Nov 26, 2025
Rate Cards & Pricing Templates for Design Agencies
Pricing creative work is hard. This comprehensive guide provides rate card templates, pricing strategies, real examples, and proven formulas for design agencies to price profitably and win clients consistently.
The Pricing Challenge
Every design agency faces this:
Client: "How much for a logo?" You: "Uh... it depends... maybe $3,000?" Client: "That seems expensive. Competitor quoted $800." You: Panic "I can do $1,500?"
Result: Under-priced project, unprofitable work, regret.
The Problem:
❌ No clear pricing structure
❌ Make up prices on the spot
❌ Vary wildly between clients
❌ Compete only on price
❌ Leave money on the table
❌ Can't defend your pricing
The Solution: Rate Cards
A rate card establishes:
- ✓ Clear pricing for services
- ✓ Consistency across clients
- ✓ Confidence in quotes
- ✓ Value-based positioning
- ✓ Professional presentation
- ✓ Foundation for negotiations
This guide shows you how to create one.
What is a Design Rate Card?
Definition
A rate card is a document listing your design services and their prices.
Simple example:
DESIGN SERVICES RATE CARD
─────────────────────────────────────
Logo Design $3,500
Business Card Design $800
Website Design (5 pages) $6,500
Brand Identity Package $12,000
More sophisticated rate card includes:
- Service descriptions
- What's included
- Timeline estimates
- Package options
- Terms and conditions
- Add-on pricing
Types of Rate Cards
1. Hourly Rate Card
Senior Designer $175/hour
Mid-Level Designer $135/hour
Junior Designer $95/hour
Creative Director $225/hour
2. Fixed Project Rate Card
Logo Design $2,500-5,000
Website Homepage $3,000-8,000
Brand Guidelines $4,000-10,000
3. Package Rate Card
Starter Package $5,000
Professional Package $12,000
Enterprise Package $25,000
4. Hybrid Rate Card
Logo Design Package $3,500 (includes X hours)
Additional Hours $150/hour
Rush Delivery +30%
How to Calculate Your Rates
Step 1: Know Your Costs
Calculate your true hourly cost:
Annual Designer Salary: $75,000
Payroll Taxes & Benefits: $18,750 (25%)
Total Compensation: $93,750
Annual Overhead Allocation:
- Office/rent: $9,000
- Software/tools: $3,600
- Marketing: $6,000
- Insurance: $2,400
- Misc admin: $3,000
Total Overhead: $24,000
Total Annual Cost: $117,750
Billable Hours:
- Total work hours: 2,080 (52 weeks × 40 hrs)
- Utilization target: 75%
- Billable hours: 1,560
Cost per Billable Hour: $117,750 ÷ 1,560 = $75.48/hour
This is your BREAK-EVEN rate.
Step 2: Add Profit Margin
Industry-standard profit margins:
Small agency (1-5 people): 30-40% margin
Boutique agency (6-15 people): 25-35% margin
Established agency (15+): 20-30% margin
Your target: 35% profit margin
Break-even rate: $75.48/hour
Profit margin: 35%
Required rate: $75.48 ÷ (1 - 0.35) = $116.12/hour
Round to: $125/hour minimum billing rate
Step 3: Consider Market Positioning
Adjust for positioning:
Entry/Budget: $75-100/hour
Mid-Market: $125-175/hour
Premium: $200-300/hour
Luxury/Elite: $350-500/hour
Choose based on:
- Your experience level
- Client segment target
- Geographic market
- Portfolio quality
- Unique specialization
Step 4: Project Pricing Formula
Convert hourly to project pricing:
Logo Design Project:
────────────────────────────────────
Estimated Hours:
- Discovery & research: 2 hrs
- Initial concepts (3): 8 hrs
- Refinement: 4 hrs
- Revisions (2 rounds): 4 hrs
- Final files: 2 hrs
Total estimated hours: 20 hrs
Hourly rate: $150/hour
Base price: 20 × $150 = $3,000
Risk buffer (20%): +$600
Final price: $3,600
Rounded: $3,500 or $4,000
This becomes your "Logo Design" rate card price.
Design Rate Card Template
Template 1: Service Menu Style
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[YOUR AGENCY NAME] DESIGN SERVICES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
LOGO DESIGN $3,500
Create a unique, professional logo with 3 initial
concepts, 2 revision rounds, and all file formats.
Timeline: 2-3 weeks
BUSINESS CARD DESIGN $800
Design front and back of business cards matching
your brand. Includes print-ready files.
Timeline: 1 week
LETTERHEAD & STATIONERY $1,200
Complete stationery suite: letterhead, envelope,
and email signature design.
Timeline: 1-2 weeks
WEBSITE DESIGN (5 pages) $6,500
Custom website design for homepage + 4 inner pages.
Includes desktop and mobile layouts.
Timeline: 4-6 weeks
BRAND IDENTITY PACKAGE $12,000
Complete brand system: logo, colors, typography,
brand guidelines, business cards, letterhead.
Timeline: 6-8 weeks
SOCIAL MEDIA TEMPLATE KIT $2,500
20 customizable templates for Instagram, Facebook,
LinkedIn posts and stories.
Timeline: 2 weeks
EMAIL MARKETING TEMPLATES $3,000
5 responsive email templates for newsletters,
promotions, and announcements.
Timeline: 2-3 weeks
PRESENTATION DESIGN (per deck) $2,000
Custom presentation design up to 20 slides with
your branding and data visualization.
Timeline: 1-2 weeks
PRINT COLLATERAL (per piece) $1,500+
Brochures, flyers, posters, and other print materials.
Pricing varies by complexity.
Timeline: 2-3 weeks
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ADD-ONS
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Additional Revision Rounds $500/round
Rush Delivery (50% faster) +30% project cost
Source File Ownership +$500
Brand Strategy Session (2 hours) $800
Additional Design Variations $300 each
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PAYMENT TERMS
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50% deposit due upon project start
50% balance due upon final delivery
Major projects may be split into milestone payments
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Template 2: Tiered Package Style
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
BRAND IDENTITY PACKAGES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ STARTER BRAND $5,000 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Perfect for: Startups & small businesses │
│ Timeline: 3-4 weeks │
│ │
│ Includes: │
│ ✓ Logo design (2 concepts, 1 revision) │
│ ✓ 2 brand colors │
│ ✓ 1 typography pairing │
│ ✓ Business card design │
│ ✓ Basic brand guidelines (8 pages) │
│ ✓ All digital file formats │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ PROFESSIONAL BRAND $12,000 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Perfect for: Growing companies │
│ Timeline: 6-8 weeks │
│ │
│ Everything in Starter, plus: │
│ ✓ Logo design (3 concepts, 2 revisions) │
│ ✓ Full color palette (primary + secondary) │
│ ✓ Complete typography system │
│ ✓ Letterhead & envelope design │
│ ✓ Email signature templates │
│ ✓ Social media profile images │
│ ✓ Comprehensive brand guidelines (25 pages) │
│ ✓ Brand strategy session │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ENTERPRISE BRAND $25,000 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Perfect for: Established businesses │
│ Timeline: 10-12 weeks │
│ │
│ Everything in Professional, plus: │
│ ✓ Extensive brand research & strategy │
│ ✓ Complete visual identity system │
│ ✓ Icon library & illustrations │
│ ✓ Photography art direction │
│ ✓ Website design (up to 10 pages) │
│ ✓ Marketing collateral templates (10+) │
│ ✓ Comprehensive brand guidelines (50+ pages)│
│ ✓ Brand rollout support (3 months) │
│ ✓ Team training & workshops │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Real-World Pricing Examples
Logo Design Pricing
FREELANCE DESIGNER (1-2 years experience):
$500-1,500
- 2 concepts
- 1 revision round
- Basic files
- 1-2 weeks
BOUTIQUE STUDIO (5+ years experience):
$2,500-5,000
- 3 concepts
- 2 revision rounds
- All file formats
- Brand consultation
- 3-4 weeks
ESTABLISHED AGENCY (10+ years):
$5,000-15,000
- Strategic research
- Multiple concepts
- Extensive refinement
- Complete file package
- Brand positioning
- 6-8 weeks
PREMIUM/CELEBRITY DESIGNER:
$25,000-100,000+
- Exclusive positioning
- Multiple concepts
- Unlimited refinement
- IP transfer
- Personal involvement
- Strategic partnership
Website Design Pricing
BASIC PORTFOLIO/BROCHURE (5 pages):
$3,000-6,000
- Simple layout
- Template-based
- Basic responsiveness
- 2-3 weeks
CUSTOM BUSINESS SITE (10 pages):
$8,000-15,000
- Custom design
- Full responsive
- Content strategy
- 6-8 weeks
COMPLEX WEB APPLICATION:
$20,000-50,000+
- Complex interactions
- Custom functionality
- User experience design
- Extensive testing
- 10-16 weeks
Branding Project Pricing
BRAND REFRESH:
$5,000-10,000
- Logo refinement
- Updated colors/fonts
- Refreshed guidelines
- 4-5 weeks
FULL REBRAND:
$15,000-30,000
- Complete new identity
- Strategy & positioning
- All brand assets
- Comprehensive guidelines
- 8-12 weeks
ENTERPRISE REBRAND:
$50,000-250,000+
- Market research
- Complete identity system
- Global rollout
- Change management
- 6-12 months
How to Present Your Rate Card
When to Share
✓ DO share rate card when:
- Prospect asks about pricing
- After initial qualification call
- In proposal documents
- On "Services" page of website (optional)
❌ DON'T share rate card:
- Before any conversation
- To unqualified leads
- Without context
- As first touchpoint
How to Frame It
Email Template:
Subject: [Company Name] Design Services & Pricing
Hi [Name],
Thanks for your interest in working with us! I'm excited about
the possibility of helping with your [project type].
Attached is our current rate card showing our services and pricing.
A few notes:
1. These are starting prices - exact quotes depend on scope and
complexity. I'm happy to provide a detailed estimate for your
specific project.
2. We offer package discounts when bundling multiple services.
3. All projects include [X revision rounds, Y timeline, Z deliverables].
Based on our conversation, I think [specific service] would be a
great fit. That typically runs $[range].
Would you like me to put together a detailed proposal?
Looking forward to working together!
[Your Name]
Negotiation Strategies
When prospect says "too expensive":
Response Framework:
1. Acknowledge
"I understand budget is always a consideration."
2. Explain Value
"The reason our pricing reflects the value of [specific benefits]:
[strategic positioning, years of experience, proven results]."
3. Offer Options
"If budget is tight right now, a few options:
- Start with [smaller package] for $[lower price]
- Break into phases (logo now, website later)
- Adjust scope to fit budget"
4. Qualify
"What budget range were you thinking?"
5. Be Willing to Walk Away
"If our services aren't in range, I'm happy to recommend
[other designer] who works in a lower price bracket."
Never:
- Immediately discount without understanding
- Apologize for pricing
- Compare yourself to cheaper options
- Undervalue your work
Monthly Retainer Rate Cards
Retainer Pricing Model
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MONTHLY DESIGN RETAINER PACKAGES
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LIGHT RETAINER $2,500/month
10 hours of design support per month
- Social media graphics
- Email templates
- Minor updates
- Ad hoc design needs
STANDARD RETAINER $5,000/month
20 hours of design support per month
- Marketing materials
- Regular content creation
- Brand management
- Priority support
FULL-SERVICE RETAINER $10,000/month
40 hours of design support per month
- Comprehensive design needs
- Strategic consultation
- Dedicated designer
- Same-day turnaround
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
RETAINER BENEFITS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✓ 15% savings vs. hourly rates
✓ Priority scheduling
✓ Faster turnaround times
✓ Consistent monthly billing
✓ Unused hours roll over (up to 5 hours)
✓ No per-project contracts needed
Minimum commitment: 3 months
Cancel anytime after initial term
Learn more: Design Retainer Management Guide
Invoicing Best Practices
Using Rate Cards in Invoicing
Link pricing to rate card:
INVOICE #2025-1234
November 20, 2025
Brand Identity Package $12,000.00
(Per Design Services Rate Card, Professional Package)
Includes:
✓ Logo design (3 concepts, 2 revisions)
✓ Brand color system
✓ Typography selection
✓ Business cards & letterhead
✓ Brand guidelines (25 pages)
Payment Terms: Net 15
For hourly projects:
INVOICE #2025-1235
November 20, 2025
Design Services - November 2025
Senior Designer: 15 hours @ $175/hour $2,625.00
Mid-Level Designer: 8 hours @ $135/hour $1,080.00
───────────
Subtotal $3,705.00
Track time and generate invoices seamlessly with Corcava's invoicing.
Common Pricing Mistakes to Avoid
Mistake 1: Pricing Too Low
The Problem:
"I'll charge $800 for this logo to win the client"
Reality:
- Takes 20 hours (not estimated 8)
- Effective rate: $40/hour
- Can't sustain business
- Attracts price-shoppers
The Fix: Price for profit. It's better to lose a cheap client than win an unprofitable project.
Mistake 2: No Revision Limits
The Problem:
"Unlimited revisions!" (sounds generous)
Reality:
- Client requests 8 revision rounds
- Scope never ends
- You work for free
The Fix:
Include 2 revision rounds.
Additional rounds: $500 each.
Define revision vs. new direction.
Mistake 3: Giving Estimates Instead of Quotes
The Problem:
"About $3,000, give or take"
Client interprets as: Maximum $3,000
You meant: Could be $2,500-4,000
The Fix: Give clear ranges or fixed quotes: "$3,000-4,000 depending on complexity" or "Fixed price: $3,500"
Mistake 4: Competing Only on Price
The Problem:
Prospect: "Competitor quoted $2,000"
You: "I'll do $1,800!"
Race to bottom
No profit margin
Can't sustain business
The Fix: Compete on value, not price: "I charge more because [specific benefits]. Here's the concrete impact on your project..."
Conclusion: Price with Confidence
Key Takeaways:
- Know your numbers - Calculate true costs and required margins
- Create rate card - Establish consistent, profitable pricing
- Package services - Offer clear options at different price points
- Defend your pricing - Explain value, don't apologize
- Be willing to walk away - Not every client is your client
- Track and adjust - Review profitability quarterly and adjust rates
Rate Card Templates Checklist:
☐ Calculate true hourly cost (salary + overhead)
☐ Add profit margin (30-40%)
☐ Research market rates for positioning
☐ Create service list with project estimates
☐ Design package tiers (starter, professional, enterprise)
☐ Define revision policies and add-on pricing
☐ Create professional rate card document
☐ Prepare client presentation strategy
☐ Set up invoicing to reference rate card
☐ Review and update quarterly
Ready to Price Your Design Services Profitably?
- ✓ Track time against project estimates
- ✓ Monitor project profitability in real-time
- ✓ Generate professional invoices
- ✓ Manage recurring retainer billing
- ✓ Analyze which services are most profitable
- ✓ Optimize your pricing over time
Price confidently. Grow profitably. Build sustainably.
Related guides: Billable vs non-billable design time, managing change requests, and design retainer management.