Help ASAP!

[Renzo]

I'll keep this short:

• A company recently noticed a banner I posted online.
• They now want me to design some banners for their products.
• This is a sports nutrition company.

I have never sold, or done anything like this before and I would love some help and guidance from you veterans. My first question is how much should I charge? If I am leaving anything out please ask me for details or what not.
Thank you!

 

[o hey tyler]

Is this a graphic design question, or is this photography related? Graphic design contracts, and deliverables are often quite different than those for photography. Pricing is a whole different story as well.

 

[Renzo]

Well I guess sort of graphic design; however all I did was take a picture of the product and used photoshop, so I consider it a photographically focused contract. I'm not sure what crosses the line from photography to graphic design.

Thanks for a quick response.

 

[jamesbjenkins]

I imagine what you're asking about is crossing the line between photographic services and graphic design services. I can't speak for the other commenters here, but I don't know enough about graphic design to give you advice on it. It took me 5 tries just to get my own logo designed right.

As far as your pricing, that's a question only you can answer. So many people on here want to know how to price their product. It all comes down to your CODB (cost of doing business), your COGS (cost of goods sold), your competition and the dynamics of your local market. We can't plug in those variables for you. Think about how much you need to make just to break even for your time, resources and efforts put into your client's work, and then build your profit margin based on what the market will bear. It's always a balancing act between pricing yourself high enough that you're respecting the value of your work and the industry, without pricing yourself out of a majority of your potential customers.

My nugget:

A while back I got frustrated with cheap, stupid people choosing Timmy the "photographer" with his new P.O.S. entry-level DSLR over me because Timmy is only charging them $12 for a portrait session and a DVD. I decided at that moment that I wasn't going to try to beat anyone on price. I'm going to do the research I suggested to you above, and not apologize one bit on price. I'm going to focus on delivering the absolute best product possible, so the client gets the maximum value for their investment with me. Beat your competition on value. Forget about price. Charge what you think is the right price, and if anyone asks you about it, tell them what I just said.

Hope that helps! Good luck with your clients!

 

[Renzo]

Thank you so much! this helps a lot. I'm still not sure I would call it graphic design. It was just a photoshopped image of the product. I can post the pic here if it helps.

Also are there any graphic design forums I should contact if this turns out to be a graphic design project? lmk thanks again!

 

[Christie Photo]

If the banner is more than simply cropping the image to format, you have both going on... design and photography. Bill for both.

-Pete

 

[Tommo]

Yeah post it so we can see the photography compared to the graphic design aspect

 

[Renzo]

Here it is:

 

[CCericola]

The graphic arts guild handbook has a pricing guide. The graphic design forum is a good place for questions however, price discussion is not allowed on that forum. https://www.graphicdesignforum.com

 

[KmH]

Since the banners will be used to promote a product the work is commercial, and billing is normally based on usage licensing. Licensing Guide | American Society of Media Photographers

For example: For use of one of my images online advertising, at 600 to 899 pixels on the long side, I charge $75 for each 3 months of usage, or $275 for 12 month's of online usage. So a company using 4 of my images would be paying me $300 every 3 months, or $1100 every year.
If they want to also use the image(s) in some other way, like at point-of-sale or in any other media type (print, video, etc), they pay more based on how many uses they intend. For something like a regional or national advertising campaign I usually charge a % of the total media buy.

One of the reasons companies choose inexperienced people is they understanding the inexperienced person doesn't know how to charge, so they get big savings. In other words they take advantage of inexperienced people.

 

[jaicatalano]

Very good point. I charge what I charge and don't worry about what Timmy or anyone else does. I have done a few logo designs and I charge what I think my time is worth and how long I feel it's going to take me. I come up with a number and I feel confident that it's what I am worth no matter what they respond. Beat your comp on value is the best advise by the way.

I imagine what you're asking about is crossing the line between photographic services and graphic design services. I can't speak for the other commenters here, but I don't know enough about graphic design to give you advice on it. It took me 5 tries just to get my own logo designed right.

As far as your pricing, that's a question only you can answer. So many people on here want to know how to price their product. It all comes down to your CODB (cost of doing business), your COGS (cost of goods sold), your competition and the dynamics of your local market. We can't plug in those variables for you. Think about how much you need to make just to break even for your time, resources and efforts put into your client's work, and then build your profit margin based on what the market will bear. It's always a balancing act between pricing yourself high enough that you're respecting the value of your work and the industry, without pricing yourself out of a majority of your potential customers.

My nugget:

A while back I got frustrated with cheap, stupid people choosing Timmy the "photographer" with his new P.O.S. entry-level DSLR over me because Timmy is only charging them $12 for a portrait session and a DVD. I decided at that moment that I wasn't going to try to beat anyone on price. I'm going to do the research I suggested to you above, and not apologize one bit on price. I'm going to focus on delivering the absolute best product possible, so the client gets the maximum value for their investment with me. Beat your competition on value. Forget about price. Charge what you think is the right price, and if anyone asks you about it, tell them what I just said.

Hope that helps! Good luck with your clients!

 

[Renzo]

Wow such great information on this forum, I love it. Thanks for all you help and support, I went to a design forum and pretty much got shot down. For those interested here is one of my samples so far, the other one needs to be resized before I post it: