Designers should value their work

One of the most common questions I get asked is how designers should charge for their work.

In the current, tough, climate it’s all too common for designers to panic and start dropping their prices to engage in bidding-wars against websites which are offering logo ‘design’ for £50. The problem with doing this is that quality always drops, too. The important thing to remember is that graphic designers (or graphic design itself) are not commodities. When clients hire you, they hire you because of your experience, knowledge, ability, skill level, talent and personality. Commodities don’t have these wonderful assets, you, the designer, do have them.

A corporate identity, for example, is an extremely valuable asset to any business and it simply must be well thought out from the start. This takes time and experience to get right and that has to be charged for, just like any service.

I’ll be writing more about this topic over the next few weeks in more detail. For now, though, be confident in the fact that every business in the world needs graphic design and you, the designer, offer that service. If you don’t value your work then how can you expect current and potential clients to value it?

If you have any specific questions which you would like me to answer in future posts, post them as comments below or email me.