identity system - how much to charge?

[eyedesign]

Really??

To me, it looks like a badly-rendered appropriation of this:

[vreedy]

We sometimes go on the "value" pricing system. How much value does the identity have for the business? For instance, a logo for Nike would have more value than a logo for the local Bob's Mowing Service. The Nike logo (or identity) would be seen by millions, or billions, of people over its life, while Bob's would only be seen by a few hundred. It doesn't matter if it takes you 10 or 160 hours, the value of the Nike identity is huge. Also, there is the "reality" factor... how much can the client afford? And, how much work is the identity going to take? Doing a big identity takes lots of research and it can take many man-hours to develop it.

[rickyaustin]

ORIGINAL: vreedy

We sometimes go on the "value" pricing system. How much value does the identity have for the business? For instance, a logo for Nike would have more value than a logo for the local Bob's Mowing Service. The Nike logo (or identity) would be seen by millions, or billions, of people over its life, while Bob's would only be seen by a few hundred. It doesn't matter if it takes you 10 or 160 hours, the value of the Nike identity is huge. Also, there is the "reality" factor... how much can the client afford? And, how much work is the identity going to take? Doing a big identity takes lots of research and it can take many man-hours to develop it.

Mmm, that's a good way to put it.

[creativepublic]

Well, overall, everyone is pretty much spot on about this post. The pricing I show in my previous post is actually for a small business such as an electrician or small sandwich shop or maybe even a startup business. Most of my clients are small businesses and most do business on a local level. If however, they were a more popular company with a bigger budget and planned to do business more on a national or international level then I would go up on price and the amount of time I allocate for the project would increase due to the extensive research involved for a more high profile client. Extensive trademark research would have to be involved for a more larger profile company as well.

Overall though, 10 hours to push out a logo for a small business is about right, at least for me. For larger companies or more high profile client logo work, then you would be looking at 20 to 40 hours of design and research time. And if a customer goes over the allocated hours, there is no reason at all why you should not bill for your time. This extra hourly price is put into place to keep customers on track and from wasting a designers time. Heck, if they have 5 more hours of revisions, then I plan to bill $75 per hour for those extra 5 hours. So, I just don't understand why "eyedesign" in their previous post would say that would be "a bit harsh" to charge for over time. I guess their customers never go over time on a project.????

[john e. rocket]

Ok guys (girls too), thanks for all the input. It sounds like overall the pricing is pretty agreeable, and time is more individualized. I have personally gone way above on time and have had the indecisive client go overboard as well, so I like the idea of a stated amount of hours and an hourly rate after.
As for the actual hours I'm sure most of us are always thinking about 'the work' so 10 hours is not neccessarily 10 hours at the desk. Hell I've had ideas come to me while at my son's baseball games and even sketched a few things down from time to time.
Thank You ALL for your input.