Setting a price

[jvila]

Hello,
How are you?.
Today I have been commited to draw a car using a photo as reference, customer needs this car in vector.
The quality has to be photorealistic like the ones that appear on my gallery.
The problem is that customer need me to set a price for such illustration and
I don't have any reference about that.
Maybe some of you could give me some advice or price idea.
Thank you very much in advance.
I look forward to hearing from you.

[gray]

Does he want an actual print or does he want it sent as a file, Javier?

[pauland]

It's really difficult Javier - we all live in different places to you and what one customer might pay, another wouldn't.

In cases like these I often ask the client to suggest a budget they are happy with. If I'm not happy, then I'll make a counter-suggestion.

Think what your time is worth and consider if this could be a good stepping stone to help find other clients. The more clients you have and the better your reputation, the more you will eventually be able to charge.

[jvila]

Gray,
Thank you very much for your fast reply, He wants the car file.
Best regards

[jvila]

Pauland,
Thank you very much for your opinion, I tried him to give me an idea of his budget but I couldn't get anything, just a give me a price.
Again thank you very much.

[gwpriester]

Javier

How many hours do you think it will take? Set an price per hour and use this to determine the price. In terms of $US I would guess $25-50 per hour.

Also, if you sell the image to the client exclusively, then you need to charge more, maybe +20%. Or you can license a use fee, so the client can only use the image for a specific use, and not for any use the client wants.

[jvila]

Gary,
Thank you very much for your price reference, but you set me another problem, to know if I am as fast as average, for instance Ninja took me a lot of hours, it has a lot of details, if you had to draw something similar how many hours do you think it could take to somebody with your xara skills?.
With that reference I can also know how fast I am.
This thread it is becoming the saint grail for me, thank you all

[gray]

Since they want to buy the image they want to run multiple copies. Are they a reputable company or just some individual that wants to sell prints or T shirts. Paul's got a good suggestion, is there any chance of future business from them.
Once you let go of the file you pretty much lose control of it unless you have a written agreement for a royalty of some kind.
As Gary said you could charge up front but most people don't want to pay for the kind of time it takes to produce a good illustration. If you don't know this person or their business I think I would be more inclined to just sell them the file up front.
Use Gary's suggestion for price and see what they say. If they think it's too much you can always negotiate a price.
I've never sold a complete file,only prints. Maybe one of the other members have better advice and experience in selling the complete file.

[Egg Bramhill]

Today I have been commited to draw a car using a photo as reference, customer needs this car in vector.
The quality has to be photorealistic like the ones that appear on my gallery.

The big problem with this type of commission is that you produce a fantastic photorealistic image for your client and he say " great, excellent, just what I need. What do I owe you?". You quote $640. Next response is "No way!"

As others have stated, you must make it clear from the outset that you are creating a bespoke vector image, a one off, just for him, the client. At the very best it will look exactly the same as his supplied image. So even if you achieve perfection, he will have no/little idea of the differences between the two images.

So it boils down to how many hours (at your hourly rate) will it take to recreate the image in vector? Can you do it in VectorMagic, possibly in just a couple of hours, but remembering you have to charge for having this software. Or are you going to do it within Xara (or similar). A couple of hours is not going to cut it!

So you say, to produce this as a photorealistic vector image I consider I can produce the work in x hours @ $y/hr. So the cost will be $z.

It's then up to the client. Most will say, thanks but no thanks, which is fine. You're not wasting your time or theirs. There's no point underselling your talents. However a serious client should appreciate the quality of your work and the time spent producing it provided you've informed them previously.

[pauland]

.. And get a deposit.