Just made a logo for a CNC company, not sure what to charge!

[adeihl]

Hey guys, great forum!

I just created a logo for a small business who does CNC machine work for the racing automotive industry. What kind of cash should i be looking for? here is a link to my logo. I am a student finishing my senior year as a graphic arts major, but this is the first job i am actually getting paid for. anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!
Andrew

[slodave]

Do you know what established shops might charge in your area? You state that this is your first paid gig. Charge less than the pros, win this customer over so that they refer you.

I am in I.T., on my own. I charge less than most in my area. I can always raise my rates next year a little and so on...

Dave

[Don Plumley]

Disclaimer: I'm a partner in a marketing agency. So take this with a grain of salt.

Well, if you work for Landor you can charge $250K to $1M.

I'd look at elance.com to get a rough idea. I've seen solo practitioners charge from $75 to $5,000. I don't know how large the company is or their expectations. Your challenge is you've delivered the work without establishing your fees up front.

The value of your work is predicated upon your experience and the impact upon the work on your client. BTW, have you shown them comps with the logo in greyscale, faxed, reverse, etc? Did you create a brand identity guide? Business system elements? How does the logo relate to the core competencies of the company? How many design variations did you create? Did you sign a full copyright assignment? (okay, I have another 50 questions, but that's the difference between a solo guy and an agency.)

Anyway, if you can forgive a very base analogy, you need to establish your fees up front before you deliver your service. This is how prostitutes make as much as they charge. When you really want it, you'll pay for it. But after you've had it, you say, "how much?" Sorry.

It's a nice logo - though candidly I'm not too keen on your font choice for Racing. It's a CNC shop which is all about precision and you've selected a hand-drawn face. The reverse italics is nice for motion though.

PM me if I can be of help.

[adeihl]

wow! thanks for all the professional advice guys, in school we really dont lean about marketing our services, just designing and program use.

I didnt do anything but create the logo for him, i did a few revisions but only for myself. didnt show him. I was thinking i should charge in the 100 USD range? I showed him and his quote was "looks good, how much?"

I appreciate the constructive criticism! in school I had that DRILLED into me. It amazing how many people get offended with simple advice! I chose the racing font, because it is a little "loose" his company BMC is very clean, dry and to the point "boring" applications. He would us the BMC logo on his cooperate work, and the BMC racing logo on his aftermarket stuff.

Does 100 USD seem unreasonable? He is located in TEXAS www.bmcrace.com and i really have no idea his yearly revenue. This is what i threw up quick to present his logo design. http://www.jdiamond.us/bmc.html

EDIT: just relized one of the blocks is misaligned. i have to fix that!

Thanks!
Andrew

[Shaun @ Tru6]

looks nice.

one color
text only
no client revisions

$100 seems like a fair price.

C is too close to M, and even after nudging over, you may to look at the space between C and RH edge

[MRM]

That sounds like a very reasonable charge. When you have your own shop and you're doing it for a living you'll charge more, but $100 is a good fee for a student and a fair amount less than what the shop would pay if they went to a shop.

It is important to set charges, or at least the expected range of charges in advance. And never, NEVER give your product out before you get the money in hand.

The fee you charge should be a combination of the value the customer receives from the product, the cost it would take to buy it somewhere else, and the skills/effort/time it took you to do it. You'll get the hang of the calculus soon. If you do a big job for a company that is going to make a lot of money off their new logo and they want it to look particularly good an professional, your rates go up. A local club racer would like a nice logo but it's just a hobby, you cut him a break if you have some extra time. Just remember that your services have a minimum value you should never go below. The worst thing in the world is not having nothing to do. It is taking on work that is unprofitable because you didn't have enough real work to keep you busy, and in effect you pay someone to take your work. You can give away work to build a portfolio, but not when you're doing it for a living.

I don't think you gave away your work at $100, here. I think it was fair to all sides if you're happy.

[Don Plumley]

I agree with the $100 figure for this.

One other minor production hint - blow the logo up huge before you release final art files. You'll see minor pixel overlaps in elements that don't show until your client decides to make a banner or something.

And a marketing hint: Package your work product before you show it. Don't just drop it into an email. Build a template that displays your work inside your own branded package. Put language in front of the design to explain some of the choices you made, and why. Professional presentation helps separate $100 logos from $1000 designs.

And from a process point of view, we like to give a client three initial design directions - conservative, mid-case and extreme. They pick one, and then we build refinements. This iterative process works well (especially when substantiated by customer data on preferences) and by exposing options and process to the client, explains the value of the service.

And btw, it does not matter if it takes you five minutes or five days to create a design. The client is paying for your creative skill and output, not how long it takes you to do something.