[a] freelance process + rates for 2024

[Last significant update: June 2024]

How we collaborate with freelance associates

By which we mean other self-employed creative types (and) freelancers.

We’re determined that our collaborators are paid fairly, in full and on time.

We consider how freelancers get paid and what we can afford to pay them. We attempt to communicate rates between January-April and publish them by January of the same year. This page is rarely the most up to date source and is intended as a guide only.

It’s important to us that our parters are credited for their work.

This might simply mean freedom to celebrate their involvement themselves or through [a] shoutout. Usually it means credit on projects when they are promoted by us, on social media, on this website and through word of mouth.

How we operate

Rates

We'll typically propose on a project-by-project basis. The same way we do with our other design pals. Each project is different and we therefore don't have a fixed hourly rate for ourselves or the people who work with us.

Freelance rates

Self-employed people are their own businesses.

When a freelancer takes on a brief it's up to them to ensure that it's profitable. That said, we would like to think that our associates earn a fair amount for their skills.

We intend* that our budgets allow approximate** earnings of—

• Artworking or ‘painting by numbers’ - £35+ (hour)

• Design or creative £50+ (hour)

• Brand design £80 (hour)

*These are fuzzy numbers because we all know that it never works quite like that. In practice we would propose a brief and a budget. If you can turn work around in an hour but the budget is £300 then you would get a £300 hour rate**.

**Of course, we can’t account for time spent on generating an invoice, taking a coffee break and creating a folio piece.

Our concern is that designers are prone to overdeliver. We're the same. So if you ever think you need more time or money we would rather hear that sooner rather than later. We can often revisit our budget or negotiate with the client and work around something.

We can pay freelancers deposits upfront but don't have a flat percentage for this. Happy to discuss stage invoicing etc on a case-by-case basis.

TAX/VAT/Contracts:

We’ll discuss that separately. We work with creative associates from around the world. And we’re not financial advisors!

Transparency

We're proud of the talented partners who choose to work with us. What that means is that we don't hide who you are, and in many cases will introduce you directly to our clients. We’re also keen to highlight the freelancers who work with us on this website if that suits them.

There's a perceived risk there, in that a freelancer might poach a client...

We've been lucky so far. But sooner or later we might well lose a client to one of the freelancers we work with. It goes without saying that we would not continue to work with that freelancer if they 'poached' the client.

Collaborative pitching and recommendations

Clearly, you're not afraid of putting yourself out there. We would be happy to discuss joint pitches.

When we see a project that isn’t right for us, we are glad to refer freelancers or recommend our competitors!

Hire us

Collaboration is a two-way street. If you ever wanted to bring us in on one of your projects we would be happy to support you with strategy and project management or as part of a joint pitch.

We don’t typically base our proposals on time spent (or time sheets).

Hourly rates are little use to us. Though they can be good tools to judge profitability and judge capacity.

Day rates are a joke.

Who works for 7.5 productive hours every day?

We imagine an eight hour day might include six hours ‘on the tools’ (be that using software, pencils or a spreadsheet).

To accurately price, we base our fees on value and budget. There are entire books on that.

Whilst we work with freelancers who choose to bill for time we’ll always consider what that means to them.