A client that is NOT prepared to pay this much is not, really, looking for a professional. They are trying to only find a cheap solution. The whold point of rebranding is to move on to a bigger market. A CEO does not gamble his company's future on shoddy work.