First of all, I'm 16, and I've been using Adobe applications for 6 years. Since 2014, I've been "working" as a freelancer. When it comes to pricing, I have a lot of problems:   I haven't developed a portfolio yet My age doesn't help I'm too kind   Recently I made a logo and a badge for 13$. By now, I'm developing a book cover for 10$.  I consider theses prices to be really low, sorry if you don't agree  Why? Because when I try to charge my real price, people refuse to pay.   " Too young and too high " " I know a guy that does it for less " " I can only pay X$ " (this one refers to kindness)"   What should I do?
46775
I was hoping I would find some people in the industry that could help me decide what's the best price to charge to design (in this case) business cards.  What are standard prices for professional designers?  From a firm point of view? From a freelancer?  I don't want to overcharge clients but I don't want to ruin the industry by underselling my services.
123963
My 16 year old wants to give her teachers Christmas gifts. She is in 10th grade, so there are quite a number of teachers.  As a retired teacher, I do not think teachers need gifts. I would have loved a card or note with a comment or appreciative remarks. I taught special needs students and liked when a parent made snack for the entire class or contributed to the trip fund, but I never needed them to spend their hard-earned money on me.  I suggested my kid make cards -- she is very artistic, and add a heartfelt message. She disagrees and wants twenty dollar gift cards, which for the record, she cannot contribute to.  We are trying to find a compromise. I think that over $100 is ridiculous. It is also too much to 'lend' my kid.   (Deep background, this is not my own daughter but my godchild. When her parents died, I became her guardian. She was 4 when they died. So sometimes she uses that as her trump card. Teens aren't 'easy'.)  I said I'd ask what others think.
60886
I am an amateur photographer as far as event photography is concerned. I have done private event shoots only for my family and friends (weddings on two occasions and few new born and other small events).  Last weekend, I was invited to do a wedding photo shoot for an office colleague in local Bay Area, California. Apparently, they did not find any professional photog on a short notice, so they called me as they know I am a good photog.  I spent about 6 hours at the event in total and additional couple of hours in post-processing the pictures. I showed them some selected pictures and they loved them. They do not want any prints or albums. They just want soft copies of the selected photos. And now I have to tell the total price of my service.   I am not really sure how much I should charge for this event.  Any help in suggesting how I should go about determining the price of this service would be appreciated.  I don't know if this will help but here's what I shot with: Canon 5D MII, Canon 24-105 f4 IS, Canon Speedlite 430EX II and on the spare Canon T3i, Canon 50 f1.8.
99490
This is the first time i’ve properly been involved with a sugar daddy and he wants me to pay $50 for the USD to AUD conversion rate on pay pal. is this a scam and should i just block him? i don’t want to get conned into anything
45918
A client needs me to design a brochure for her. The problem is that she wants to edit and change the text and maybe also change some of the pictures herself.  However, she doesn't have any of the Adobe software or the knowledge to use these.   Is there any alternative?
82691
I'm curious which pricing model other feel best fits freelance design, in what situations, and why.  I am not seeking dollar values.   There are a few basic pricing models a freelancer can use:   Time-based pricing. This is where you calculate every minute you work on a project and break that down to your hourly rate and charge whatever the formula states you should. There are several questions here at GD.SE which refer to time-pricing models, with some excellent answers, such as:  /  /  This model can be accurate provided a client is aware each and every minute you work costs more. Therefore each revision will increase fees. Some clients are fine with this, some freak out because they didn't understand the pricing structure. Per-service or fixed fee pricing. Sometimes known as project-based pricing. This is where you calculate a price for each and every service you offer and essentially work off of a price sheet. This way you know a brochure costs $XXX every time, a 3-page web site costs $XXX every time, etc. This model does not allow for alterations should project scope become an issue. So it can result in those difficult conversations with clients telling them to stop with revisions or pay more. Value-based pricing. This model doesn't adhere to any set pricing or per hour structure. Value based pricing prices services according to their perceived value or importance to the client. This one is a bit tricky. Essentially it's the old "If you charge more, clients think you are worth it." model. You can often use this model to increase revenue without increasing workload. This is why "Name Brand" items cost more than generic items - a perceived value when in reality the items or workload are / is the same.   There are others such as licensing, use-based, royalties, etc. but I feel those are special circumstances which don't generally apply to most work. If you feel they do, please explain why.  It is also possible to use a combination of price models or hybrid model. For example, you may figure a job cost using time-based pricing but then add additional fees for value-based pricing.  It is also feasible that different services or projects are priced differently. For example:   sales piece creation fees are a hybrid calculation using time-based and value-based figures to arrive at final fees. Then, additional edits to that sales piece at a later date are strictly time-based priced. Poor Practice? After all , if it's a sales piece each and every copy seen by end users has potential to generate revenue for the client. So, is it more appropriate to use some value-based pricing for the edits? Web site creation fees are calculated using hybrid fees from time-based, per-service, and value-based figures. When an additional page is requested a year later, fees are based solely upon fixed fee rates for an additional page. Is this adequate? What if the additional page requires different services? Still a fixed fee then?   Obviously, all price models must cover your overhead at a minimum.  I am not seeking dollar values.   Which pricing model do you feel best fits freelance design services?   When do you feel it's appropriate to use the different price models, if you do?  Edit: I realize that in the end, most deliver what could be seen at fixed-fee pricing to their clients. This is just naturally what any hard quote appears to be. I'm not really thinking in terms of what a designer delivers to the client as the pricing. What I'm curious about is how you get to that figure the client sees.  I do realize this is a complex matter and few scenarios fit nicely into a specific category. Just looking for some general input from others in the industry.
72816
I am fairly new at graphic design and I have just finished creating a logo and marketing materials for a client. I only intended for the images to be used for marketing and advertising of their business, but I'm wondering what kind of rights I have if they randomly decide to try and sell products with the logo.   Is there any way to give my client the rights to use the images for anything they want unless it involves selling items with my designs? If they started selling t-shirts or something, would it be inappropriate to ask for royalties? I keep reading that it is appropriate in this situation to sign over all of the rights to my client since it is their branding materials, but I just don't understand. Has anyone ever had experience with this?   We don't have any sort of contract at the moment (which I now know was a mistake), and I can't seem to find the answer to this question anywhere.
105484
Here's my problem, I have a PDF document 583KB, and I want to make it under 500KB so I can upload it. What should I do?
65631
I want to build a personal portfolio so my questions related are as follows:   What should I include in the portfolio apart from Home, About, Work, Contact? I have never worked on any real life examples so what to display in the work/portfolio page? What kind of design samples do I need to include? Ex: Website, Logo, Banner etc   Any help is appreciated.  Thanks!
115329
I am helping a client/friend with a website design.  He is a conceptual thinker. Yet his ideas are always inspirational but not practical.  He is always wanting a different direction after I show him my design.  He wants something new and refreshing. He doesn't like the website out there because it's too commercial. I think it would be easier to manage later though.  I am struggling with him because    I am not getting paid for this. I would like him to just choose a design.   However, I was wondering if you have any tips on dealing with client who has no direction, and doesn't know what they want?  What would you do? Choose some web and have him decide which style they like?  How can I guide him in the right direction? Any suggestions for me?  Thank you for the help!
63353
Maybe once a month I need Photoshop.  Since it is rare, the cost seems like a disproportionate amount of money to spend by my startup.   I think the tasks I need to achieve when I'm converting a design to HTML/CSS/images are:   opening a PSD that a graphic designer sent me crop some images out of it, generally picking up the layer to have transparent backgrounds measure distances measure colors (RGB) measure font and font sizes maybe more that I'm not aware since I almost never do this kind of task   Is there some cheaper software for MacOSX that can do all of this so we don't have to buy Photoshop?
40699
I have been thinking of rebuilding my portfolio since its pretty outdated and I wanted some views on the approach I should take   Option 1 : Have an approach in which I list all the projects (major ones) on the front page and allow visitors to go through them   Option 2 : I build it like  a conventional site and allow users to learn more about me (and my design methodology) before they have a look at the projects ,so the order would be home ,about me,my portfolio and contact me  The thing is I have seen portfolios of designers who have employed either of the methods and have been successful but I get mixed signals from people about what exactly they want to see,some say that most people are not interested in who the person is and rather would just like to see the work while I have heard contrasting views from other people as well.  I also would like to hear your views on how you handle the issue of proprietary work being displayed on portfolios
36888
I've been managing my own expenses pretty meticulously for the past 4-5 years since being out of college and on my own. Because of this, I feel I have more of a clue about finances than the average 28-year-old.  I use  to manage pretty much all of my accounts, though I realize this is just a quick and easy personal finance solution. Plus, there's no personally customized advice on how I invest or set up my monthly budget.  These are the reasons I think I may want to find a good financial advisor. However, I don't know what I don't know. That is, there could be a long list of things I should be doing with my money to plan for retirement or just for general financial wellbeing.  Are these the functions of a financial advisor? What can I expect if I sit down to meet with one? Most importantly, how much would I be paying for this advice and is it worth it?
8595
There are lots of other questions on Graphic Design which partly cover this, e.g. .  However, I have become frustrated at the number of questions and answers which confuse the two terms. I think understanding the difference is important.  So here's a place to answer this question well and clear up the confusion!
32346
One of the most criticized aspects of the current publishing scheme, is that academics do pretty much all the work for free and publishers get the money.  Why don't people just charge a fee when contacted by a publisher to referee an article?    I know , that's not the question. The issue is why do it requesting no monetary compensation when the publisher is getting (for doing next to nothing) an .
90144
I'm looking for jobs all over the interwebs and I keep seeing postings by companies saying that applicants need to be well versed in most Adobe creative solutions softwares and then QuarkXpress.  But, when I look at actual studio ads (small studios looking for a new designer) they only mention strong Adobe skills.  Is QuarkXpress still relevant? Or is it a legacy software that only gets mentioned because at one time in the past it was one of the best softwares to use?  I know this might be a very subjective question, but I'm looking for those who ave been in the design world a lot longer than I have to give me insight (I've only just begun my design career).
98445
It's a wide-spread marketing technique that seems to have been around forever- selling products for £1.99, £9.99, £19.99, instead of £2, £10 and £20.  Presumably the pyschology is that submliminally £99.99 seems disproportionately closer to £99 (or £90) than £100 does.  But surely the technique is so utterly transparent and consumers so wary of marketing techniques nowadays that it is completely ineffective. And worse, by doing it, you risk detering potential customers by coming across as deceptive or dishonest.