posted 01-17-2002 09:56 AM              

How are you charging clients for your services? Hourly?, Flat Rate?, or Percentage basis?

For those of us, still rendering by hand with various mediums, what is the fee for the following:

BLACK+WHITE - pen+ink, graphite, marker etc.

COLOR - prisma pencil, marker, conte etc.

My former Prof. charged the following in 1994:

BLACK+WHITE: $100./hr.
COLOR: $300./hr.

For those of us computer rendering; NOT ANIMATING, what are the fees running?

Do the fees vary among the fields of design?

For example:
Architecture?
Interior Design?
Industrial Design (Furniture + Products)?

What about rendering fees for conceptual design? Is the sky the limit?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

I hope all is well in the Rendering world!

posted 01-18-2002 08:17 AM              

So to the point, the rate any contractor should charge should be a rate which allow a consultancy to mark up 20 to 50%. If you are working for a Corporation. You may get away with charging more, if they see value in the work you are doing. Most design firm only make between 10 and 30% profits on there employees, which seems low considering the the hourly rate of an employee. But they must cover down time, facilites, health care, etc. So if a contractor is giving them similar or better profit margins, they will use that person often.

If you are extremely fast...And you know that you can render (or whatever) X% faster than the average design, then eiter charge a flat fee or pad your hours. Padding your hours may seem uncool, but if you and the client come to an agreement on a rate and an estimated time. If they said yes, then they feel they are getting value in your work.

If you are just overcharging them after the fact, they may pay it but they won't come back.

If you are just Syd Mead incarnate, charge what the hell you want, People will pay any amount from which they see value.