My First Industrial Design Freelancing Job

You’ve been working your way through your Industrial Design Degree and you have just landed your first paid freelance industrial design gig. Its probably not cutting edge innovation or design – its more likely that its along the lines of a bit of drafting, designing rip offs of the latest air freshener or some sort of simple mechanism. Whatever the case, you’re ecstatic. You can certainly do the technical side of the work, however you are suddenly faced with a new set of problems. How much do you charge, how do you act professionally and make sure it all turns out well in the end?

Sound familiar? If you are a student it might be or about to be your current situation. If you’re new (say 2 years) in industry you probably experienced it not so long ago.How are you going to make sure it turns out well? The answer – Brush up on your basic business and freelancing skills. In this article we have gathered a few tips and tricks that will hopefully make your very first freelance Industrial Design job that much easier to navigate.

What should I charge?

This is usually the biggest issue that any newbie is going to face. Figuring out how much to charge is a tough one. Everyone had a different formula and will offer you different advice. Deciding how much to charge is basically determining how much your time is worth.

Some great ways to get an idea of what to charge include:

• Ask any class mates that have done freelancing what they charge and why.
• Talk to your tutors or lecturers
• Speak to someone from your local Industrial Design Organization (eg: IDSA, DIA)
• Try and find out what professional designers who freelance and who work in consultancies charge.

There are also several things you need to consider when setting your freelance rate, such as:

• Your costs – Do you need to cover things like printing or travel time? Or are these charged on top?
• Do you think this job could lead to more work with this person? In this case some people choose to charge a slightly lower rate to make sure that the client is more than happy and feels like they are getting a great deal – in theory leading to more work at a later date.
• Do you think the client will actually pay your rate? Is it a reasonable amount?

Contracts

At this stage you certainly do not need reams and reams of legal jargon tying you up in knots and forcing you to have to consult a lawyer to find out which way is up and what is going on. However when you are just starting out it is good practice to start familiarizing yourself with the practice of writing contracts. There are several reasons to start doing this, the first is to make sure you and your client both understand what the project entails, such as how much it will cost and how long it will take. It makes you appear to be more professional and if you really do have issues down the track then you can pull it out and say, well this is what we originally agreed. (Please note – None of this document constitues legal advice in anyway, shape or form. Always consult a lawyer when writing legal documents and contracts. Design Droplets accepts no liability for anything that occurs as a result of utilising the suggestions in this document).

Start out with something simple. A basic one page document that outlines:

Header – with your details such as phone number, website etc…. and any legal requirements such as trading names, tax information etc.. specific to your country.

Dates – When will the project commence? What will the duration of the project be? When will the project end?

Scope – What does the project actually entail? Is it sketches and 3D CAD model? Or is it only a 2D Model? Is it liaising with Manufacturers?

Costs & Expenses - Is the job quoted? If yes, then what is the total cost the client? If its on an hourly rate, how much are you going to charge per hour? What are the terms of payment? Cash on Delivery? Within 7 days? Within 14 days? Within 30 days?

Terms of Engagement – Are there any specific terms or conditions that need to be added in relation to the project?

Additional Services – If you provide services beyond what was originally agreed with the client, then how much will it cost them? Will you charge a different rate? Is it negotiated on a project to project basis?

Value of time fees - In say three months when the client comes back with a completely new project, will you be charging the same rates? Maybe not! Maybe you have grown a small business or have additional costs that need to be covered. A sentence letting your client know that the fees might change in the future will help iron out any future anxieties over this issue. Eg: The fees in this proposal are valued for three months from the date of completion/commencement of this project.

Signatures & Copies – read through it with your client. Explain any questions they may have, even add in something they might want (make sure you both initial the change or add in). Take two copies – one for you and one for your client. Make sure both you and your client sign and date it. Give one copy to your client and file the other in a safe place.

Lastly make sure you document any changes or updates to your agreement or rewrite/revise it should the need arise.

NDAs

Non Disclosure agreements are a common document in the world of product design and development, if you don’t know what one is then check out Wikipedia’s explanation. You may be asked to sign one of these when undertaking design work. Make sure you read it thoroughly and get someone like a senior lecturer or a lawyer to have a look at it for you if you don’t understand it (as you should with any legal contract you don’t understand).

While we have by no means covered everything that will be entailed in your first freelance industrial design job, hopefully this advice will help you to preempt or iron out some of the freelancing, business or professionalism issues that you might encounter on that first freelancing job. If you have any advice, thoughts, experiences or questions to share, leave them in the comments and we can get some discussion going…

Resources

There are heaps of resources on the web devoted to freelancing, here is a handful of the best.

Freelance Switch – This site has to be the webs authority on freelancing.

Guerrilla Freelancing – A very new freelancing focused site.

Freelance Folder – Plenty of great freelancing advice.

Freelancer Magazine.com – Another site full of interesting freelancing articles.

These might also interest you.

• Link Love 7 September 2009
• Industrial Design great molded Australia’s design future
• This Is Not A Design Market
• Design Droplets Comments Policy
• May, June, July 2009 Roundup

March 22, 2009