I don't know any professional designers who use a price list. This is one of the reasons that a pro will not give a prospective client a price for an upcoming job based on a certain number of pages. There are many more questions that will need to be answered before a realistic price or design fee can be estimated. Note the key word, "realistic". If a designer gives a price without asking numerous questions, there's a good chance that price may not be realistic. Exceptions do happen, but a word to the wise.
So I thought it might be helpful to offer some examples of the kinds of questions you should expect when talking with an experienced designer about an upcoming project. Please keep in mind that most experienced designers will be able to offer more than just great design. Along the path to becoming experienced designers, they've also become pretty experienced marketers and will no doubt have more in-depth questions if chosen to take on your project, but at the outset, here's a short "getting started" list.
- How many pages?
- What will the dimensions be?
- How many colors do you anticipate?
- Will the project print commercially?
- Will there need to be any special papers or folds?
- How about special printing techniques like die cuts or varnishes?
- How many photos will be needed?
- Stock or custom shots?
- Approximately how many words?
- Who will provide the copy?
- Will there be a need for charts or graphs?
- What about illustration?
- How many meetings do you expect?
- Will two to three rounds of revisions be sufficient?
- Will two concepts be adequate?
- Are there any special considerations I haven't asked about?
Of course, there are different requirements for different projects and this list may not be suitable for all, but it's hoped that it serves as a starting point, because the goal is to fully understand what is needed so that it can be accurately estimated. After all, no one likes surprises.
