Standard Commissioning Rates

[Abraham Lee]

So, I've done a fair bit of commissioned font work for others of various kinds, but whenever I had to give a quote for the work, I've always just thrown some numbers together that seemed reasonable and ran with it. The only thing is, I have a hard time knowing when an amount is too high to suggest. I've collected a handful of articles that talk about this in very general terms, but they all leave out specifics. I realize there are a lot of factors (including reputation), but I'm just curious if anyone would be willing to share any examples of commissioned work they've done and some general details about the work itself (number of glyphs/fonts created, time taken to do it, rough values of earnings, etc.). Anyone willing to share? Or, is there a "union" reference document that freelance typographers can go by? Anything is helpful. Thanks!

[oobimichael]

Hi Abraham... the following is a VERY unorthodox possibility: I am a moral philosopher & economist, and have counseled various corporations and governments over the years. On the corporate side, I have evolved to asking both the client and myself what exactly is the problem/opportunity, and what would be the DEMONSTRABLE impact of my contribution. Would sales/profit increase by 10%? Or 5%? If you see where I am going with this, then I as the consultant should NOT get paid unless and until there is a result from my input that can be quantified. And from that quantified result, then, I should get a percentage as my renumeration. The value chain is then collaborative and interdependent, rather than simply a contract of "hourly rent"... There is a much more complex philosophy at work here, and I won't bore you with that... but for the past several years, I have been studying the economics of typography. This too, is complex... for there are multiple variations and variables. On one hand, many font designers understand their designs as works of art (which they are). But they also perform a formal task of communication... and each design communicates with a different "voice". If a client somehow feels that it requires a new "voice" to communicate something, then what exactly will be the result of communicating via this new voice? Will this new voice attract 'x' number of new customers/visitors? Will this new voice somehow create a "vibration" within the viewer that somehow triggers their "buying" desires? So, in short, if the opportunity presents itself, instead of asking how to value the amount of time or glyphs you put into designing a font, ask how your font will impact the client and its potential customers? Is there an economic value in that?

[George Thomas]

Check out this Quora post on the subject, which also contains at least one link to more information from some other professionals:

https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-it-cost-to-custom-design-a-typeface

[Abraham Lee]

Thank you both for your responses. I'll check out the Quora link asap, @George Thomas.

Those are great suggestions, @oobimichael. If it makes you feel any better and less unorthodox, that was basically my approach the first few times I did commissioned work, but the response was always something like "How about you send me a quote and I'll see if it fits my budget?" I found, at least in the music publishing industry, that most people don't have much of an idea of what kind of value the work would provide them. So, I usually end up doing some quick math and give them a ball-park range for both a time and cost estimate. I haven't had any problems with that so far and have had favorable responses. I usually offer multiple payment paths in case paying the full amount all at once is too hard. Anyway, thanks for sharing those great tips. I think they are perfectly valid and useful.

[Abraham Lee]

Thank you, @George Thomas, for the Quora link. The suggestions there are excellent and give my a much better direction in understanding how I should go about pricing my work in the future. I'll just summarize some of the key points here, in case anyone else is interested. Hopefully they can be a quick reference for posterity here on the forum:

(Stephen Coles, Co-founder of Fonts In Use & Typographica.org) Four core factors to discuss with the potential commissioner with will affect the price:

1. Design Complexity. Is this a modification of an existing typeface or a completely new one? Will there be alternate glyphs or special OpenType programming? Will it be used on screen or just in print?
2. Language Support. For the Western world, a base price starts for Basic Latin (Western European languages), increases a bit for Extended Latin (Central/Eastern Europe), and increases much more for other alphabets and writing systems like Cyrillic (Russian), Greek, Arabic, and Indic/Asian languages.
3. Family Size. Is it just a "Regular" style, or also Italic? How many weights (Extra Light to Extra Bold) and widths (Condensed to Extended)? Are you interested in separate family members designed for specific sizes (body text versus large headlines)?
4. Licensing. The period of exclusivity can affect the cost. If the project will result in a versatile, marketable typeface, the type designer will be keen to have the rights to sell it on the retail market.

(Thomas Phinney, Typographer and Type Designer, President of FontLab) Here are some rough guidelines based on his own experience:

• For a big name like Hoefler, with complete exclusivity, a moderately full-featured typeface of four styles will probably cost around $75K-$150K. This assumes no horribly extensive OpenType features, maybe basic ligatures and oldstyle figures, maybe small caps. Usually covers Western+CE character set.
• For the same thing, but done by a decently established (but not super famous) designer, the figure is more like $25K-$50K. Bruno Maag of Dalton Maag, wrote "IMO, I think that a price of around US$ 20-25K per weight is appropriate for a Western European glyph set (ANSII), giving the client three years exclusivity. If they want to own the rights, double the price." So, with exclusivity, the price jumps to $40,000-$50,000. Add CE coverage, but no small caps, that "suggested price" probably goes to $50-60K.
• For a designer early in their career, or based in a developing country, or if lower quality work is expected, they can probably go with $5K-15K per font style.

(Jan Middendorp, Editor and consultant for MyFonts; author of Dutch Type, etc.) Some general thoughts:

• Design for a specific purpose since it will give you direction and constraints.
• Clients may want exclusivity for 3, 5 or 10 years--and then give back the rights to the designer--or perhaps not at all. Quite a few well-known retail fonts started as custom fonts for a client.
• If the client is of special interest to the type designer, he or she may even decide to work for free or for a symbolic fee, as the collaboration will help them make a better typeface faster, and a non-exclusivity deal will allow them to start making money in the retail market right away. This is more the exception than the rule since type design is hard, specialized work involving hundreds of hours per font.

(Andy Mangold, type designer) Some big factors to consider when pricing out a project:

• The design and intended use of the typeface itself, including language support, hinting for on-screen display, number of weights and styles, OpenType features, etc.
• Exclusivity rights (if you are able to resell the typeface immediately or after a period of exclusivity)
• The experience of the designer
• For a full featured typeface with multiple weights/styles from a professional designer, you're probably looking at tens of thousands of dollars, more for exclusivity.

[Abraham Lee]

I'm still curious if anyone out there is willing to share some general details of work they've done in the past.

[Riccardo Sartori]

10 hours ago, oobimichael said:

the DEMONSTRABLE impact of my contribution

10 hours ago, oobimichael said:

how your font will impact the client and its potential customers

Several interesting points here. I would argue, though, that typefaces are mostly tools, and that the impact would be really measured by how well those tools will be used.

Since even the best tool cannot guarantee a good execution by itself, and that, more often than not, said execution is in the hands of someone other than the type designer, it would be difficult to demonstrate the added value and to directly link the price to it.

[Abraham Lee]

1 hour ago, Riccardo Sartori said:

Since even the best tool cannot guarantee a good execution by itself, and that, more often than not, said execution is in the hands of someone other than the type designer, it would be difficult to demonstrate the added value and to directly link the price to it.

I think this is precisely why my clients simply asked me to give them a quote, because they struggled to do this very thing. Unless you are actively involved in the marketing and implementation and customer service and market research, etc., this is a very tricky thing to do because the data simply doesn't exist most of the time and if you have empirical data, there's hardly enough to draw definitive conclusions from. I suppose as long as you can get an estimate (or even a range) with some supporting claims for the value(s) to propose to the client, then they can make the judgment call.