Pricing – A fine art in and of itself

I’m constantly coming across questions in the 3D world requesting help on how to price services. Price to high and you may scare away valuable connections for the future. Price to low and your work won’t be respected, and furthermore, from that point on, that client will always expect that level of work for that price.

A good starting point for defining what your pricing should be is in a book done by the Graphic Artists Guild called Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. After much research I’ve found that everyone has a different answer for different types of projects, and this book is a good reference for where to start. Of course you will have to add or subtract based on different factors specific to your unique project. I do think that this book tends to inflate the pricing a little, but this is to be expected from the Guild to help raise the value of the Graphic Design Industry.

Despite its hideous cover and frequent misspellings, it covers a lot of ground for all projects ranging from map design and comic book illustration to computer animation and video production. It also has some great templates for different types of contracts that you can tailor to your specific needs. However, I think contracts done in the wrong way can get a relationship off on the wrong foot, so be sure to be careful with you wording and presentation of these legal documents. It’s priced at 22 Bucks over at Amazon which is well worth it if it ends up getting you that extra stack of high society.