How much should I charge for amateur flier or business card design?
Keep in mind, I’d only be able to utilize MS Word for my work due to lack of software. I don’t have a portfolio at the moment and would like to develop one as I go. I realize it has to be cheap. but just how cheap?
The only reason I wish to charge is so I can use that money to buy the programs I need.
January 29th, 2010 at 2:00 am
I respectfully disagree with the other advice here, suggesting you do it for free. You can, of course. And your objective should be to build up a portfolio.
But your time is worth something. Further, if it were that easy, your clients would do their own fliers or business cards. They’re coming to you either because you have more expertise than they do, or you’re relieving them of a time-consuming burden, or both. Both of those are reasonable, legitimate reasons to charge for your services.
The suggestion regarding GIMP is good. However, depending on what version of Office you have, I’ve done cards, fliers, and more using Publisher. Even PowerPoint offers some interesting capabilities.
How much should you charge? Partly, it depends on what the market will bear. And it also depends on how much time you think you’ll have to deal with the designing phase and the customer-service phase.
For the card, if you want cheap (call it “value,” not “cheap”) try either $19.95 or $24.95. For a one-page flier, depending on its complexity, maybe something in the range of $24.95-$39.95.
Hope that helps.
January 29th, 2010 at 2:01 am
If you are only using MS word, I would not charge very much, if you charge at all. Anyone can make something in word, as it is very limited in its design abilities. As a graphic designer, the worst thing is when people bring me word files or want me to recreate some horrid concoction they created in word that they are convinced is a majestic work of art. I would suggest waiting until you get your hands on some good programs like Adobe creative suite, Coreldraw, etc before you start charging.
January 29th, 2010 at 2:52 am
Free. Work for experience until you build up a portfolio. Get better software, if you’re only working with Word then anyone else can make things just as well as you can.
January 29th, 2010 at 5:36 am
No portfolio? No images on the work? Free for now, until you get good references and a good size portfolio.
Then you can start charging.
Download GIMP its a free Photo shop software you can use.