What to charge?

[samoscratch]

Hello all,

I'm currently designing a book cover and am completely baffled as to what I should charge...I will obviously be credited for the design, but am asking the client for a flat fee. If someone could help me out here and maybe share some of your experiences that would be great.

[DDD]

Depends on what you are doing in the book cover. If you are just doing a photomanip then that s one price. But if you have to do liek a hand paninted montage or matte painting then that would be much higher.

[samoscratch]

Well i've decided on an illustration as opposed to photoshop collage, so if anyone can ballpark a figure that would be great.

[dru_nasty]

You can ballpark a figure. Think about how much you'd like to make per hour. And try to figure how long the peice will take you. We have no idea of your skill level, the type of client, and the amount of distribution the book will have. There are a lot of things to take into consideration.

[samoscratch]

well thanks for the help I should probably just do a little bit of research.

[Loststarz]

Using Illustrator to produce anything worth viewing is tough, and a rare talent. If it's a high quality piece (Not that I am saying it isn't) it could be valued in the high 3 digit to high 4 digit range.

Your Client's Means X your talent X your effort = $$$$$

I personally would charge no less than $400 and no more than $3,000. Depending on the amount of effort I put in and the client.

This taking into account how much your client can afford. (which you should decern BEFORE taking a project)

[samoscratch]

ic, well I plan on having a sitdown with the client soon, to discuss demographics and all details and aspecs of project. This is no corporation, just a small client, so I suppose it will be around the $400-$600 range we'll see . I'm not in a desperate state, just doing this to build up my portfolio, so the fact that this client can't pay big bucks is not really a big deal.

oh and probably a poor choice of words but I wont actually be using illustrator, but rather painter and photoshop combined for a nice illustration effect.

thnx again

[Loststarz]

That does change things my friend. I charge out the can for Illustrator "art" and significantly less for stuff produced in Photoshop.

Photoshop has a very fast workflow, and projects done in PS aren't as difficult, also Photoshop users are a dime a dozen, every kid in America uses PS. Illustrator requires a hell of alot more work and skill. Thus pays better.

Just something to keep in mind.

[samoscratch]

don't get me wrong..this is not gonna be a walk in the park. This will be the equivalent of a "hand drawn" painting in regards to attention to detail and such. it will not be a collage or a project that was slapped together in a few hours..
l

Photoshop users are a dime a dozen, every kid in America uses PS
yes,but are they good? ;)

Illustrator requires a hell of alot more work and skill
correct to a degree but cs2 has certainly made things easier, you still have to think about workflow differently, I still agree that it's more challenging than PS.