How we price an identity project

The question comes up early in every first meeting, and it is a fair one: what does an identity cost. We answer it by first explaining how we calculate, because a price without a method cannot be discussed, only endured.

We do not sell deliverables

An itemised quote, so much for the logo, so much for the guidelines, so much for the business cards, gives the illusion of transparency. What it mostly produces is two perverse effects. The client arbitrates between objects whose difficulty they cannot judge, and the studio is rewarded for producing a lot rather than producing the right thing.

So we price phases, each with an objective and a decision to come out of it. A phase ends when the decision is made, not when a file is delivered.

The four variables

The reach of the system. A brand that lives on a website and two documents is not the same work as a brand carried across a vehicle fleet, in-store signage and a digital product. We list the surfaces with the client, and that list is attached to the quote. Any surface added after signature becomes a change order, which we announce at the first meeting rather than discovering halfway through.

The number of decision-makers. This is the most underestimated variable. A single founder decides in one meeting. A committee of five people from three departments decides in three meetings, with a round trip between each. We price the number of approval cycles, not the assumed complexity of the company.

The state of the existing material. A company with usable photography, written positioning and ordered archives saves us several days. A company whose assets are scattered across three people's inboxes costs us the same. The initial audit exists to measure that too.

How demanding the rights are. A custom typeface, commissioned photography, an original illustration: these line items can exceed the design fee itself. We present them separately, as client budget, never folded into our price.

The shape of the quote

Three lines, always the same ones.

1. Framing. The three-day audit and its presentation. Fixed price, identical for every client, whatever follows. It is the only phase we agree to sell on its own.

2. Design. The territory, the system and the applications in scope. Priced in days, with the number of approval cycles written down in black and white.

3. Rollout. The documentation, the support for internal teams and the first six months of assistance. This line is usually the first one a client tries to cut, and it is the one whose removal costs the most two years later.

We add a contingency of ten to fifteen per cent, announced as such. It is not invoiced if it is not used, and we justify it line by line at the end of the project.

What we do not do

We do not enter competitions and we do not present free concepts. A direction drawn without an audit is a guess in the air, and judging it on appearance alone teaches the client to choose badly.

We do not discount by volume of applications. The tenth surface is not easier than the first: it is simply less visible, which is a reason to treat it carefully, not to sell it cheap.

Finally, we turn down projects whose budget would cover the design but not the rollout. An identity that goes unsupported through its first year is back where it started within eighteen months. We have watched that happen often enough to make it a selection criterion.

An order of magnitude

For a company of twenty to a hundred people, with a single decision-maker and a standard digital and print scope, a full project sits between thirty-five and sixty thousand euros, spread over four to five months. That figure moves sharply with the four variables above, which is exactly why we prefer to explain the calculation rather than publish a rate.