What’s the cost? Creatives tell us what they actually charge for projects

Harry Butt

Harry Butt is an animation director, repped by Blinkink in London, who’s freelanced for several years boasting a client list that includes Boiler Room, Chloé, MTV, Nike, and Warner Records. He sees how fear on both ends of the spectrum – those making large amounts of money and those who aren’t – stops people from candidly discussing the topic. On the one hand, he explains, “there is such a huge pressure to be on a hustle, and we are pitted against each other in competition [so] that the fear of judgement stops people from talking openly about money in case of perceived failure.” Then, on the other hand, there are the people who are making the big bucks who are cautious to divulge their financial status because they’re worried about losing a sense of authenticity and selling out. “The problem is that this mystery is only benefitting the clients – we’re in a situation as a community of creatives where we’re accidentally playing ourselves off each other and gambling our way into precarious financial situations by guessing numbers,” he adds.

For Harry, the main issue when it comes to pricing is the fear of not being paid. What is more, when working out what to charge, there’s a lingering trepidation that the client won’t stick to their promise. “Often the details of a project change, perhaps more work from you is needed, and you need to be quick and confident in making sure you’ll be paid fairly,” says Harry. “I used to be very cautious about coming on too strong about issues like this over email, but I’ve lost so many thousands of pounds from clients, it pays to be polite and firm about payment. Don’t be afraid to ask for 50 per cent upfront,” he says.

With this in mind, Harry’s top tips when it comes to pricing your work are:

1. The most basic formula for working out your day rate is to work out your expenses (rent, bills, food, etc – e.g. £1600) and work out how regularly you can get work (ten days a month?) and work backwards from there. For ten days of work, you’d need to charge £160 per day to cover the bare minimum, so you would want to make it up to £200 to cover extra costs like savings and work upwards from there depending on your experience. My current day rate is about £300-£400.
2. In addition to the above, the most basic formula for working out your project fee is working out how many days it will take, add another 20 per cent or so in case the project drags on or you need to buy some things like materials, digital assets, or fonts.
3. Get a contract from the client or download a template online. It’s boring and weird to be official but it means things can be way more informal and easygoing from that point onwards. It’s the most consistent way to get fairly paid, I promise!

Jo Zixuan Zhou

Jo Zixuan Zhou is a freelance illustrator living in Shanghai who is a master of editorial work. Her beautifully tactile drawings – inspired by printing textures and simplistic compositions – have appeared in the pages of The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek and too many others to note. Jo agrees with Harry, stating that the lack of transparency around money occurs through fear of judgement and that this happens in all industries, not the creative ones. “We run the risk of being judged for how much money we make, for talking about it and asking about it. Am I not successful in making so little? Am I boasting for attention? Am I being impolite?” she questions. The difference when it comes to our industry, she remarks, is that making creative work is inherently intimate and so trading that for money (especially a lot of it) “[can be] easily associated with greed and inauthenticity”.

Luckily for Jo, she connected with friends and professors while studying and in turn, they became her go-to whenever she was confused about pricing. With plenty of experience now under her belt, her tips today are:

1. Know how much you’re worth and don’t be taken advantage of.
2. Some clients don’t have much experience working with illustrators. So you’ll have to explain why you’re charging this amount of money for this amount of work.
3. Make sure you know what rights you own when it comes to your artwork. List your services and rights clearly before signing your contract. The devil is in the details.

Aurélia Durand

Aurélia Durand has made a name for herself through bright, empowering illustrations, animations and paintings through which she celebrates diversity. Her focus is on Afro-descendants, who she depicts with joy and pride. Colour is a major facet of her practice; one that’s embedded within her work for Adidas, the BBC, The New Yorker, Pinterest, Refinery 29 and countless others. Through such a varied practice, it’s no wonder she’s experienced when it comes to figuring out what to charge for her work.

Aurélia believes that getting to grips with pricing your work is fundamental to having a successful career in this industry, and universities should give more attention to the topic when putting students through their paces. Continuing Jo’s observation that dishonesty around money happens everywhere you look, she says: “Money is shrouded mystery not only in the arts; it’s in all kinds of businesses. We often do not see creatives as business people, but we, as artists, create art to be consumed, so we have to price our work. In art school, teachers do not teach students how to be an entrepreneur which is arguably the most important thing to learn, plus how you should market your work, so many students give up on being an artist after graduating.” Having not had that vital education, she says that she instead “learned a lot by making mistakes. Today, I know how to price according to what I am capable of offering but I am still figuring it out.”

So that you can avoid some of those mistakes, Aurélia shares some things she’s learned as well as advice on where you can get more information:

1. To be confident, I make art that is valued.
2. I learned from the most prominent business people how to price my skills online to have an entrepreneurial mindset. I found answers via podcasts, videos, Instagram accounts, and more.
3. To know what my work is worth: when do people comment on it, what do they like, what do my clients want from me, what is my unique skill which cannot be found anywhere else? How much is this worth?

Isabel Okoro

Based in Lagos where she produces warm, velvety imagery is photographer and filmmaker Isabel Okoro. Her work has graced the covers of magazines including Native and Splash & Grab and been published in Dazed, The Face, Vogue US and more. Throughout her portfolio, she explores “interactions between the motherland and the diaspora”. In the past, she’s sought advice from websites like aphotoeditor.com and from friends with experience in her field or who have done similar jobs. She thinks “a major reason people don’t want to talk about money in the creative industry is that there is a large disparity when considering social factors like status, race, gender and sexuality… People don’t want to talk about money because if they did, they would have to confront the roles they play in such an unfair cycle.”

Like many, through this process she’s learned a thing or two and so offers these as her top tips:

1. Always ask about usage – where your images are being used plays a huge part in how much you should be charging.
2. Aim high during negotiations, don’t lowball yourself.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Hypothetical briefs:

A five-page story for a new magazine being published in Lagos. Your brief is super open, so you’ll basically get to do what you want but you’ll also have to source any props, styling, models and scout locations yourself.
“Since I would have to handle the production, I’d charge between $1,500 - $2,500 depending on what the concept is and how many talents are needed. This figure takes into account the fact that it’s a new magazine being published in my hometown.”

A portrait of an actress for the launch poster of a major global film tipped for the Oscars – this poster will be used across Europe in cinemas.
“Considering the usage of this portrait, I would charge about $12,500. $2,500 as a creative fee and $10,000 for the licensing fee (two years, OOH use).”

A cover image and ten-page story for a major publication with a celebrity; they’re famous for being a champion in their sport, but also widely admired for their politics and activism. You’ve been following them on Instagram for years, and they’re on your bucket list of people to shoot!
“All things considered, I would charge about $5,000 for this project if production is to be covered. Otherwise, the production fee would be added on top of this. Considering they’re a celebrity, I would negotiate copyright with the publication so I can re-license the images in the future.”

Callin Mackintosh

Callin Mackintosh is a freelance graphic designer based in London, with a focus on typographically-driven editorial work and visual identity design. He’s worked on projects of all scales, from the identity of Sundance Film Festival to a lookbook for independent fashion designers, so he’s got a lot of experience adjusting fees to different contexts. He recalls the beginning of his career, where he avoided talking about money because he simply had “no idea where to start” having not been taught anything about it during university. He feels “ it would be beneficial for all design courses to have these business skills integrated into the teaching module to ease the transition from university into the industry.”

He understands that often talking about money openly “can be a very complex issue, and ultimately, I think people just want to protect themselves and their privacy.” This is something he’s seen even before entering university, as “many of us are brought up being told that asking about money is rude and invasive. This concept of it being impolite to ask how much someone earns and to never disclose how much you earn can make it difficult to have open conversations about money and often allows people to either devalue themselves or be undervalued by an employer.”

Callin also echoes some of Harry’s aforementioned wisdom, saying that often the difficulty isn’t in the quoting, but contracting. He advises including “a day rate that will be charged should the project overrun the agreed proposal” and that you “always charge a percentage of the project upfront before starting the job.” He adds that “there are so many variables to consider that can be very different each time. It’s never as simple as ‘how much would you charge for this?’, there’s so much more that has to be considered. Also just because someone charges a certain price for a project don’t feel pressured to think you should charge the same. Work to a cost you feel happy about but also that the client feels happy about. Good things happen when you start a project in a positive way.”

Having gleaned knowledge from close friends and through experience over the years, Callin shares some more of what he’s learned:

1. Appreciate the value of what you do. Some people don’t appreciate the value of graphic design as a service. Probably more so nowadays when pretty much anyone with a computer or phone has access to some form of design and editing software. But don’t let people take advantage of you and devalue the service you provide. You should be paid for your experience as well as your skills. You wouldn’t ask a plumber to do the same job for half the price they initially quoted so why should a designer?
2. Manage your time (and theirs). When quoting on a job, set out some key milestones within the proposal and give yourself plenty of time to meet them. Also, give the client specific deadlines for when they have to get feedback back to you. Without these key milestones throughout the project, it’s easy for waiting times to mess up your project timeline.
3. Never work for free. It’s killing the industry.