What's your worth

A good friend of mine got me thinking the other day.

What is the value of creative design and how much should it cost. This is something that is both valid but also quite a mystery.

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule really.

How good are you at what you do? Let me rephrase that. How good do you think you are at what you do, more importantly, how good do the clients that you work with think you are.

Do they respect you, believe in you whole heartidly? Surely your past experience when interacting with clients is a better gauge of your worth than any spread sheet.

Who have you worked with in the past could be another measure for you when trying to understand your worth.

Will your client/employer understand the value of your contribution? This can change from project to project and from job to job.

I have seen some equations that look great and I am sure help those that need to try and put the way a creative designer works minute by minute into a neat little box but is that really the point? Does it help?

If I were a famous contemporary artist who had been told to be specific maybe my quote would read something like this:

Contemplating my next piece
2 years

Setting up canvas
1 day

Applying oil based paint
30 days

Adding my signature
30 seconds

Reputation
priceless



Cost
£3,000,000


Reads like an ad for MasterCard doesn't it.

Not at all representative but you get the point.


There is no real conclusion to this thread of mine.

Just a jumbled collection of thoughts. I think I'll have to come back to it.