How to Overcome the Fear of Pricing — Graphic Design

 

Hmmm….. Naming a Pricing for designers or mostly beginners might be scary and sometimes tricky. Sometimes there is this FOMC(fear of missing the client). There is this natural fear or feeling of not chasing away clients with our price, thereby making us giving out a price which we will later regret or feel sad or prices that may eventually make us execute projects with levity, thereby tarnishing the image of our Brand.

Truthfully, sometimes some Clients are very intimidating and bad-mouthed.

Now, what is the way out of this mess? The simple shortcut is to have a RATE-CARD.

RATE-CARD is the minimum amount you can accept for any design. RATE-CARDs are birth from proper considerations and your worth. If you are a beginner or designer who is still struggling to gather clients, you would surely have a RATE-CARD that is quite low and still very considerable. Now, if you are an already established brand you may have a higher RATE-CARD, because you know people already know your brand and can’t easily leave you for someone else.

Note; that a RATE-CARD should be a price you can willingly do a design right. Your RATE-CARD should not be influenced or determined by Clients, it should be centered on you and your worth. Ask yourself; HOW MUCH am I WORTH? The right answer to this question will definitely set you on track to having the best rate card.

And also your RATE-CARD should/may vary according to each design. You may have a RATE-CARD for logo design and have another one for flyer design; Hope you get the logic now? So let’s move on.

Lastly, note that your RATE-CARD shouldn’t or may not be the actual price you will charge, you should/may way more than that, but It should be the least amount you can handle a project.

Like here in Nigeria, we are always used to beating down the initial price of anything, we always want a discount on almost anything, so it is advisable you have an initial price way higher than your RATE-CARD, and if the client eventually beats down the price, you shouldn’t go below your RATE-CARDs.

Now is time not to get intimidated anymore by any client, and get our real value, See you Soon!

How to Communicate with New Clients — Graphic Design

Many Designers are faced with this familiar and common worry or problem of communicating with New or prospective Clients. You have been on social media marketing yourself, creating Ads, and eventually someone serious slides into your DM or sent you a mail for a work/project and you get scared or don’t know what should be your answer or how to answer. This looks like witchcraft right? Hmmm….. I don’t think so, I believe you just need to wear your armour of professionalism; Yeah, you heard me right; Armour of Professionalism.

There are simple ways to overcome this problem which are:
1. Have an Introductory Form: To avoid being a scum, you can create a simple google form that allows someone fills in their basic personal info and explains what they really what and also state their budget. With this whenever someone new message or contacts you for work, you can just send them the link to access the form, so they can fill it. So when you get the response, you can now be relaxed, have the knowledge of them, thereby making it much easier to continue the conversation. Another interesting thing about this method is that it makes you look more professional and serious to the client. Imagine, the feeling or thoughts you would have when you contact someone for work and he/she sends you directly to a form. You feel me right? So let’s move on.
2. Autoresponse: Another method to beat this fear is using an autoresponder. You can set up an autoresponder in your Facebook page or WhatsApp so that when someone messages you through these channels, the autoresponders help you start the conversation. You can also set up an email autoresponder like MailPanda, so that whenever anyone sends a mail to you the autoresponder helps you easily start the conversation.
There are many other channels of responding to new clients but I believe these channels are the best and most effective. So, get up, create your form, set up your autoresponder, and let the new clients start rolling in. See you soon!

How to Handle the Pricing of Print designs

Handling Print designs like flex banners e.t.c. sometimes may be tricky, messy and sometimes you may be at loss. I remembered when I did my first flex banner 10 pieces of 3x2 banners and I only made a profit of only N700 + stress and even ignorantly designed the banner in RGB colour mode instead of CMYK.

You must handle print designs patiently and confidently, that project I only earned N700, I had a profit target of about N5000, but when I went to the printing press I realized I won’t be making more than N700, So heartbreaking right? I guess I just had to use that as an experience opportunity.

When handling a print design, make sure you are patient enough not to give a random price. The first thing you have to do in this situation is to contact the printing press and make solid and comprehensive research on the cost of production, then you can now give a price that would contain the cost of production + your service charge, then you will be a profit.

How to handle design clients that don't know what he or she wants

 Been a Graphic designer is sometimes stressful, and I can confidently say as a designer we are most times undermined. Sometimes we encounter or work with good, understanding, and enjoyable clients while sometimes it is the opposite.

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations whereby we are working with clients that don’t really know what he/she wants and still keep on rejecting great design ideas and concept we have made for the same cause.

There are some clients that want certain design concepts but don’t really know what they want and we end-up becoming stressed out and tired of the project.

For example, Client a wants a logo design for a reservation company and didn’t give you a prior detail about what he wants, you went ahead to make your research on what best suits the brand, went on to create good and great concepts but still the designs where DECLINED by the Client.

What could have happened? What is really the problem? The Client is not just pleased with the design.

Now the Big Question; How do you handle this situation? Handling this situation requires good patience and business spirit from the part of you; the designer. Already, you are pissed of but you are still obligated to deliver what he or she wants right? The shortcut out of this situation is simply COMMUNICATION.

Don’t say put, and continue designing what the client will dispute or decline at the end of the day. What you should rather do is speak to the client, explain your design and its concept generation process, and why you think this is best for the project.

Now even if the client is still not satisfied, the way out is still communication. Discuss the client, find out from him/her what the/she really wants, make them feel free to say their mind, show them good samples, and with this I am sure you will eventually be able to cave out what the client really wants.

Keep on dominating, see you soon!

MOCKUP in Graphic Design

Mockup is a scale model of a design. A mockup is a prototype that provides the actual testing of a design. It is typically a high fidelity representation of a design appearance and how it will actually look when in real use. Mockups fill in the visual details of a design such as colors, typography, layout, composure, etc.. By looking at a mockup, you should get a good idea of how a design will finally look and a rough idea of how it might function. A mockup can be considered a high-profile visual design draft.

A Mockup is not really the design but a model of the design. It is just a visual representation of how the design will finally look. It gives a sense of how a design will look. A Mockup is not necessarily part of a design process but it is just a model and a more improved original and realistic view of an already-made design.

For example; If you are to design a logo for an Insurance company, you have gotten the design brief, arranged your moodboard, sketched your ideas and finally, you come up with a logo. Mockup will be used as part of the process of presenting the logo to the Client, where the logo will be used in a more realistic and original way, maybe on a billboard, business card, T-Shirts e.t.c. So, a mockup is just a more improved, original, and realistic view of an already-made design.

Why Mockup

Mockup is a very essential and important part of a design presentation. Like I said earlier, mockup is not actually the design, It is just used basically to give a design a much more realistic and original view.

Mockup is a key component of a design process. It helps find and fix visual inconsistencies earlier in the process before they become too costly. I believe by now you understand what a mockup really is and is not, how it fits into your design process, and why you shouldn’t ignore it.