The average cost of design per hour....

On average, what is your hourly design rate?

  • Up to £10

    Votes: 17 9.9%

  • £11 - £20

    Votes: 43 25.1%

  • £21 - £30

    Votes: 58 33.9%

  • £31 - £40

    Votes: 30 17.5%

  • £41 - £50

    Votes: 16 9.4%

  • Over £51

    Votes: 7 4.1%
  • Total voters
    171
Sorry if you were misunderstood, their is more of a story behind it, the 12 hours i mensioned includes the company i work for and the pocket money i earn, Im not just a graphic designer i do get posted website development aswell, which ranges between £300 and £800 , on an average i work on roughly 6 websites per month within my working hours which is actualy 7.5 hours a day, sorry for not making myself clear, having contracts with different companies also helps with this, yet sometimes i dont always have the time for them, but they are paying me an anual income for me doing work for them, this is where i use people on such sites like PeoplePerHour and Freelancers.net to carry out some of the work for me, i pay them for the work they have done still making my profit through the contract. Do any of you guys use such websites? As its getting towards christmas everyone wants to earn the extra money.
 
Also, Linz, i have contracts with 8 companies in Cheshire, they pay my yearly salary and update a contract every 12 months. So sometimes, im not actually doing anything for them or just a simple edit the website when needed and gallary the bonus of having a fiancee who has studied photography for 8 years helps my business, and we work together.
 
Simple sums say that 12 hrs over 5 days is 60 hours. 60 lots of £8 is £480 p/w. The tax due on that sum is £67 and NI £40. So your weekly take home is £373 which gives an anual salary of just under £19,400. If you have a few weeks off for a holiday and Christmas you're down to around the £18,500 mark.

To be earning enough to take home £31k you're gross would need to be in the region of £43k (higher tax bracket), which, working on your 12 hour day with no holidays is around £14 per hour.

So, if we were to read 'pocket money' as you don't declear the income, thats a serious level of fraud! Or do you mean, that you run another business that grosses £43k without your intervention?

*EDIT*

Posted this at the same time as the posts above so most of what I queried makes more sense now.
 
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Stop me when I go wrong...

There are eight companies paying you a retainer. You do some of the work they're paying for, don't have time for the rest but still manage to fit in up to 4.5 hrs 'pocket money' work per day (12 hrs minus 7.5). You stick the rest of the already-paid-for work up on PPH and invite bids, accepting those which enable you to retain a slice of the action (essentially a brokerage fee).

Am I getting warm?
 
Getting very confusing for everybody i think, so many people calculating,

Dave, Your hot, not is a sexual way, but yeah. lol

I work for a main company which is a job a came across whilst freelancing, I have since then (5 years ago) invested into the company also, this gives me a wage of £8 per hour, as i work on the admin side of things too. With me having money in the company i get a bonus of an extra £5 on top of my wage. Just remember i started on £8 per hour with this 1 company. I now work along side my fiancee in my own business as a contracted freelancer, i get contracted by companies for work, These contracted companies pay more than £8 per hour as its a fixed annual price which is agreed by myself and the client. With them paying me per month, i can afford then to contract other freelancers to carry out some of the work for me, which enables me to do more work for other companies, think of it almost like an agency. Having the fiancee on my side with photography is a huge bonus as she over the years has been taught how to use Adobe Products, Therfore i am not on my own, the income we have is paying 2 wages and looking after my own business. My main skills are Graphics, but i am strong with Website Development, I dont charge any less than £300 for this, Most websites that are built i charge the client £650, Yes this is run through my business, so i do pay the tax etc etc.

Now, When i said turning £8 into £8000, Its taken me 7 years to build up the customer base i have, its competition, and if you start low, youll find it is possible to hit these kind of figures.

I hope this helps you better understand.
 
Always tricky, my rates have gone up a couple of times in the last couple of years, though I've recently be told by two independent people I'm still too cheap.

Might be time to reconsider again in Jan 2012.
 
Ian Bonner said:
I'm with Dave. I have three rates for three different type of clients. I base it on the exposure that the work will have and the size of the business. My middle rate is my usual hourly rate.
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I do this too glad I'm not the only one. It allows you to tackle all parts of the market then and not lose potential work for the future with return business.
 
Really useful poll, but I disagree that showing the prices would "shame" any business. You are just hitting a different market. Some companies charge £100 per hour and work for some prestigious firms, and some charge £10 per hour and deal with one man bands.

Correct me if I'm wrong but its companies like poundland who are experiencing a massive growth, whilst many "middle market" companies struggle.
 
opalprint said:
Really useful poll, but I disagree that showing the prices would "shame" any business. You are just hitting a different market. Some companies charge £100 per hour and work for some prestigious firms, and some charge £10 per hour and deal with one man bands.

Correct me if I'm wrong but its companies like poundland who are experiencing a massive growth, whilst many "middle market" companies struggle.
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By gum, he's right! Whenever I want cheap, shitty, mass-produced knockoffs that won't last more than one use, I head directly for Poundland!

The issue that people are trying to highlight here is that bargain basement design cheapens the whole industry, because it creates a perception that design is just a throwaway skill. Mass market retail chains aren't an appropriate comparison precisely because they can buy in bulk and exercise economies of scale. Someone who is actually a designer can't do that, because they're, you know, creating a one off product.
 
printbar said:
By gum, he's right! Whenever I want cheap, shitty, mass-produced knockoffs that won't last more than one use, I head directly for Poundland!

The issue that people are trying to highlight here is that bargain basement design cheapens the whole industry, because it creates a perception that design is just a throwaway skill. Mass market retail chains aren't an appropriate comparison precisely because they can buy in bulk and exercise economies of scale. Someone who is actually a designer can't do that, because they're, you know, creating a one off product.
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I completely agree. I don't think design should be sold below a certain price. My point was, There are companies which charge £200 per hour, and companies that charge £30, and in this climate most people "unfortunately" decide to cut down their budgets. As stupid as it sounds, most companies cut down their marketing budget to save money :icon_confused: short term. But in any case, i dont know many start-ups that would spend £200 per hour on design. To start off with, they will spend less money to get off the ground and build their brand when they have money coming in.
 
Really interesting thread and some fantastic advice!!! Will have a think about setting some different price brackets depending on client/project. At the moment just have my standard rate and a slightly lower one for registered charities, but never thought of having a higher one for premium contracts.
 
In readiness for taking on big clients you need to learn on phrase...

"What's your budget?"

It's far more profitable than telling them you want £X per hour. lol
 
What we charge

Graphic & Web Design company based in the North East called M Media & Design and we charge around £40-50 per hour.
 
mmediadesign said:
Graphic & Web Design company based in the North East called M Media & Design and we charge around £40-50 per hour.
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This thread has been going for a while now! :) as i have mentioned, we charge £39 per hour. Although i'd like to think we are one of the cheapest in print, we certainly arent when it comes to design.
To be perfectly honest, if a freelancer charges £20 per hour, and I charge £39, I will see MUCH less of that money than a freelancer will.

We love working with freelance designers because i think the customer gets best price from both services. Not saying I'm not happy when design work comes in but there are very few cases where we will lose the whole job just based on the price of the design! Even if we are half the price on print!

Damian
 
I started out doing projects on, <<removed>> - Everyone has got to start at the bottom and my hourly rate was working out at roughly £xx per hour...I did this for several months with a real hunger to over-deliver and treat my customers like royalty. I have now moved on a bit from there but still never charge more than £xxx per hour. I am not a full time designer and only do it as a hobby / sideline. If I did aim to go full time, realistically my prices would have to go up in order to sustain a business
 
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New member here, just finished year 2 of a degree in Graphic Design. I've read through this whole thread.

So most people in the industry (according to the poll) are charging between 20 and 30 pounds per hour, yet I'm under the impression that it's hard to make a living in Graphic Design.

Does anyone have opinions on the nature of the industry as it stands today?
 
MattRich said:
I'm under the impression that it's hard to make a living in Graphic Design.
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One of the main problems is that today design is seen as 'easy', hence the number of amateur 'bedroom designers' offering, ahem, "professional" design at a pittance. Thankfully there are still plenty of clients out there who value design and a designers' expertise, the hard part is finding them. But, saying that, once you've found one, they'll probably be able to connect you to others.
 
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