I'm in Savannah, Georgia, have an M.Arch and about 2 years working experience. With the town hit pretty hard, I've had to do plenty of freelance work--tutoring in revit, creating permit drawings, even painting houses.
Well I'm writing, because I've recently come into a few rendering jobs. One for an architect and the other for a development team wanting images so that they can secure investment/loans.
The project for the architect is already designed, so I would just be building a Revit model and rendering out a few exterior images. Not much "thinking" on that one. The other project is about 3-4 images of a project that is just raw space and my images would be, in essence, the only (and first) depictions of the project. This requires much more than simply translating line drawing into a 3d model. Also, I'm not sure yet if they want a computer image or pen and marker renderings (I am adept at both).
What do you think is fair to charge and how should I go about explaining that this "higher price" is because I am providing design work and not only 3d representation?
hi. i'd email trace or someone like that who does this for a living to see - we've outsourced some of our renderings in the past and for rates no one stateside could probably match.
that said, in terms of intellectual property, a lot of it should be spelled out in any agreement with them. you would automatically own the copyrights for the specific images, but those could always be sold. in terms of actual 'design', the copyrights would be the only things that could be covered.
if you're doing an actual 'design' for the developers, one question would be whether or not you're licensed and could actually perform any further work (legally speaking). if not, it would be pretty easy for the new architect/designer to work around your design enough to avoid any copyright infringement (in a legal sense again). in ethical terms, it would be pretty questionable, but maybe you can negotiate to do the resulting work if the funding comes through.
in the second case, yes the fee should be a bit higher, but i'd be shocked if they don't ask for a capped/fixed fee on what your design time is worth. being in atlanta and working with various developers on concept ideas in the past, don't be surprised if they will pay minimal amounts for that part of the effort. they don't care how long it takes for you to come up with it - they just want the final product.
Try to figure out what you should be charging: Look at your costs, figure out how long it will take you to do the work, and figure out how much you want to pay yourself/hr. Make a proposal outlining your work product. Describe in detail what you will be doing an what work product you will be providing the client. There are a lot of great books on design practice that cover this this subject. Search Amazon.
Oct 21, 09 12:05 pm ·
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Small Market -- What to charge?
Hey there--
I'm in Savannah, Georgia, have an M.Arch and about 2 years working experience. With the town hit pretty hard, I've had to do plenty of freelance work--tutoring in revit, creating permit drawings, even painting houses.
Well I'm writing, because I've recently come into a few rendering jobs. One for an architect and the other for a development team wanting images so that they can secure investment/loans.
The project for the architect is already designed, so I would just be building a Revit model and rendering out a few exterior images. Not much "thinking" on that one. The other project is about 3-4 images of a project that is just raw space and my images would be, in essence, the only (and first) depictions of the project. This requires much more than simply translating line drawing into a 3d model. Also, I'm not sure yet if they want a computer image or pen and marker renderings (I am adept at both).
What do you think is fair to charge and how should I go about explaining that this "higher price" is because I am providing design work and not only 3d representation?
Thanks,
Charlie Aaron
Also - If my conceptual work (for the developer) is then taken to another architecture firm, what are my intellectual property rights for the project?
Basically, they (the developers) are using me in order to get funding (because, they don't want to pay the much higher rates of a firm).
charlie,
hi. i'd email trace or someone like that who does this for a living to see - we've outsourced some of our renderings in the past and for rates no one stateside could probably match.
that said, in terms of intellectual property, a lot of it should be spelled out in any agreement with them. you would automatically own the copyrights for the specific images, but those could always be sold. in terms of actual 'design', the copyrights would be the only things that could be covered.
if you're doing an actual 'design' for the developers, one question would be whether or not you're licensed and could actually perform any further work (legally speaking). if not, it would be pretty easy for the new architect/designer to work around your design enough to avoid any copyright infringement (in a legal sense again). in ethical terms, it would be pretty questionable, but maybe you can negotiate to do the resulting work if the funding comes through.
in the second case, yes the fee should be a bit higher, but i'd be shocked if they don't ask for a capped/fixed fee on what your design time is worth. being in atlanta and working with various developers on concept ideas in the past, don't be surprised if they will pay minimal amounts for that part of the effort. they don't care how long it takes for you to come up with it - they just want the final product.
Charlie,
you shouldn't go around asking what to charge for services. They may end up suing you, or even Archinect?, under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Check this out:
http://www.alatulsa.org/about/ala-anti-trust-guidelines/
Try to figure out what you should be charging: Look at your costs, figure out how long it will take you to do the work, and figure out how much you want to pay yourself/hr. Make a proposal outlining your work product. Describe in detail what you will be doing an what work product you will be providing the client. There are a lot of great books on design practice that cover this this subject. Search Amazon.
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