Project Time Scales

ajpeacockdesign

ajpeacockdesign

Member
What is a suitable time scales for the following projects?

•Logo Design.
•Website Design.
•Full Brand.
(All from scratch. No rebranding or reworking old material)

I'm trying to get into a bit of freelancing to earn some extra money, so just wondered what everyone thought. I know everyone is different and works differently, so just an appropriate time frame is fine. I want to be able to give any prospective clients a sensible quote; sometimes I worry I'm not spending enough time on something, and too much time on other things. At least if I'm able to give an actual time scale it will give me a clear deadline.

Thanks!
 
How long is a piece of string, every project is different.... at the end of the day a project takes as long as the project takes and how long you require to complete it solely depends on the brief and the speed at which you can work.

Whether the brief is accurate and you quote correctly so you get paid the right amount for the amount of work you do is an entirely different thing though.
 
Levi said:
How long is a piece of string, every project is different.... at the end of the day a project takes as long as the project takes and how long you require to complete it solely depends on the brief and the speed at which you can work.

Whether the brief is accurate and you quote correctly so you get paid the right amount for the amount of work you do is an entirely different thing though.
Click to expand...
Is it not expected of a designer to be able to give a rough quote as to when a project will be finished? (I've never worked for a design company or freelance, as of yet, so just trying to understand a bit more)
 
ajpeacockdesign said:
Is it not expected of a designer to be able to give a rough quote as to when a project will be finished? (I've never worked for a design company or freelance, as of yet, so just trying to understand a bit more)
Click to expand...
It is but you can't just say 'x will take y' because realistically every brief is different...

If you specialise in a single thing you can offer up 'packages' but the above things mentioned by you will all vary from company to company.
Think about it logically: a type based logo will take far less time than a full on 'illustrated' one, a website with a cms will take far longer than a single page based off a template, branding depends on what they want to brand, is it just letter heads and business cards or are they after the full nine yards with things like brochures etc.
 
It's difficult for us to give you timescales because most of the regulars on here have a lot of years under their belts, we probably work a lot quicker than you. It all comes down to experience, it's always tricky to quote when you're starting off.
I still get it wrong sometimes, you just have to put it down to experience and maybe make it up on the next job, but it will become easier once you've done a few jobs. If someone's asking for a finish time, just make sure you add on a day or so leeway for yourself, otherwise
you will end up being rushed. Of course, if they want a rush job, you quote more accordingly.
 
ajpeacockdesign said:
•Logo Design.
•Website Design.
•Full Brand.
(All from scratch. No rebranding or reworking old material)
Click to expand...

Levi said:
How long is a piece of string.
Click to expand...

It's exactly twice the size of half its length.

Logo design - I've done some in a timescale of 30 minutes. Still charged £450 for them.
I've done some in a week. It's £450 + a weeks work.
One logo, in particular, went back and forth for about 10 months - and that cost £450+ 10 months work (hint, it was about £10,000 in the end and they paid me in advance each month, so £1000 a month on on-going revisions).

Website design - I don't dabble in the devil's work, but I once got a request to do a website, so I outsourced it to a web partner who came back with a price of £25,000 - I was shocked, so added my mark up for handling the client and the project - I think I put in 7.5% handling charge - the client was delighted, said the last time they had the website done it's cost was almost £100,000!
If only I had known!!!


Full Brand
Again, I could give you another anecdote, some take a few hours, some a few weeks, some can take up to a year.

But set your initial pricing + add on your day rate/weekly rate or a monthly rate for ad-hoc tweaks/revisions - with a cap on revisions - I tend to cap monthly revisions at 10 versions.
Oh and set an up-front fee for each, typically I go at 50% up front - but for trusted clients I go a bit softer and tend to just bill months end. Some I'll request payment before work begins, as this is fair to all. With full refunds available if work not completed on time.
 
When I'm asked I always use the "piece of string" analogy because in most cases that's all I can say.
When I get a very good explanation or a written brief than I can answer better but even that is an educated guess as there re jus SO MANY variables.
 
hankscorpio said:
It's exactly twice the size of half its length.

Logo design - I've done some in a timescale of 30 minutes. Still charged £450 for them.
I've done some in a week. It's £450 + a weeks work.
One logo, in particular, went back and forth for about 10 months - and that cost £450+ 10 months work (hint, it was about £10,000 in the end and they paid me in advance each month, so £1000 a month on on-going revisions).

Website design - I don't dabble in the devil's work, but I once got a request to do a website, so I outsourced it to a web partner who came back with a price of £25,000 - I was shocked, so added my mark up for handling the client and the project - I think I put in 7.5% handling charge - the client was delighted, said the last time they had the website done it's cost was almost £100,000!
If only I had known!!!


Full Brand
Again, I could give you another anecdote, some take a few hours, some a few weeks, some can take up to a year.

But set your initial pricing + add on your day rate/weekly rate or a monthly rate for ad-hoc tweaks/revisions - with a cap on revisions - I tend to cap monthly revisions at 10 versions.
Oh and set an up-front fee for each, typically I go at 50% up front - but for trusted clients I go a bit softer and tend to just bill months end. Some I'll request payment before work begins, as this is fair to all. With full refunds available if work not completed on time.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this!
 
Hi Ajpeacock,
The appropriate time for every project is different. Obviously, there are a great variety of projects, some take a little time, some are long term
The price should be accordingly.
The best way to know the exact price of a particular project is to fill the employer's shoes, which means put the same project in request and upload it on the freelance marketplace. The offers you could get in this way will let you know the actual price. As many sellers in their offers will tell that they will do that task in that fixed amount of time and budget. This step is necessary only in the beginning, after a short while, we no more need to fill the employer's shoes.
Hope it will be helpful.
Cheers,

Thanks
 
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