Business Advice

mcucchi

Hi Folks!

I'm a graphic designer by trade - hoping to evolve my career into illustration. As such, I am currently working full time as an art director and dabbling in freelance as things come up. I recently met with a guy who would like me to create an illustration for the hero image of his non-profit humanitarian website. He's also considering having me create a logo for the site as well.

I have experience in contracts for branding/logos/design, but I don't have experience in creating contracts for small illustration pieces like this. Would anyone have advice regarding what I should charge for a piece like this and what kind of terms I should include regarding rights to the image?

Thanks!

QuietYell

@mcucchi First, congrats on the opportunity

A similar question to this came up a few days ago (here). I said this:

Here's a great place to start since it is an industry standard (and been around for a long time). They have market pricing guides for all kinds of illustration requests and sample contracts in it (there is a print version of the handbook and a digital one):

https://graphicartistsguild.org/handbook

Hope this helps!

QuietYell

@mcucchi BTW, @Lee-White has a course that covers this some too:

HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN ILLUSTRATION 3
https://svslearn.com/classDetail/-KOwxefATjNa9q7qsnPw

From the course page:

The focus of this video is about what to do once you land a job.
• What to ask a potential client when they are interested in your work
• How to estimate your project so you can set an appropriate fee
• How to negotiate if a client's offer is low
• How to interact with a client and look like a professional
• What to do before work begins
• What to look for on a contract
• What to look for once you get a job
• How to present your work to your client
• How to handle revisions
• How to avoid "project creep"

mcucchi

@QuietYell Great! Thanks so much!