The Graphic Designers Guide to Pricing, Estimating & Budgeting – Book Giveaway **updated with winners**
This comprehensive guide to graphic design is packed with useful, creative methods for creating a profitable graphic design business. Veteran designer Theo Stephen Williams covers all of the details, from setting rates and dealing with competitors’ pricing to establishing and managing budgets and positioning the brand of the firm. This third edition has also been updated to include additional material on time management, expanded coverage of Web and multimedia pricing, and numerous new interviews with leading designers.
Readers will discover how to:
- Prepare estimates
- Negotiate with clients
- draft proposals
- determine an hourly rate
- use different pricing methods
- choose financial management software
- establish a productive work environment
The Graphic Designer’s Guide to Pricing, Estimating, and Budgeting features clearly written advice and first-hand experiences that will be indispensable to both professional and aspiring designers.
Comprehensive and comprehensible! Recent graudates, freelance designers, those about to go “on their own,” and veteran designers who have never truly understood how to put a value on their work will benefit from this excellent book. Personal business anecdotes give life to information that often causes the eyes of “creatives” to glaze over. This could be the most valuable book in your design library.
-Fred Niles, Chair of the department of Visual Arts, University of Dayton
Straightforward, sprinkled with just the right amount of humour, and packed full of clear, useable information, Theo Williams’ pearls of wisdom belong in every graphic designer’s bookcase, right next to Graphic Art Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. This is a gold mine of information from the frontlines and behind the scenes of the graphic design industry.
-Linda Souders, Souders Engst Design
How to win:
Tell us the reason you think you deserve a copy. We love real answers. “I really need this book to further my design career by helping me price my work”. Something like that is always a winner over “OMFG I NEED THIS BOOK NAOWZ”.
When do I know?
Winners will be chosen next Monday (September 14th 2010)
Published by Allworth Press
Winners
Let me preface this by saying I read every comment and I was overwhelmed by the response, sincerity of the replies and the passion everyone has to succeed. I tried to determine how to pick a winner after reading through all the comments. I let a completely random number generator pick between 1-180. I came out with 4 winners for the 4 books. If the winners would email me their address at chad(at)fuelyourcreativity.com I can have them shipped to you! Thank you all for leaving heartfelt, compassionate comments. I was truly humbled.
1. Amanda Farough – VioletMinded.com
2. Corey – BullmanDesign.com
3. Marquis M.
4. Jason Gross – JasonGross.com
Chad Engle is currently slaying pixels @BoomtownROI. He abides in coastal Charleston, SC and enjoys living on an island. You should follow, harass or chat to him on twitter @chadengle and @fuelcreativity .
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This book would be great for me, i’ve just left a full time job and now working for the first time as a freelancer, lacking the confidence to approach clients with prices I feel match the quality of my work, so in turn lacking money….and we all know in this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women. And thats ultimately what im after. Thanks
I work as, with, and for several types of graphic designers. This book would be very beneficial in helping each of these groups get there deserved money.
I have been in the sign business…. the hand painted kind, for 15 years and have a handle on sign pricing in my prior location . At 55 I have returned to school to pursue a degree in graphic design ! I have been asked so many times to produce menus and advertising of various types. I do not now nor have I ever known how to price this type of work. Now that I have taken this big step and left my country element to the bigger communty of indianapolis I am lost all around . This market is so much more competetive and I never lose in a bid situation which makes me feel that I am undercutting the competition. I don’t want to get the job because I’m the cheapest guy in town, I want the work based on my skills and creativity. My desire is not to have that “throat cutter” reputation among peers but to be on somewhat of a level playing field with other professionals in the area. Most importantlyit is my desire to make sure that I am giving my customers value for their dollar and not belittle myself or the industry as a whole. This book would be a blessing in helping me create a new balance for everyones good on this new .adventure
I am a professional New Media Designer that typically goes on solo design missions. Having been a mercenary / 1-man-wolfpack for so long, I fear that I have lost touch with the pricing guidelines I should be adhering to. I need this book so I can continue to annihilate my competition whilst maintaining my comfortable lifestyle.
Hello,
I’m originally from California but recently moved to Lima, Peru to chase my dreams of becoming a graphic design artist. I am currently studying in Toulouse-Lautrec (Institute of communication and design). I moved here because i couldn’t afford to study in an art institute back at home so I decided to come to Peru to chase my dreams and study graphic design. I live with family members that support me with housing, food, and transportation. Having this book would help me deeply since their are not so many graphic design books here where i live and when i get lucky and actually find a decent graphic design book here it is usually way over priced since it was exported from another country to Peru. Please help and send me this perfect source of information so i have something to look forward to and read everyday instead of having to go to my school library and spend hours admiring books that i wish i could own one day. thankssssssssssss!!!
I just resigned from my job at an awesome Advertising & Design agency in Boston, MA and moved across the country to Sunny San Diego, CA for a better quality of life and to jump start my freelancing career. I REALLY need this free book to help me become more business savy. This will in turn give me the confidence to charge and estimate what my services are worth.
As a graphic and web designer, I really struggle to come up with cohesive and structured quotes and tend to price each project as it comes. This book would help me how to decide what to charge and how to value my business.
I really want this book because it’ll cut down the time it takes to reply to someone when they ask how much I charge. The time it has taken for me to work that out could have been used to actually finish (or even start) the project in the first place!
I’m new at web design and develoment. I have done some projects, but always let the client to chose the price and, I have no clue how to price it. I am a full time missionary and would like to use it as my financial support.
I need this book to make grow my consciousness as designer and … for the Sales Manager of my farm : )
I really need this book, because it is really hard (impossible) to find a quality books like this in my country.
When working with clients I always struggle when it comes to pricing… I feel that I might be under cutting myself, and not charging the industry standard. The real reason I would like to get this book is because I really want to know how to draft better proposals, because I want to start going after bigger clients. Negotiate with clients is another thing that has me interested, I’ve been doing well but I think this could help in other areas (working in-house currently).
I totally need this book. I have been a designer for more than a dozen years and I’m still afraid to price my work. I’m always worried that it’ll be too much or not enough and that I’ll scare off clients. This book can provide me with tips and confidence for good pricing!
I’d love to have a copy of this book. Being a small business owner and going through the struggles of doing it all on my own haveing a resource like this would be a wonderful assets. Anytime you can get real world insight into the business/account side of design is always helpful.
Thanks and looking forward to your decision
Christopher
I would really like to have this book (a lot). I’m currently studying in the web design and others multimedia field and I am in my last year of college, in Quebec.
I have some projects in my back, some not too far ahead and some ideas that I’d like to put in place in the next years. My problem is, as a new freelance worker, I never really know how much to ask a client for the work that will/as been done.
I wish I could have a copy of this book and I wish a good luck to every other participants.
By the way, I am sorry for the syntaxes errors or mispellings that I could have done into my comment, I am French-Canadian after all and English isn’t my first language.
Have a good day!
Hi, I’d love to give this book so I can give it to my husband. He is sorely in need of it (I think) but won’t get it for himself (he doesn’t like asking for directions either). I believe he’s very talented and could go really far if he knew the how-tos of the business as much as he knows about the work and am hoping this book will go a long way in that respect.
Hi guys,
I really am in need of this book. Having a little design studio since a while and I have troubles with estimating & budgeting. Seriously hope this book give me some good insights! Thanks!
I could really use this book to further advance my Passion for graphic design and my freelancing capabilities. I’m so excited for my future in design and want to take every opportunity and resource to get there.
This book will really help me step up my game. I am doing freelancing full-time for about 3 months now. However some clients have been hesitant to work with me, as I don’t have proper proposals and such. If I were to receive this book, I believe it will help me win over clients and it will bring a more professional feel to my business. Overall I hope it will lead to clients referring me to their business buddies. Instead of having to scour craigslist 24/7 looking for jobs.
I would love to get my hands on this book. I am in a market where people hear you say $50 for a logo and the call you a thief! A local alliance would help here to set a standards for Market expectations.
After being laid off from my web design job, I decided to start my own business. While I know web design, I’m stil learning to run a business. This book would cover important aspects of freelancing that I haven’t found in other books I’ve read.
I am currently and Graphic Design student at Ai and within 6 months of attending there I’ve already started freelancing out of my house. Pricing always seems to be a question of mine. I am a student of the craft still BUT my work is good enough to get these jobs so should I be getting paid what a professional does…. I need this book to shine some light on my many questions =)
I’m always looking for ways to rethink pricing and to improve the process of communicating prices to clients. It’s probably one of the aspects of my job that I worry about most. Sounds like this book would be a good read.
I really need this book as I’ve just left my full time job in the big corporate world to go solo to do design that is less focused on making money and more about making good work. Would really love to find the balance between making a living and enjoying the work too.
I don’t think I really need this book, but sometimes my husband says I undercharge my clients. I just think I’m good at analyzing my clients needs and executing a solution for them fairly quick :) I guess it would be a good way to see if I’m charging my work for what it’s worth and it would be nice to see how close or not I am to what I should charge.
Thanks!
I need this book because I’m a developper and a designer, and I think the personnal project I’m working on could rise to a top selling application if I make the right choices. And this book would help a lot.
Regards
mika
I came from Brazil, where I worked with design and advertising for a while, but my husband has been moved to US, so I decided to work as a freelancer for the first time, but I’m feeling lost! I need help (HEEEEELP) and this book has everything I need to know about working by my own.
I am working in the web design business since 1999, but I still don’t know how to make a correct estimation for a project.
This book will help me solve this problem, so my customers will receive a correct estimation for their project and I will receive a fair payment for my work.
I’ll be stepping into the wonderful and super scary world of freelance design in 4 months time (gulp!) and altough I’m confident in my design skills, my admin and quoting will need to be sorted out quickly!
I’m assuming “Monday (September 14th 2010)” is a typo because Monday is the 13th ;D
the reason why i need this book its, Ive just ended my bachelor in Graphic Design here in El Salvador, and in my school, we dont have a class where they show you how to price your work, so its very common that designers here almost work for free….
I am a design student coming close to finishing my BA in Graphic Design and have already started my own graphic design company which has already become my primary form of income. I am working hard to ensure that it continues to be successful, but with out a formal industry job to help teach us the standards of pricing and tactics of the design world, this book would be a highly cherished asset to our growth in learning about the design world which we are so passionate about!
I really need this book because when I do a design and when the client saw it she/he always thinking to create a design is an easy job because she/he only see the final result and last time I sell a logo for US$40 because I don’t know how to do pricing on that.
I’m from Portugal, and I know the price of 1kg tomatoes, the price of a car, the price of a movie ticket…
I’m a comunication design student and I have no idea how to establish prices for my present and future work. And in the same situation are my colleagues!
Could you support us all, and send me a book, on behalf of my school?
This book is very handy for anybody who works in graphic design. It serves as a comprehensive guide to setting up shop as a graphic designer