Question about graphic design pricing

[Gundo]

Ill keep it short and sweet, my wife has done work from home for a business designing news paper, bus, billboard ads as well as brochures, 7 different items in total.

After 3 years of her doing edits and changes they want to purchase all the files and do them in house. My wife was going to let them go for $400-$500. I know she has put in over 30 hours originally doing all the work, Am I out of line thinking she should be charging more? Anyone out there know what a fair price would be for something along those lines?

[Table 5]

It's hard to give you a specific number as each situation is different, but as a graphic designer myself, these are some questions I would ask to determine a number:

• How long would it take someone to recreate this from scratch from a purely production standpoint?
• How much intellectual property value is in the work?
• What can they do with these files going forward? How much potential does it have?
• Is there a previous arrangement in terms of who owns the work?
• What size of company is the client?
• How much did I bill this company for creating the original work?
• Do I hope to get future business from this client? Or am I just trying to maximize profit?

Figuring out something like this can be a little subjective, but at the end of the day, she should be charging an amount that she won't be second-guessing later, and won't offend either her own skills or the client.

Oh, and if she already gave them a number....I wouldn't go back and ask for more now. That would be in poor taste.

[RogerWilco]

Originally Posted by Gundo

Ill keep it short and sweet, my wife has done work from home for a business designing news paper, bus, billboard ads as well as brochures, 7 different items in total.

After 3 years of her doing edits and changes they want to purchase all the files and do them in house. My wife was going to let them go for $400-$500. I know she has put in over 30 hours originally doing all the work, Am I out of line thinking she should be charging more? Anyone out there know what a fair price would be for something along those lines?

Was she paid originaly for the work? You said she put in 30 hours, was she paid for those hours?

[zamler]

My policy has usually been that any work I release and am paid for, that ends the contract unless otherwise specified. Any assets that I have remain with me, although I don't retain the rights to any IP that was provided. I do this because I do not have interest in releasing my techniques, I don't want people snooping around my files discovering how I may have achieved a certain look/animation/visual etc.

The tricks I learn over the years naturally I reuse for other projects, they become the basis for the various templates I utilize. There are situations where I do provide the original files, but that is agreed upon up front. For the more simple projects providing the software assets is fine, for the complex stuff I negotiate up front, because they can take your hard work and give it to someone else that will make changes for cheap, or even free.

IMO $500 is way, way too low, but this should have been discussed before the contract was agreed on.

[Gundo]

In a nut shell they want to do changes themselves from here on in. There never was any type of contract for the jobs she has done for said company. They have whatever projects she has been paid for they strictly want to buy the I guess "master" files along with any and all graphics my wife has designed for them.

[To Be Quite Honest]

I always hold intellectual copyright on all of my work. If someone wants to buy that from me it will cost them. I too put a lot of effect work in my graphic and video jobs and my planning, design, special effect techniques are my trade and it is one of the reasons people work with me.

I would merge layers in everything I could get away with (within respectful boundaries) before I gave it up unless it's paid for at a fair price.

Just because something only took a day or hours to plan and build doesn't mean it's cheap. It took YEARS to get good and this is what you pay for.

[cDnStealth]

$500 equates to around $16-17 per hour which seems way too low. There is a lot of work that gets put into designing something. I suppose it depends on the quality of work but I would be charging more than $500.

[sun]

What is the value of the work to the business? Probably a lot higher than 300 bucks. Always start high. I'd want to be making $50/hr as a self-employed graphic designer, I imagine. Start at $1500+.

Is she planning on working for them ever again? Someone above asked this and it's important. If not, then she doesn't have to worry about insulting them or anything. If they say 1500+ is too much, then drop the price - no worries. Starting higher allows you to better gauge how much you are worth as well. Maybe her work is worth $2000, but she only thinks it's worth $3-500.

I was recently asked for a quote to do a job I didn't really want to do (photographing a grocery store). I quoted what I thought was a rather exorbitant amount, and they got back to me in five minutes saying "Sounds good, when can you do it?". Guess I'm not charging enough! So for the next similar job, I'll quote even higher.

[Otto-matic]

Originally Posted by Gundo

Ill keep it short and sweet, my wife has done work from home for a business designing news paper, bus, billboard ads as well as brochures, 7 different items in total.

After 3 years of her doing edits and changes they want to purchase all the files and do them in house. My wife was going to let them go for $400-$500. I know she has put in over 30 hours originally doing all the work, Am I out of line thinking she should be charging more? Anyone out there know what a fair price would be for something along those lines?

I do freelance work outside of my job, I usually charge 60$ an hour for designs/typesetting/page layout.

Rule of thumb, I do not release any work until a payment is completed. If they can't pay upfront I'll let them do a deposit of half the final amount. Also if she proof files for any client, tell her to put watermarks on every single graphic she created. I've had some issues with clients printing off my proofs.