What is going rate for catalog design

January 13, 2006 10:34 PM

To all professional graphic designers - What is the going professional rate for designing a catalog.

My graphic design business was contracted to do a 32 page full color catalog for a longtime client. We shot the cover photo with a model we supplied and did all of the 50 product illustrations as well as about 10 other how-to illustrations. The job has been ongoing for about a year. We asked for $1200 six months into the project but haven't done any interim billing as we have had other projects.

We are good at what we do, have 20 years experience and have worked for reputable graphic design firms. We have successfully met all of our clients needs artistically and professionally and all have been pleased with the results.

I've had this client for about ten years and have worked with his company since it began as a startup. My fees were initially modest.

We are about to upgrade our fee structure and are unsure as to the ongoing rates for a job of this size .We have heard from other designers that the rates can be anywhere from $3200 to $10,000 for the whole catalog. We also want to charge a separate fee for the model (my graphic design partner) and are unsure of modeling fees.

Feedback, please?

posted by goalyeehah to work & money (6 comments total)

IIRC, The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines rates are $2500 for a 12-page catalog, and illustration is $70 an hour.

So for a plain colour 32-page catalog you're looking at about $6650 base, plus however much time you spent on the illustrations.
posted by Jairus at 10:44 PM on January 13, 2006

Photography is $100-150 per photo, I believe. So toss that on as well.
posted by Jairus at 10:45 PM on January 13, 2006

Yeah, just get the GAG book and go by that. Rates change depending on market ... but otherwise the GAG book is the only really good baseline out there.
posted by luriete at 12:20 AM on January 14, 2006

I always thought that discussing pricing was illegal in the USA?
posted by jedrek at 1:36 AM on January 14, 2006

God bless Canada.
posted by Jairus at 6:37 AM on January 14, 2006

I always thought that discussing pricing was illegal in the USA?

No, we United Statians talk about pricing. prices, quotes, etc . . . until we're blue in the face. People talk about competitor's prices, companies ask what their clients competitor made them an offer at to under cut it, everybody gets quotes from multiple sources and bargans for lower . . . Unless you have some kind of non-disclosure contract that would forbid you to talk about something like that. In which case, talking about pricing wouldn't be the illegal act; breaking the NDA would be.

(Unless you mean something else?)
posted by [insert clever name here] at 8:36 PM on January 14, 2006