Advice for writing a project quote

JoyCreative · Jun 2, 2012

Hello all,

I'm new here but I already feel at home amongst my Mac and Graphic Design peers! I look forward to forming great relationships where we can barter knowledge and talk about Macs, Design, and everything else related!

I was wondering if an experienced Graphic Designer - preferably experienced in non-profit work/projects - could assist me in writing a quote for a project that I'll be doing. I'm not too experienced at writing quotes and just wanted to make sure that I'm not slighting myself or my business or my discipline/profession.

The project consists of a Pocket Folder, Capital Campaign material (maybe both Internal and External Case Statements), Organization/Profile Sheet, a Trade Show table-top display, and two retractable Vertical Banners.

ANY help offered would be greatly appreciated! Hopefully this is the right place to ask for this, if it's not, I'm sorry! If it's not the right place, could you direct me to some good sites where I could ask these type of questions and get advice?

Thanks,
JoyCreative

chas_m · Jun 3, 2012

You're likely to get more answers from a dedicated Graphics Pros type forum, but we have a few such people here. I recently did some vertical banners and a pocket folder for two different clients.

The key question I guess would be if you plan on charging a simple hourly rate (this is what I do, but it varies by client -- the more difficult the job [or client], the more expensive the rate is!) or are trying to provide a flat-figure quote (always leave a window for additional hours billed @ $X if they spring additional stuff on you).

In the case of the former, try to estimate based on what you know about the job how many hours it will take you, as truthfully as you can. Then triple that figure.

No, that's not gouging -- you're going to spend time researching art, trying out different ideas, trying to make the inadequate low-res art they are likely to supply you work and so forth. Trust me.

In the case of the latter, again err on the side of being generous to yourself. And while most clients are wonderful to work with, some are a huge pain -- thus ALWAYS the insistence that any addition work (including extra revisions!) not covered by the original quote is billed at [a rate designed to provide a strong DISincentive for them to abuse the terms of the quote].

Hope that helps.

paul_77 · Jun 3, 2012

Hi,
I'm a graphic designer with 20+ years experience and currently working primarily for a non-profit.

This is a very basic outline of how I work:
Once you've submitted your quote and it's been accepted (btw your quote should describe exactly what it is you are supplying to your client and for what price). You should also write a creative brief (ensure you allow for this in your quote. I usually allow about 2 hours).

(Google 'graphic design creative brief template')

Write a first draft of brief.
Email it to client for feed back.
Send a second draft and get them to email that they agree to the terms of the brief as well as your quote.
.

A typical creative brief includes (but is not limited to) the following information:
Project description
Current situation
Target audience (primary and secondary)
Tone and manner /look and feel
Communication task - the message
Marketing objective
Mandatories (e.g. logos, web address, colour scheme, phone number, email address etc)
Media
Budget
Timing, schedule and deadlines
Who's responsible for what and by when?

here's a few links

10 tips for writing graphic design briefs | David Airey, graphic designer

David Airey, graphic designer

hope this helps

Paul

JoyCreative · Jun 3, 2012

chas_m said:
You're likely to get more answers from a dedicated Graphics Pros type forum, but we have a few such people here. I recently did some vertical banners and a pocket folder for two different clients.

The key question I guess would be if you plan on charging a simple hourly rate (this is what I do, but it varies by client -- the more difficult the job [or client], the more expensive the rate is!) or are trying to provide a flat-figure quote (always leave a window for additional hours billed @ $X if they spring additional stuff on you).

In the case of the former, try to estimate based on what you know about the job how many hours it will take you, as truthfully as you can. Then triple that figure.

No, that's not gouging -- you're going to spend time researching art, trying out different ideas, trying to make the inadequate low-res art they are likely to supply you work and so forth. Trust me.

In the case of the latter, again err on the side of being generous to yourself. And while most clients are wonderful to work with, some are a huge pain -- thus ALWAYS the insistence that any addition work (including extra revisions!) not covered by the original quote is billed at [a rate designed to provide a strong DISincentive for them to abuse the terms of the quote].

Hope that helps.

Thanks chas_m! I really appreciate your info. Yeah I've been searching around and found some more dedicated graphic design forums for questions like these.

Yes, I charge by my hourly rate and estimate how many hours it will take me and draw a quote/flat rate from that. Yes indeed, I've factored in an underage charge of 10-15%. But I know I'm being a bit cautious and generous with amount of hours it will take me. Like I've charged for designer-to-client interfacing (back and forth emails and phone calls) and I've only charged 1.5 hrs. for 3 months... I'm thinking that I'm going to regret that if I don't change it to like at least 3 hours or more, which I probably will do.

I'm going to use this one for a learning experience and track every second of time to help out with future quotes that I do. I've worked with this client for 2 years but this is the first large-scale campaign that I've done for them so it's all new to me.

But thanks again for replying chas_m, it really did help me to think some things over. Much appreciated!

JoyCreative · Jun 4, 2012

paul_77 said:
Hi,
I'm a graphic designer with 20+ years experience and currently working primarily for a non-profit.

This is a very basic outline of how I work:
Once you've submitted your quote and it's been accepted (btw your quote should describe exactly what it is you are supplying to your client and for what price). You should also write a creative brief (ensure you allow for this in your quote. I usually allow about 2 hours).

(Google 'graphic design creative brief template')

Write a first draft of brief.
Email it to client for feed back.
Send a second draft and get them to email that they agree to the terms of the brief as well as your quote.
.

A typical creative brief includes (but is not limited to) the following information:
Project description
Current situation
Target audience (primary and secondary)
Tone and manner /look and feel
Communication task - the message
Marketing objective
Mandatories (e.g. logos, web address, colour scheme, phone number, email address etc)
Media
Budget
Timing, schedule and deadlines
Who's responsible for what and by when?

here's a few links

10 tips for writing graphic design briefs | David Airey, graphic designer

David Airey, graphic designer

hope this helps

Paul

Thanks for this Paul! As I was finalizing the quote I checked back here and saw your reply and I'm so glad I did! I factored in the creative brief. I would've never known. Thank you so much for that information. I just sent the quote off to the client so hopefully everything goes well! Thanks again for everything!

Advice for writing a project quote

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