One Fast Buffalo

 

Please price your DESIGN services based on value not by labor. Let's stop this madness. Frankly, I think most clients understand this concept if you will give them the opportunity. Many of us have trained the client to think more about labor rather than about value when it comes to pricing. So I blame us not them. 

 

I'll start with a simple statement. 

 

You can take your Graphic Designer's Guide to Pricing, Estimating & blah blah blah and use it for fire kindlin'. 

 

I made a simple chart (see bad design above) that I think explains the main reason we want to see the hourly design fee go away. It's simple really. The more experience (we might also throw talent into this side of the graph) a designer has, the faster they should reach good design solutions. Why wouldn't they? Nobody in their right mind would purposely take longer if they don't have to. I know many designers will actually wait a few days to show the client the work to ensure the client thinks it took a good amount of time to accomplish. Really? I suspect it's because of something like this. Have you had this happen? The client doesn't understand why something that takes maybe 1 hour, or even 10 minutes for that matter, should cost a lot of $. Or have you had them question the value of an idea (even though they already told you it was good) once they figure out it really didn't take you long? We get it.

 

My argument is simple. If a designer spends 20 hrs on a logo (or let's say any set of visual brand design components or strategic brand strategy recommendations that have the potential to positively effect the perception of your brand), is it more valuable than one that took 10 minutes? Well, what if the logo that took 10 minutes perfectly matches the clients brand strategy? What if the one that took 20 hrs doesn't?  This is purely about solutions that make a difference. In other words VALUE. Time spent does NOT by any means equal solutions that provide more value. All that matters is the quality of the result. 

In fact, I'll argue that a client's VALUE for your design solution is raised when you deliver it more quickly!  The longer a person waits for the solution the more the shine wears on it, even if it ultimately is as good for the brand. The faster the client gets to use the solution the faster its affect can be felt. So if you are fast, you should get rewarded, not paid less! Now doesn't that sound sane? 

An experienced designer (one who knows that the first and most important thing is to understand the brand strategy BEFORE he starts the design process) works out much of the core idea in their head before they ever sit down to "work".  The computer time becomes about the execution of what's in the designbrainmind place, a bit of experimentation to ensure you're on the best path, and mostly the crucial refinement that gives the piece of creative its final polished form. 

Don't mistake what I am saying. There is a big difference between DESIGN and PRODUCTION and those of us who do one or the other or both know this. But clients have a harder time seeing the difference in many case because maybe you don't take the time to highlight the difference.  If you are laying out a 50 page catalogue for instance, there are 2 things that need to happen 1) Designing the essential set of visual elements that give this catalogue its unique look and feel. Typography, colors, photo style, formatting, good God! all that and more, etc. THIS is where the value is when it comes to determining how effective the piece will be 2) ok now you got 50 freaking pages to layout, there is a lot of redundancy here and it will certainly eat up hours to accomplish those 50 pages according to the DESIGN. So the total price for the brochure should be about pairing that value with the hours. But MOSTLY about the value!!!!  

Same goes for Web Design since it is so critical to a brand's perception these days.  Obviously, there are many hours that go into the production and development of a site but if you plan and design a TURD, the developer will certainly BUILD A TURD. So again, hours are only a small part of delivering real value here. 

We agree this is tricky and much harder than counting hours but we still always go with this option. The value of brand design changes for every client. Why? Well, they are in different markets, some are startups, some are 80-year-old companies, some are in big markets, some in small markets. Some clients are in industries where brand design makes HUGE difference in the success of a product. Others are in an industry where brand BARELY matters. This is a fact. Also, a startup has much less at stake and everything to gain from good design. A brand designer can immensely help a startup by incredible brand design so this by no means says working for startups should be cheap. On the flip-side an 80 year old company has less to gain but lots to lose. They are hoping to make a good investment in rebranding in order to make an incremental improvement to their bottom line.

***EXPERIMENT**

To prove the worth of brand design we did a little real-life business experiment. We created a Wood Baseball Bat Company.  The trick is, the brand design essentially IS the only difference between our product and the competitor's product. This is not to say the quality of our product is not high. It is, but so are the products of our competitors. The business is successful because of the brand design, which extends into the look of the product itself. Take the brand aesthetics and story away and we essentially have nothing of any real value to sell compared to our competitors. We have MUCH OF THE SAME. 

  

Pricing is and maybe always will be tough in our industry (whatever the hell OUR INDUSTRY is!!) We see it more like we will sell you this specific intellectual property for that compensation. That intellectual property has a value. So we think in terms of these factors in order to propose a compensation: 

1) What is the client's business? What are they selling? A product? What kind? A service? What is it? All should be considered.

2) What is the market and what kinds of dollars are at stake for this client? Is this a 2 million dollar market or a 2 billion dollar market? 3) We also relate the value of the work and what it provides to things the client can quantify. For instance, what if you are doing brand design for a restaurant that brings in 2 million dollars a year? What is that total revenue in a month? Now if the client believes that a brand redesign will increase profits by 20% then how much is that brand design worth? Again, keep in mind one brand design solution may achieve this 20% gain, and one brand design may actually cause a 20% DECLINE in profits. So how good the brand design is all important. What isn't important is HOW LONG the designer worked on it!!!!!! Well what about that restaurant putting 1-2  months revenue at stake? Sure sounds reasonable to us for a return of potentially 20% or more.  Even further, what if this is a chain of restaurants? More to lose, more to gain. Nothing is a sure shot of course and we all take risks.

3) We measure risk on the clients side, and on giving away our ideas. For instance if a beverage maker comes to us and says "Hey OFB we have a great new beverage product."  We say "Cool what is special about it?" Client "Well nothing really. We just know that the world needs another US made craft beverage priced at $x for a 750 ml bottle. And we decided to make it. It is not flavored in any special way, not made in any special way, not made in an interesting place or by interesting people, or even with special nutrients infused, etc. We don't even have a name for it."  OFB "Wellll, our opinion is you have NOTHING so far sir. We understand your willing to spend a lot of money on beverage makin equipment and of course spend mountains of time making, and selling this product but at this point (which is what matters when we are making a deal to fix this problem for you) you really don't have anything.  We are essentially providing the product." Yes that's right, in this case the brand design IS the product. So yes, we are are creating a huge amount of value if the brand design is strong. We see this often. For the record we do see a good amount of clients that bring us products with a built-in distinct competitive advantage. Great example here.

4) We DON'T think much about what other design, creative, or advertising agencies charge. Who cares and how the hell would we/you know. I mean, surely clients don't share proposals from one group with another group right ;) And surely creative PROFESSIONALS don't undercut each other. 

5) We also measure the pain factor of working with a client. This is a big one. We have been doing this long enough to gauge how much work we will have to do to please a client. Bigger organizations simply have a harder time making decisions for example. Some one man companies have similar trouble but for a different reason…they are too personally vested in it. These are the clients from whom we get this response upon sending ONE logo design. "Wow!!!! I love this logo, it's so awesome and really works for what we are doing. However, I hate to just go with the first thing you show me. Can I see some other options." if you don't see the insanity in this statement. well, let's just agree to disagree. 

All these factors mean sometimes we sell brand design for $1 and sometimes $1Milllion. Haha. Maybe one takes longer than the other, maybe not. Maybe monkeys will soon be taught to do great graphic design and replace us. Well, if they are good why should the client care if they get the results. And too bad for us, but I bet monkeys won't be able to figure out how to charge for value so we should be safe. This may on the surface seem unfair or showing favoritism towards one client vs another but we don't think so. Simple as this. One brand design may have the potential to push product into the market quickly and be an instant success. Again, it's about the value of the ideas and things we make. One brand design may be BETTER from a "hey check out this cool design in Commarts magazine", but really not very effective inside the market it was made for. In other words NOT MUCH FN VALUE. So again which is worth more $? Ideally, of course we like to provide both good design AND good value. That usually just requires good clients that let us do good design ;)

If you are worried the client will question your pricing if they know it only took an hour.  Just quote Picasso.  Here is the story "The attrac­tive woman who rec­og­nized him, slowly approached him and asked him if he would draw a por­trait of her. Picasso agreed and quickly sketched her. After handing the signed sketch to her, she was most pleased with the like­ness and asked how much she owed to him. Picasso replied, “$5,000” The woman bris­tled and exclaimed, “But it took you only five minutes!” “No, Madam, it took me all my life.” replied Picasso, who then raised the price to $10,000 after his self-confirming real­iza­tion of the drawing’s actual value."

We would love to hear your thoughts (both clients and designers) about this stuff. 

Before all you fellow designers tell me that I am causing clients' expectations to be raised about how fast you should execute great solutions. I feel ya. Kiiiinda. The only exception is that of course some design styles (whether you are playing off of something you have seen before, or you just invented a new design style) DO require more time than others. Intricacy can be a tactic in some good design. But many times it means overdone. I'm guilty of this myself. Look at some of my older work.  So let your client know if that is the case. Otherwise sit down and knock that s*&$#* out, get the client their goods, get paid for the real value of your work, and get to that bike ride, hike, stroll thru the market, snowboarding or surfing session, etc knowing you really made something that will play a big role in your client's success and enjoy the fresh air. 

Now if you are STILL mad at us for telling you to work fast think about this. Ever hear of Parkinsons law? This simply states "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."  We see this all the time. If you give a designer (or yourself as THE designer) a week to execute a creative idea….you will certainly spend a week. Will it be worth it? Probably not. If however you give yourself a day (assuming you have already reviewed your brand strategy and KNOW what this brand design should accomplish, you are more likely to create a great solution in 1 day than you are in 5. I have had employees at first be like OMG what a slave driver you are giving one day??? I'm like yup. And then I want you to do 1 more concept for this other brand tomorrow, and another the next day. And just as they are rising from their seat to stab me with their no. 2 pencil I say "and then take thursday and friday OFF!!!! Yes, I want you work less'" It's kinda like what Paul Rudd meant I think in Forgetting Sarah Marshall when he told Peepyopee…"pop up and do less. The less you do the more you do."  See the clip here.

 

If you are a designer stop worrying about time. Stop feeling guilty if you reach good solutions fast.  We do and don't feel bad about it. Great solutions can be made in 30 minutes if you have processed the right information and have confidence in that info. Trust your instincts, don't go searching for ways others have solved similar problems. In other words quit opening those design annuals and searching for an idea. No two brands are or should be alike. Do however study the competitors because that is more about the bar that is set. DO kick that brand in the teeth and don't stop until it's beat. Do force yourself to explore the untried. And really do produce something of value. Value for that brand. When brand design MAKES the brand you have created tremendous value. We feel design adds REAL value to a product. It does matter. 

If you are a client (anyone who pays for these services) please do consider the value of what you are asking for and receiving, especially in a world where most things are pretty easy to make ;) We do greatly appreciate all the clients that pay us fairly for our ideas. That's MOST of them. And for those of you that keep asking us why you can get a logo on www.logotournament.com for $200 and why we charge so much?? Good luck! Just keep in mind your competitors may actually be paying one of our fine design colleagues (all you badass design firms) to create ideas with real value.