How to Price Brand Design Services: A Guide for Freelance Brand Designers
When I started freelancing, figuring out what to charge was easily one of the hardest parts. You can Google “how much should I charge for brand design?” all day long and somehow walk away with even more questions. Should you charge hourly? Create packages? Base your pricing on experience? What is everyone else charging? And how are you supposed to know when you’re ready to raise your rates?
After 4+ years of working as a brand designer and running my own studio, I’ve learned that there isn’t one magic number you’re supposed to charge. But I have gotten much better at understanding what actually goes into pricing a brand design project, and why a logo suite that might take you 20 hours to physically design can still be a $4,000+ project.
So, let’s talk numbers.
First: hourly vs. project-based pricing
I use project-based pricing for the majority of my brand design work. I do have an hourly rate of $100/hour that I use for certain projects or additional work outside of an established scope, but I prefer giving clients a flat project investment whenever possible.
Why?
Because a client isn’t really hiring me for 30 hours of my time. They’re hiring me for my experience, creative direction, strategy, design process, communication, revisions, and ultimately, the finished brand identity. The faster and more experienced I become, the less sense it makes to tie the value of my work exclusively to how long it takes me to complete it.
Project pricing also gives the client clarity from the beginning. They know exactly what they’re investing before we start rather than watching an hourly meter run.
Here’s what I actually charge for brand design projects
For some real-world context, my brand identity packages have generally fallen within the $2,800–$5,800 range, depending on the scope. A smaller $2,800 project might include a streamlined strategy process and the essential pieces of a visual identity. A $4,000+ project can include a more developed identity system, while my larger brand packages around $5,800 include a much more comprehensive scope.
And when a client needs both branding and a website, that investment can quickly move into the $7,000+ range depending on the website scope. The important distinction is that I’m not arbitrarily deciding one client gets a $2,800 logo and another gets a $5,800 logo.
The scope changes.
Here’s what actually goes into my brand design pricing
This is where I think newer freelance designers tend to underestimate their work. It is really easy to think, “this logo will probably take me 10 hours. At $100/hour, I should charge $1,000.”
But the logo is only one piece of the project. When I price brand design services, I’m accounting for things like:
Strategy and research: reviewing questionnaires, researching competitors, understanding the audience, developing positioning, and determining where the brand should go creatively.
Creative direction: moodboards, visual references, concept development, and establishing the overall look and feel before I start designing.
The actual design work: logo concepts, secondary logos, brand marks, color, typography, illustrations, patterns, or other supporting elements depending on the scope.
Presentations: I don’t just email a client three logos on a white background. A huge part of my process is presenting the work, explaining my decisions, and showing how everything functions together.
Revisions: I build a defined number of revision rounds into the project price from the beginning.
Communication and project management: emails, Slack messages, meetings, feedback, file organization, invoicing, scheduling-it all takes time.
Final file preparation and offboarding: exporting every file type, organizing folders, creating guidelines, and making sure the client actually knows how to use their new brand.
None of those things individually sound huge. Together, they are the project.
How I think about pricing different scopes
One thing I would encourage other brand designers to move away from is pricing based purely on the number of deliverables. Yes, scope matters. A project with a primary logo and color palette should cost less than one with a complete identity system, strategy, packaging, and website.
But I don’t think pricing should become:
Primary logo = $500
Secondary logo = $250
Color palette = $100
That starts treating creative work like ordering à la carte at a restaurant. Instead, I think about the entire process required to successfully complete the project.
How much strategy does this require? How many concepts am I developing? How complex is the identity? How many applications am I designing? How much client communication will be involved? How many weeks am I reserving on my calendar? Those questions give me a much better picture of what a project should cost.
When should you raise your brand design rates?
There was never a moment when someone handed me a certificate saying, “Congratulations, you may now charge $4,000.” Unfortunately.
For me, raising my rates has happened gradually as my experience, portfolio, process, and demand have grown. If you’re consistently booking projects at your current rate, your process is becoming more efficient, your work is getting stronger, and you have a portfolio that supports the type of client you want to attract, it might be time to test a higher price.
And I really do mean test. You don’t have to double your prices overnight. Raise a package from $2,500 to $2,800. Send a few proposals. See what happens.
Pricing a creative service is something you refine as your business grows.
If you want to book $3K–$7K+ brand design projects…
My biggest advice is to look beyond the design itself. Higher project rates need to be supported by the experience surrounding the work.
Is your inquiry process clear? Does your portfolio show the caliber of work you’re selling? Does your proposal communicate the business goal behind the project? Do you have a defined process? Are your deliverables and revision boundaries clear? Does the client understand what happens after they pay you?
When someone is considering spending several thousand dollars with you, all of those details matter. Your pricing and your client experience should grow together.
Remember: there is no perfect brand design project price
I wish there were a calculator where you could enter your years of experience, number of Instagram followers, and Adobe subscription cost and receive your Official Freelance Designer Rate.
There isn’t.
Your brand design pricing will depend on your experience, market, positioning, scope, demand, business expenses, and the type of clients you work with. But I would encourage you not to base your rates solely on how quickly you can physically create the deliverables.
Your clients are paying for everything that got you to the point where you can create strong work efficiently: your experience, ideas, strategy, process, communication, creative judgment, and ability to guide a project from an initial idea to a finished brand.
The design is the deliverable. The value is everything that goes into getting there.
