How Much Should You Charge for Vehicle Wrap Design?

How Much Should You Charge for Vehicle Wrap Design?

Vehicle wraps are a great way for companies to advertise their business to their target demographic in a highly-populated area. They are also a great way to make disposable income while driving around town and running errands or making deliveries. If you’re a creator of vehicle wrap designs and work with one of these companies or an individual buyer, you may struggle with how much to charge.

Vehicle wrap designs can range from $250 for a partial wrap to $500 for a full wrap— that does not include the cost of materials or installation. However, the price can fluctuate depending on a few factors of the design and your level of experience as a designer.

If you design vehicle wraps, determining price is a delicate balance. You want to offer a competitive rate, but you don’t want to sell yourself short. Let’s look at the different factors that could affect the cost of a vehicle wrap design.

What Factors Affect the Price for Vehicle Wrap Design?

When determining pricing for your design, everything that affects the amount of time that would need to be dedicated to complete a design needs to be considered. Some of these factors might seem obvious, while others may come as a surprise, but you will know your bases are covered.

Here are the factors that affect the pricing of your vehicle wrap design:

  • Level of Experience and Expertise
  • The Complexity of the Design
  • The Size of the Vehicle and Wrap
  • The Body Type of the Vehicle

Let’s dive deeper into these topics to see how they affect pricing and why pricing may vary slightly from wrap to wrap.

Level of Experience and Expertise

The first element of pricing has to do with you as the designer. Naturally, experience and skill level play just as much of a part in setting the price as raw talent. In any industry, if you have a degree and years of experience working in the field under your belt, you can charge accordingly. Your credentials back up the guarantee of your work.

Suppose you are starting to design vehicle wraps and are still somewhat unfamiliar with the design programs you would need to utilize to create your designs. In that case, you may need to start on the lower end with pricing at least until you’ve gained more experience or become more familiar with your software.

The prices mentioned above were for professionals with experience in vehicle wrap designs. If you look at what freelance designers are charging, it can range from fees starting as low as $10 to the standard $270.

The Complexity of the Design

The complexity of the design can vary from person to person. An individual may want some simple lettering to go on their driver’s side door, or they could request a very intricate and detailed design. The more complex the design, the more hours dedicated to the design, and the price should reflect the time spent.

Determining price may mean you start with a base price, and you add on to it the more you talk to the buyer and get a better understanding of what they’re looking for in the design. Nailing down a design may also mean revisions if the buyer requests changes or additions, which must be accounted for in the final price.

The Size of the Vehicle and the Wrap

Naturally, the price will depend on the size of the vehicle and the size of the wrap. Designing for a Fiat that requested a partial wrap design will be priced differently from a shuttle bus that requested a full wrap.

Remember that these two elements must be in play simultaneously when determining price. You may have a small two-door vehicle, but if the client requests a full wrap, it may be more demanding than a large SUV that only desires a lite wrap that goes on the front driver and passenger doors.

The Body Type of the Vehicle

The vehicle’s body type may not be an aspect of the design process that would be an obvious consideration, but it will play a role in the person-hours you put into the design. The reason is that the flow of the design must match the flow of the vehicle body.

A vehicle with flat sides, like a box truck, is much easier to design for because the flow is straightforward and uninterrupted by rounded areas or curves. Other vehicles, like Chrysler PT Cruisers or Volkswagen Beetles with quite a few curves and rounded areas, will require more thought in the design to work around these elements and still create a seamless wrap.

Conclusion

Now that you know the most critical components to determine the price for your vehicle wrap designs and how much time and cost can fluctuate depending on these elements, you can start at a set base price and work your way up from there.