For our first five years we charged by the hour. It seemed fair and it was easy to explain. It also meant that a good idea we had quickly cost the client less than a bad idea we had slowly, and that our timesheets became an argument we had with ourselves every Friday afternoon. In 2019 we stopped.

phases, not hours

Every project now runs in three phases: a short discovery, the design work itself, and a period of delivery and care after launch. Each phase has a fixed fee agreed before it starts, based on what it has to produce rather than how long we guess it will take. At the end of each phase the client can continue, pause or leave with everything made so far. In seven years, two clients have left at that point. Both came back.

Discovery is deliberately small. For most identity projects it takes two to three weeks and costs between €8,000 and €12,000. It ends with a one-page brief, a written recommendation and a fixed quote for the design phase. Clients sometimes ask why they should pay for what sounds like a proposal. The honest answer is that most of the thinking happens there, and we would rather be paid for it than hide it inside a pitch.

Most of the thinking happens in discovery. We would rather be paid for it than hide it inside a pitch.

the number on the first call

Our minimum fee for a full identity is €45,000, and for an identity with a website it is €80,000. We say so on the first call, before anyone has spent time on a proposal. Some people thank us and leave, which is the point. Those who stay are having a real conversation about scope rather than hoping the number turns out smaller than they fear.

We do not pitch for free. When we are asked to compete, we offer a paid discovery instead. About half the time the client accepts, and the other half we part on good terms. Free creative work means designing before anyone has agreed what the problem is, and that helps nobody.

what we still get wrong

Fixed fees only work when the scope is clear, and scope is never perfectly clear. We still underestimate how long approvals take in large organisations, and we still find it hard to refuse the extra page or the extra label that appears in week eleven. Our rule now is to write every change down, price it the same day and let the client decide. It is less awkward than it sounds, and much less awkward than those Friday timesheets.