How to I quote this job?

[dogbone]

I know this is a bit of a nebulous question but I've never done a job like this before. Usually I just do small layouts or straightforward designs.

This is basically three different sets of labels for one company that sells oils creams and homeopathic stuff.

I need to take one of their logos which looks like a complex stained glass design. I need to take a piece of it and redraw it with smooth lines and also alter it to suit. For example there is a stylised person on it and for the hair products I will change the hair or I might change the position of the arms. For other products I will put some stylised and also 4 colour graphic objects in her hands. (See image.)

Another part consists of making a fairly simple logo and they have a good idea what they want so I only have to redraw it and play with the proportions. It will be mono colour.

Those first two are difficult enough to know how to quote but they also will want me to make up labels for different size bottles and this will be an ongoing thing.

They want it all fairly quickly. I have not the slightest clue on how to go about quoting this especially as it will be ongoing.

Any clues from those experienced in these things is appreciated.

 

[furious]

man hours
equipment hours ( cost of running equipment )
direct expenses ( relating to work you are doing)
indirect expenses ( gas, electricity, rent etc. )


this is a basic breakdown of your cost so that you could work out how much to charge the customer.

don't disclose this to a customer. (personal)

 

[Mydriasis]

Is it a vector file? If not make it one, and the you can fairly easily adjust the different ancor points, move parts to different layer, etc....

here is a one minute job, i just coverted it to a vector file and colored it using the standard settings in illustrator

 

[dogbone]

Yeah it's going to be all vector. How did you do that, was it an auto trace?

I'm been working on a bit of it to hand in with my quote to see if it's what they want. They do want it cleaned up. They wish to get away from the roughly hewn type of look. I was hoping to give the lines some variation.

My problem in quoting is that I'm probably not as fast as I could be but I don't really know. This little bit has taken me quite some time. Like about an hour because I agonise over the proportions and placing quite a bit. If I calculate how much time I'm going to spend on all the variations and charge that by the hour...

I just don't know. I mean I can't charge them for my slow pace, if indeed it is slow. I think maybe I should come up with an amount and if I need to spend more time on it, I should absorb that. But I have no idea what that number should be. I don't want to under quote but I don't want to get ridiculous either. Trouble is I have nothing to base it on. I don't know what the going rate is.

It will all be monochrome except for maybe some stylised leaves of particular herb she will be holding which will be in full colour based on photographs and worked on a lot.

 

[ATD]

I can't tell you what to charge, but sometimes I do this if I'm working in uncharted waters. I'll start by giving the client a bid to do the whole job and I'll make it a high enough to cover the worst case + 25%. Then I will tell them an hourly rate and say I will give them the job for the lessor of the two (bid vs hourly). If they freak out at the bid price you say you are sure that the hourly will come well under that . If they are fine with the bid, then charge that. It covers you if the bid is fairly accurate and gives you escape if the client thinks your bid is too high.

Another way to do this is to give them a range.

Being that it's something new I would spend a little time playing with it to see how long it takes. My client often gives me jobs and asks me to play with it and then get back to him with a price. The play time gets put into the price as well.

It think it's less of a matter of what a job is "going for" and more of what a client is willing to pay and what you are willing to work for. I have seen logos go for anything between $25 to over $1,000,000 (corp id included ).

 

[dogbone]

@ATD

Thanks, that is excellent advice. Just what I needed.