Website Design And Branding

[UrbanPoet]

Hi all, I'm in the process of getting a website together and need to know how much, on average, I should pay.

Basically I'm after two quotes; one for a bespoke e-commerce solution and one with an already existing solution.

Both need to come with branding - logo, letterhead, colour scheme.

So, how much for both?

Also, I know a few people on here do webdesign so if anyone wants to quote me a price/contact me for further details then that's fine.

Thanks,

Tom

[Callum Trialsin]

go on sitepoint.com (i think) and sign up and put a contest up. a mate of mine has been doing it on there for ages and hes so good now and workin for smeone in america.

[Dai the Socket]

It depends how big* the site is, how many logo variances you need (and for what purpose), time frame, what specification you want.

It really does depend on a lot of things. No-where near enough information for me to hazard a guess at what we'd charge (not that I can do 100% e-commerce anyway.. but you get what I mean)

Is it going to be the next Amazon / eBay or are you just wanting to sell a few products in a few categories.

Also do you have an online payment system in mind for your custom e-Commerce site?

Those are the questions that jump to the front of my mind, although there are many more!

Edited June 13, 2007 by Nick Carter

[UrbanPoet]

I see what you mean. Here's a few points to give a rough estimate of what I want/expect, so hopefully someone can give me a ballpark figure:

• 4 categories, 14 sub-categories and 70 products

• 3 logo variations; main, small and icon size

• One click adding to basket - using AJAX or similar

• SEO

• Seamless integration with Nochex

• Modern, colourful design

• 10 additional information pages

• Easy editing/deleting/adding of products

• Preferred technology: PHP/MYSQL

This isn't an exhaustive list, but if anyone on here things they can do it the contact me, or if they know of a similar size of site and how much was paid for it.

[Danny]

Expect at least £25 per hour from anyone remotely good for web work

[Onza Kieron]

Expect at least £25 per hour from anyone remotely good for web work

Whoaaa, sounds like what I should be doing, just from curiosity Danny, is it a hard, labor intensive job or basically, it can be hard but is usually easy money?

[David]

Whoaaa, sounds like what I should be doing, just from curiosity Danny, is it a hard, labor intensive job or basically, it can be hard but is usually easy money?

Its not something your average person can do. 'Proper' (good) websites require A LOT of knowledge/time/people/Money

[Simon]

Expect at least £25 per hour from anyone remotely good for web work

175 for days work is a bit steep. Unless they've got atleast 3-4 years experience.

I for example would charge about 100 a day, but i would charge a set rate as i find it easier.

Whoaaa, sounds like what I should be doing, just from curiosity Danny, is it a hard, labor intensive job or basically, it can be hard but is usually easy money?

Entirely depends on what client/project you get. I've got both easy projects as well as pretty intensive ones, also got long ones and i've just been given my own, well, joint project which is internal, and if it f**ks up, i die, basically.

Good line of work though, super relaxed, good pay if you know what your doing and where to work and often some good people.

[Matthew62]

I'm currently working as a freelance Graphic designer in my placement year from Uni so what im charging is greatly discounted, however my quotes are worked out at average rates, so for 3 weeks worth of work you're looking at paying between £1000 and £1500 just for the branding - and thats working for just £6.50 an hour, obviouslly you ad don materials, software and overheads.

Try and find someone like me whos a student - you pay less, they're usually a more creative and free and also they're happy to work for less as its good experience and good for your portfolio.

[UrbanPoet]

I'm currently working as a freelance Graphic designer in my placement year from Uni so what im charging is greatly discounted, however my quotes are worked out at average rates, so for 3 weeks worth of work you're looking at paying between £1000 and £1500 just for the branding - and thats working for just £6.50 an hour, obviouslly you ad don materials, software and overheads.

Try and find someone like me whos a student - you pay less, they're usually a more creative and free and also they're happy to work for less as its good experience and good for your portfolio.

I seriously can't see it taking 3 weeks! A full working day at a push. So how much would you charge for three logos (pretty simple ones)- main, small and icon size? Although, I was hoping for web-design and branding together, either done by the same company or them outsourcing.

Tom

[Matthew62]

3 Logos.... thats quite a lot. it does take some time, you have to research the (your company) get an idea of your brand, the intended user/consumer. get a breif/spec together, get some brand values some lifestyle affiliation boards together. Then theres initial concept drawing and photography where you have to compile loads of ideas, get the approved by youself, then further 5 or so possible ideas for each of the logos, then finalize all illustrations.

For 3 logos i'd say 12 - 14 days at least to be honest, to have them done to a high standard, not just rushed. A logo has to represent your company, have subconcious connotations through its imagery and colour usage, so to achieve the highest possible standard i would look at that time frame.

[tomturd]

Here are a few logo's I've made, 2 of them got me £10/£20. Just did them for fun, each taking around 20 mins. So 3 weeks work I guess is for more serious places.

Same for web design, a proper company will charge those rates. I'd charge a lot less personally as I don't work for a company. You'd probably be best off getting a free eccommerce script, eg cubecart, which is what I believe tartybikes and selectbikes use - I guess would take about 15 mins to install onto a server. Then its just a case of finding a niceish skin, adding your own logo and finally adding categories and products yourself and you're good to go.

[Matthew62]

Those sort of logos are really common and i guess for the most part would suit most people - but they dont represent the brand - sure they say what it does and they serve a purpose, but something like that you shouldnt just jump on a computer and throw it together. If whoever you did them for was happy than thats ideal but i couldnt be happy giving work to a client in that manner. Theres some manny shitty stuff out there, and when you see a well worked and cleverly designed piece it really does stick in your mind. Those logos are all instantly forgetable, by the time its taken me to type this i cant even remember them, and thats not something anyone wants for their business.

12-14 days is a really short amount of time when you break it down to what you are actually doing in that time.

[tomturd]

Those sort of logos are really common and i guess for the most part would suit most people - but they dont represent the brand - sure they say what it does and they serve a purpose, but something like that you shouldnt just jump on a computer and throw it together. If whoever you did them for was happy than thats ideal but i couldnt be happy giving work to a client in that manner. Theres some manny shitty stuff out there, and when you see a well worked and cleverly designed piece it really does stick in your mind. Those logos are all instantly forgetable, by the time its taken me to type this i cant even remember them, and thats not something anyone wants for their business.

12-14 days is a really short amount of time when you break it down to what you are actually doing in that time.

Agreed, just random 'web 2.0' crap really, as I said took 20 mins. I wouldn't say they are instantly forgettable though, I doubt tarty/select/cleanbikes/etc paid £1000 for their logo's, infact I'd say alot of them are probably home made (no offence), yet I, and I imagine most people on here know them well.

Sounds to me like you are talking about companies with large budgets who can afford to pay £1000+ for a logo. However there are also people who say 'I have a site called totally wifi and I want a logo for it and I will pay £20' and thats it. I'm guessing Urban Poet is someone in between, and I'm trying to give a realistic figure on what he *could* get for a lot less than people are suggesting.

[Matthew62]

Yeah, i also think more people should have a go at it themselves. Unless they have no creativity what so ever, most people know what they want and even with mediocar computer skills you can kncok up something pretty cool. But for that really great, fresh looking piece of work its worth getting the right person in.

The main problem is though, that most people mean 'typography' when they're asking for a logo, to create an entirelly image based logo is far more difficult then a stylized piece of text.

Anyway.... its all about giving the person paying what they want!

[UrbanPoet]

Some of Tom's look really good and without taking three weeks to make! I think some design companies must take the piss somewhat, I know they have to think about the branding but for a small company most of that isn't necessary.

Fancy making a few logos in the future Tom? For a nice fee of course

[AdamR28]

I doubt tarty/select/cleanbikes/etc paid £1000 for their logo's, infact I'd say alot of them are probably home made (no offence)

Hehe, yeah they're all pretty basic... just a font.

free eccommerce script, eg cubecart, which is what I believe tartybikes use

Ours is actually written from scratch in notepad

[Has anyone seen my shoe?]

Notepad FTMFW

[Muel]

Hehe, yeah they're all pretty basic... just a font.

Ours is actually written from scratch in notepad

Thats what I use, its the most cost effective way.

The only other thing I use is a toolbar for firefox that lets you outline all of the table cells, so you can check them over.

Oh and I use a jpeg compressor, high quality pics but faster loading time.

I charge £6.50 an hour, if you want to see wome of my work, log on to http://www.sportsweeks.net

You can leave any feedback on the form on the contact us page if you want, it comes straight to me and will help me improve my technique.

Next time I am not goint to have a background image, but try to split the page into smaller iages like tarty bikes, and I want to learn how to run a shop system like tarty bikes so that a search section will work.

[UrbanPoet]

Thats what I use, its the most cost effective way.

Yeah, but they wrote a whole shop system in PHP/MYSQL using Notepad, it's a bit different to writing a basic site in HTML using Notepad. Also, no offense but if that's your best work then no wonder you charge £6.50 an hour. I need someone in the middle, perhaps £14 an hour!

[tomturd]

Fancy making a few logos in the future Tom? For a nice fee of course

Yeah I'll have a bash. Haven't got much time in the next 2 weeks with glastonbury and work, but after that I'd be happy to make a few up for free.

Hehe, yeah they're all pretty basic... just a font.

Ours is actually written from scratch in notepad

Oops my mistake. Pretty sure selectbikes use cubecart, and I assumed (should never assume!) because they look pretty similar it was the same thing - evidently not >_

PS: textpad ftmfw

[UrbanPoet]

Yeah I'll have a bash. Haven't got much time in the next 2 weeks with glastonbury and work, but after that I'd be happy to make a few up for free.

Excellent, there's plenty of time, I won't need them for a month or so, and I'll be happy to pay, or perhaps a donation to TF if you prefer?

[Dai the Socket]

I charge £6.50 an hour, if you want to see wome of my work, log on to http://www.sportsweeks.net

I take what I previously said back, You're only 16 so good going for that age.

I'd look into CSS more. Tables are disgusting for websites, use CSS. Much easier.

Edited June 15, 2007 by Nick Carter

[JonMack]

Thats what I use, its the most cost effective way.

The only other thing I use is a toolbar for firefox that lets you outline all of the table cells, so you can check them over.

Oh and I use a jpeg compressor, high quality pics but faster loading time.

I charge £6.50 an hour, if you want to see wome of my work, log on to http://www.sportsweeks.net

You can leave any feedback on the form on the contact us page if you want, it comes straight to me and will help me improve my technique.

Next time I am not goint to have a background image, but try to split the page into smaller iages like tarty bikes, and I want to learn how to run a shop system like tarty bikes so that a search section will work.

I use a plain text editor for writing all my websites. Just makes it easy, especially when you get something that colour codes everything for you.

If you're charging £6.50 an hour, you really should learn about web standards, your index page has 91 errors on it, I couldnt be bothered to look at the rest of the site, it made me feel ill.

Learn about web standards, CSS, DIVs, etc. start making decent websites, and then start charging.