Even thought my custom made branding price is actually fairly reasonable…at the moment. I understand that brand identity prices even web design as well all can give small business owners such as yourself a mini heart attack with the stick shook! You may even have questioned or wondered well how is that price fair, they are just clearly being greedy or worse no design can be worth that much. It’s time for you to gain some insight around why design is so expensive. So you can feel comfortable when it is time for you to invest your money into brand designer.
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Good Design Does & Will Take Time
We must remember that design takes time, I mean a lot of time…and actually a lot of patience too. Even the most minimal or simplistic designs take a fair chuck of our time to get it looking effortless designed. To put this into terms, it’s like when you are trying to do the whole no-makeup look make up look, it may look like it take you any time at all, but in actually reality it took an hour to perfect! The same applied to design.
Trading Time For Money
Visualising a design is a creative process this means theres no hard and fast rule or one quick way to get to reach the final outcome. We have to research, experiment, review and edit which all…yup takes up time! Moving pixels and working out the best solutions for our clients is a process. And quite possibly the hardest part for you to get your head round, as you’ll rarely see all the previous, edited and scrapped variations developed to reach the final solution. You’re not just paying for the design you receive, but the creative process that has to happen first in order to reach the end design.
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Designers Experience Reflected In Price
Experience is also taken into consideration, designers will base their prices on their own experience and skills within the industry. The more design experience we have under our belt the more likely our prices will reflect this by increasing. This mean we may likely be able to work a bit quicker, but you are paying for our year of knowledge, skills and experiences. Usually people are more likely to pay a little more, if it guarantees working with someone who has credibility. So remember our prices will always reflect our experience too, and this inevitable mean designers prices increase year on year. So if you’ve found a brand designer you like and unsure to invest right now understand that their prices may keep going up the longer you wait.
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Designers Have Expenses Too
Just like you, we have expenses to cover so that we can actually run our business and still live! So usually we have to hold back 20 to 30% for Tax purposes. So essentially we don’t see that money. We also have other business expenses that we need in order to keep our business running smoothly such as marketing, outsourcing and other online software and programs…even monthly memberships. We also having living costs, such as bills, insurance, car and student loans! These things all are taken into account when having to prices ourselves…if we didn’t we won’t be able to stay afloat for very long.
Trading Time For Money
Please remember that just like you, designs need to make a living and that we are trading our time, plus experience and creative thinking for money. There is only a certain amount of hours we can work in the month. This means that usually we can only take on board a fix number of projects/clients every month (around 1 to 3 and project usually run on for 6 to 8 weeks). Depending on what our prices are we only have a fixed amount we can earn each month, and within the creative industry booking clients back to back is unpredictable, so what we earn must be able to keep us afloat.
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What If I Just Can’t Afford Their Prices?
Sometime we just don’t have the budget to invest, specially when starting out in business. And I definitely wouldn’t recommend or advice anyone to get into debt just for the sake of good design. Remember we all start somewhere, it’s ok if you can’t afford a custom made brand right now because usually in the first year of business you’ll change and evolve. You might realise your brand value aren’t what you thought they were and you changed the target audience you want to serve even your product or services might develop or pivot completely. So if investing in a designer is too far out of your current budget, let’s look at some options that can tired you over for now.
Option One. DIY
First of all DIY your own brand, DIY gets a pretty bad reputation! Of course like all free or budget options it will have some downsides. But if it’s a toss up between having a brand or nothing then DIY is your only options. DIY can be tricky so make sure you put some time and research into it before hand. Plus when it comes to DIY a design always keep it simple!
Option Two. Semi-Custom
Second option is custom branding, if you’ve got some money to invest and you know if you tried DIY your brand it would come out looking like a 3 year old designed it. Then semi-custom is your best option, it’s sort of the stepping stone between DIY and fully custom. I’ll be launching some semi-custom branding for specific types of businesses, so you can find one that best fits your visions and connects you with your people.
Option Three. Hourly Rate/Sprint Days
Third and finally option you could see how much a designers day rate is. Some designers off a day rate for very short turn around projects, or they do sprint days. A full-brand project would be a tall order in a day, so remember it’s unlikely to be as in-depth. But it would be an option those of you who have slightly lower budget but still want something a little more custom!
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Start Seeing The Deeper Why Behind Designers Prices
So before you think a designers quote is far too high and you mutter to yourself design just shouldn’t cost that much. Stop, and realise the following, design takes time it created not by a machine but by a human, therefore if i want something custom and specially made for my business I don’t want to pay less for it to be rushed. Secondly, if you love their work and can tell they have experience remember this is reflected in the quote, because you’re paying for high quality work. Lastly remind yourself, the quote you got needs to help them cover business and life expenses just like your business has to do the same for you. Be respectful that this is someones living, not a creative hobby or side hustle but a full time career. It’s time to be more sensitive and understand around someones pricing rather than label them as greedy, because chances are they are taking home far less than you think. Ready to invest in custom made branding for your business, browse in your own time my brand design services and always feel free to ask me anything!