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Design

Benjamin Tortorelli
Benjamin Tortorelli
5,401 Points
Posted by Benjamin Tortorelli
Benjamin Tortorelli
5,401 Points

What would be a good (and fair) hourly rate?

Hello guys,

I am a French self-taught designer (https://dribbble.com/Handkraft) and joined Treehouse few months ago as I really wanted to learn how to code my designs.

I got contacted by a company in New-York and they would like me to re-design the layout of their Android app (the app got around 273,915 downloads).

To be honnest, I have never designed apps for Android (only for IOS) and have spent the last hours on the Android's website to get familiar with their design guidelines. I believe this is something I can do.

So this leads me to the following question: what would be a fair and good hourly rate for such a project? They asked me this question but I have no idea what my answer should be.

Could I get some insights / tips from other professional designers?

Thank you guys! Love being part of this community.

4 Answers

Dustin Matlock
Dustin Matlock
33,856 Points

Hi Benjamin, I'm going to recommend two courses: How to Run a Web Design Business and How to Freelance. There is a section from each course on pricing and proposals.

Benjamin Tortorelli
Benjamin Tortorelli
5,401 Points
Benjamin Tortorelli
Benjamin Tortorelli
5,401 Points

Thanks Dustin! I'll make sure to watch these courses before replying to this (potential) customer.

Garrett Sanderson
Garrett Sanderson
12,735 Points
Garrett Sanderson
Garrett Sanderson
12,735 Points

Hi Benjamin,

When it comes to negotiating payment terms, always shoot high so if you they drop the price on you, you may still be higher than your goal. For instance say your goal $75/hr, tell them you will do it for $125/hr and if they drop too $100/hr then you are $25 higher than your goal.

That being said, I have seen you portfolio, you can obviously do the work for iOS.

What have you charged clients in the past?

Also, you want to think about how much time a project like this might take you.

Evaluate your skills and what you think your personal value is. (per hour)

DON'T UNDER SELL YOURSELF!

Benjamin Tortorelli
Benjamin Tortorelli
5,401 Points
Benjamin Tortorelli
Benjamin Tortorelli
5,401 Points

Definitely some great advice in your comment Garrett. Thanks a lot for the tips. I am also having a look at ODesk to see what other freelance designers are charging.

Marcus H
Marcus H
4,267 Points
Marcus H
Marcus H
4,267 Points

Well I charge $20/hr and I've just seen the quality of your work and your in a whole different league so I'm guessing $80/hr and upwards. Add 50% to your usual rate and negotiate from there, they sought you out and are obviously eager to work with you and I'm sure they'll be willing to pay a premium for your services.

Oh and you have a new follower on Dribbble.

P.S Any advice for a newbie designer on how to improve and up my game?

Benjamin Tortorelli
Benjamin Tortorelli
5,401 Points
Benjamin Tortorelli
Benjamin Tortorelli
5,401 Points

Thanks a lot Marcus. I followed your advice as well as the ones from Garrett and Dustin. I asked for $100 / hour (but I mentioned it can be negotiable depending on their project and the pre-work they have already done (flow chart, wireframing...).

Now let's see how it will work out :)

And thanks a lot for following me on Dribbble!

Advice:

Technically, web design isn't something really difficult in terms of skills as you're only using "shapes" (e.g.: rectangles for the nav and rows, boxes for services...), colors, typography and effects (gradient, shadows, stroke...). This can be learned really fast thanks to all the great tutorials available online.

What is more difficult (and this is where the real challenge is), is to have a clean / modern "vision" of what a good design is (and how to combine all the different elements above). This can't be obtained by only working on your designs or doing basic tutorials. This is why I usually spend 1 or 2 hours a day to check what other really good / famous designers (working for big companies) have done through Dribbble, Behance and other design websites. This allows me to get new ideas, find more inspiration and develop / clean my vision of design. When I find a design I really like (from another designer) I try to re-create it and see if I am capable of doing it. The more I do this, the more skills I get. I also created and “Inspiration” folder where I save all the best designs I can find online :) So this is my advice for you. Spend time checking what other good designers have done and find out the reason why they decided to create their designs that way (there is always a reason). Share your work and get feedback from other designers!

If you use Photoshop, you might be interested in this free plugin: http://dandkagency.com/extensions/velositey I haven’t tried it but people are saying it is great and really help them to speed up their web design process ;)

Marcus H
Marcus H
4,267 Points
Marcus H
Marcus H
4,267 Points

Let's hope you get the $100/hr you asked for. Keep us updated with how it goes.

Thanks for the advice I really appreciate it. I look at Dribbble sometimes but definitely not as long as you do. I think I'll try and spend a bit more time studying the designs I really like maybe ask the designer some questions too about what inspired them to design the piece in such a way. Also your idea of recreating the designs I like is a brilliant idea because they say you learn most by doing rather than just looking. I think I have the basics down but am lacking in finesse and a certain je ne sais quoi.

I use sketch and I believe it is able to recreate most things Photoshop can do if not I have Pixelmator.

Benjamin Tortorelli
Benjamin Tortorelli
5,401 Points
Benjamin Tortorelli
Benjamin Tortorelli
5,401 Points

Sketch definitely seems to be a great tool. I wanted to give it a go but the software is (unfortunately) only available for mac :(

I created an "Assets" folder where I stock all the free / premium design resources I manage to find online (such as UI kits, mockups, photos (you can use unsplash.com for free high resolution photos), icons...).

Yeah, re-creating designs from talented designers is awesome. And you can truly learn by trying to re-create the same effects they used on buttons, boxes, hover...