How much might it cost?

The million dollar question (well not really unless you’re approaching one of the huge global branding firms with Creative Directors earning super-salaries) for anyone commissioning a piece of design is “How much?”. Without wanting to dodge the issue or avoid the question, it is actually quite hard to say as every project has its unique problems to solve. You can’t compare designing an identity suite with building a website, because it’s like comparing apples to pears – or as a friend in the industry likes to say, it’s like comparing apples with bridges — they’re just not similar enough.

For example your business may already have a clearly defined brand and marketing strategy in place, you might have years of web analytics to pour over, you might have an established visual identity (brand) that requires careful translation for an exhibition stand. But then again, you might have none of that and be needing to start from scratch. So to try and help you get an idea of what our services might cost, here’s a rough idea of what we might charge.

So, you’ve got a website already and you want a new one. Your old site was a “static” site, meaning to add a new page or change text you had to call your old web designer. You’ve got several years of Google Analytics (because they were free to add) and you’ve been using Twitter for a couple of years and have a bit of a following, plus a loyal customer base. What we might prescribe for you is to move you onto a basic free Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress, then we’d pour over your old user data, review the content (text) of your site and get an SEO expert to give us a report on your market and competitors. We’ll then look at your brand, how developed or established it is and talk to you about what you want to get out of the website – it’s usually more sales or leads, but it might not be!

Our suggestions will cost from £5,000 to implement a basic WordPress site with a brand new design and content re-writing (this is something we outsource and could push the costs up), this includes getting it installed on your servers (or our servers if you need/want) and ensuring a smooth transition between the old and new. If you need an e-commerce solution, which might require product photography (another outsourced cost) the general cost is from £10,000. Beyond this level, when your needs become more bespoke, and can’t be met with free off-the-shelf software the price will jump considerably. An example of this is a bespoke site we produced for a small team in Barclays Wealth that was in excess of £30,000, but that was still cheaper than the site it replaced – and it did a heck of a lot more for them, including a bespoke CMS to meet their needs.

When it comes to brand frameworks and wider strategy involved in your business’s marketing and business plans the costs are slightly harder to quantify, however from experience a basic brand framework process needn’t cost more than £2,000. This can then lead onto asking us to develop the designs for your project, product or business, but equally can serve as a document for any designer/agency to progress your needs – naturally we’re hopeful you’ll ask us to continue our work for you.

Hopefully the above figures give you a rough idea of how much a design project could cost your business. We’re well aware you can go to 99designs.com and buy something on the uber-cheap but you generally will get what you pay for. If you value your company and its long-term success it might be worth considering spending more – but not too much more – getting an experienced branding, design and digital consultancy to help you ensure you get the most out of your business.

* PS: All our costs are subject to VAT.