Professional Design Practice :: Lesson 2 :: Freelance Fee Structures and How to Quote :: Updated

Originally published 2014. Updated March 2026.

This is Lesson 2 in our Professional Practice series. See also: Project Planning, Dealing with Clients, Invoicing Clients.

Through working with a variety of clients, my best advice for contracting your services is: do not jump in the water before you know how deep it is. It is absolutely imperative before agreeing to work on a piece that you know the entirety of the project. I have learned the hard way to never respond in the affirmative until you ask the right questions.

Creating Lasting Client Relationships, One Quote at a Time

Let’s begin with the simple part: your working rates. All freelance designers need to establish their rates and be prepared to provide them when prompted. We will get onto pricing entire jobs below, but first we need to tackle rates, which you will need to have in place before you can quote for jobs anyway.

Your rates are what you charge clients for your time and services. Hourly and daily rates are the most common. Some individuals charge by the half hour, but for the purposes of this post I will stick to hourly and daily rates.

When deciding what and how you are going to charge, there are several factors to consider.

Experience Level

A junior will charge differently from a middleweight designer, who will charge differently from a freelance creative director. This comes down to experience. You get better the more experienced you become, and will adjust your fees throughout your career to reflect this.

If you are at a junior level, choose rates that are not quite as high as those charged by middleweights, but good enough for someone who cares about what they do and considers themselves a professional. In Australia, a junior graphic designer might charge $40–60 per hour depending on location and specialisation. Each market has its own averages. Do your research and place yourself where you feel you belong within the appropriate range.

What Are My Skills?

If you count certain specialised skills amongst your competencies, you may want to think about a range of rates for the different services you offer. In addition to solid typography and layout skills and a decent knowledge of production processes — which should all be mandatory — perhaps you are also adept at motion graphics, UI/UX design, or web development. Competencies in these areas tend to mean that clients will pay a higher fee for them. To keep a set of rates for standard graphic design services and another for more specialised abilities is a good idea.

Variable Rates

There are large and small businesses, rich and poor, and everything in between. A good client list should consist of both: small businesses and organisations where shortfalls in budgets are compensated by a hefty dose of creative freedom, and larger, more established clients where the work may be more corporate but who usually have more money to spend.

Bearing this in mind, I see nothing wrong with keeping your working rates supple to allow for the different types of businesses who might approach you. It would seem wrong to quote a local charity the same fee as a corporate bank for the same job. Keep a range of fees at your disposal, with a top and bottom end, to accommodate the different types of businesses who may engage your services.

Value-Based Pricing

Beyond hourly and project rates, there is a third approach worth considering: value-based pricing. Rather than billing for your time, you price the work based on the value it delivers to the client. A logo for a local bakery and a logo for a national retailer may take similar hours to produce, but the commercial value they generate is vastly different.

Value-based pricing requires confidence, experience, and strong client communication. It is not for every project. But as you build your reputation, it becomes an increasingly fair way to price your work — for both you and the client.

Pricing Jobs. Here’s Where the Fun Begins…

With a clear decision made on your rates, you can quote for jobs with a degree of precision. The same rules regarding striking a balance apply here.

There are several factors to reflect on, some or all of which you should build into quotes wherever appropriate. The more factors you examine and deem relevant, the more you protect yourself against unforeseen eventualities and maximise your profits. Get as much information about the impending job as possible from the client before returning with an estimate. The more information you have, the better your judgement, and the more accurate your quote.

What Is the Timeline?

One of the most basic questions you need to estimate is how much time the job will take. To give your best estimate, think about how quickly you can complete the actual design work, minus client meetings, travel, and back-and-forth decisions. Consider how fast you work, how easily the creative process comes to you, and how proficient you are with your tools. If the client wants something done in a few days, this may rule out the project altogether, depending on your schedule.

What Is the Budget?

Your time and money are just as precious as your client’s. As they will be looking for you to be upfront with your costs, it is also important that they be upfront with theirs. Depending on the scope of the project, their budget may give you a better idea of how they would prefer to handle payment and be a deciding factor in whether you choose to work for an hourly or project rate.

“Would You Be Able to Send Me a Brief?”

Sometimes a client will come to you with a vague idea of what they want — actually, a lot of the time. Ask the client to submit their request in writing, preferably by email so you have a time and date attached. This helps you understand the project details. Their brief should include the message for the project, the specs, and general creative direction. The timeline and budget should also be acknowledged. See our posts on The Creative Brief Part 1 and Part 2 for more on this.

Who Is the Point of Contact?

The person who asks you to provide design services may not be the person you deal with directly. Find out the names and contact information of everyone involved in the decision-making process and what their role is during each phase. When you know all parties up front, major design surprises — meaning major design changes — are less likely later on. Bigger projects usually mean more people involved.

Where and How Will the Piece Be Used?

While you should be able to deduce this from the client brief, it is valuable to know the true scope of the project — not only for the design work involved, but also for the budget. Does the budget provide for purchasing imagery, fonts, and other items that may have specific usage or copyright entanglements?

As a professional, you will be expected to be knowledgeable on both the creative and financial aspects of design. Be prepared to answer questions on similar projects, and remember to offer suggestions for other design services you could provide. Perhaps the client is only looking for a logo, but you would be best placed to design the whole identity package. Steer them away from piecing together their own business cards and letterhead — these elements all represent their brand, and a unified approach will only benefit its cohesiveness.

Drafting Your Quote

After those questions have been answered, you should be prepared to draft up a quote. The two most common methods are either a total project estimate or an hourly rate with estimated total hours. While no one can provide a one-size-fits-all method, consider your experience level, the depth of what you will be providing, and a thorough understanding of your client.

Keep in mind the quote is not the same as the contract. The quote provides an initial agreement between both parties with allowance for further negotiation. For contracts, see Lesson 7: Graphic Design Contracts.

In addition to your client’s timeline, establish your own project timeline that allows for revisions and production time — whether your piece will need to go through a printer or other third party. Within your initial quote, discuss a proposed deposit (generally non-refundable) and the subsequent payment schedule. Never start any project without a deposit and defined payment plan.

In Sum

Never let a client pressure you to provide an immediate quote. You have not even agreed to work on the project yet. Look out for red flags: clients who want to push off discussing payment until later, or whose expectations do not align with what you can deliver. Be honest and build lasting relationships. The more you educate clients on design and design services, the better off your relationship will be.

Tools for Quoting and Invoicing

Modern tools make the quoting process easier to manage:

• Xero or FreshBooks — professional invoicing with quote-to-invoice conversion
• HoneyBook or Dubsado — project management with built-in proposals and contracts
• Google Docs/Sheets — a simple, free option for starting out
• Wave — free invoicing for freelancers

For more on the invoicing side, see Lesson 5: Invoicing Clients.

Additional Resources

• David Airey on designer pricing
• Smashing Magazine — Invoice Like A Pro
• Millo — How to Quote a Design Project
• Smashing Magazine — Effective Strategy To Estimate Time For Design Projects

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Next in the series: Project Planning