How Much Should You Charge for Visiting Card Design?

With the rising interest in working from home, being the boss, and making ends meet with whatever skills are available, Graphic Design is like a siren call to artistic individuals. It feels like it can be a difficult industry to break into with so many people doing the same thing, but a good way to start is by offering things just as many people need. One of these is visiting card designs.

Always charge at least an expected hourly rate plus any material and/or production costs that goes into the visiting card design when determining a price.

Art is notorious for being undercharged across the board. It’s one of the most underappreciated, undercharged, and overworked fields. Part of this is due to the social perception that art is something done purely out of passion. That doesn’t mean that it’s okay to undercharge for a skilled service, and most people are happy to pay for quality work that supports a skilled artist. Keep reading for more information on how to go about pricing visiting card designs.

Average Graphic Designer Salary

When looking for a baseline for how much to charge for any sort of graphic design services, it’s a good idea to consider the average salaries of people doing similar jobs in similar positions. This helps to ensure a fair rate is being charged. Visiting card design falls under Graphic Design, as many digital art things do.

These are some average annual salaries for Graphic Designers:

LevelAnnual Salary (in USD)
Entry$32,000
Junior$53,000
Senior$77,000

However, not every designer out there is working at a design firm. Graphic Design is a wonderful option for those looking to work from home, build their own freelance business, or to just gain some extra experience and cash. A good baseline is to use an hourly rate plus any material cost that would go into the visiting card design and production.

Decide on Hourly Rates

The hourly rate for a Graphic Designer is between $15-$150 USD per hour, with the average sitting at $31.25 USD per hour. Many freelancers neglect to look up these averages and forget that their time is just as valuable as anyone else’s. Using this metric can help decide on what hourly rate to charge to ensure that it is fair.

Deciding on hourly rates can be done one of two ways. These ways are:

  1. Setting a blanket fee for how much time it usually takes to complete a design at the start
  2. Charging a fee at the end based on how much time it took to complete

Do know that most customers would rather go by something that is a definite flat rate over something that could be variable. However, if a client is getting too nitpicky and revisions are taking up anywhere close to as much time as it took to make the design in the first place, don’t hesitate to ask for additional compensation for the additional work. Don’t let aggressive clients get away with their behavior.

Be Sure to Include Any Material Costs

Visiting card designs can be given to clients just as a file that they have to print out themselves, in which case there will not be any real material costs involved. If any materials need to be used however, be sure to add these into the cost of the design or risk a loss in profit.

Here are some things that are suitable to add under material costs:

  • Printing services
  • Percentage of printing supplies
  • Shipping costs
  • Embellishments such as embossing, die cutting, specialty inks, paper upgrades, glitter, etc.

Somewhere in the listing, offer, or anything else, a simple “material cost” label is all that is needed. Shipping costs can be included in here too in order to advertise free shipping, since that has already been added into the cost. It also helps potential clients understand exactly how the price came to be which can help ease any concerns they may have over it.

Conclusion

Charging for services can be a nerve-wracking experience, especially when it comes to artistic endeavors. Art is notoriously undercharged, but that doesn’t mean in order to get ahead that prices need to be abysmal. It is a skill that should be treated and compensated as such. Look to the average costs and use those to help determine what is a suitable and fair price to charge, and don’t let clients try to get away with more than they are paying for.