The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing: Price creative work with confidence. Win more bids. Make more money.

by Michael C. Janda

Learn how to price creative work with confidence. Win more bids. Make more money. When it comes to pricing their work, far too many freelance designers and agencies merely guess what to charge their clients. As a result, profitable projects have as much to do with luck as they do anything else. In The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing, you’ll learn how to take luck out of the equation by calculating the cost to produce your work, understanding its market value, and extracting your client’s budget. These three variables are used in a pricing spectrum, empowering you to price your work with confidence and profitability in every project opportunity. This book will teach you how to calculate your production costs, understand market value, extract your client’s budget, bid with the right project price, and increase your profitability.

Genres: Design, Business, Art Design, Psychology, Nonfiction, Finance

206 pages, Paperback

Published February 7, 2019

Reviews

[Michelle Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a really useful tool for a freelance designer. At the very least, it helped me to learn how to present prices to clients.

[Nathanael Clanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s a difference between books that have great content that you’ve got to digest and books like these that also have great content, but are EFFORTLESS to consume. — Think of it sort of like how you can’t have just ONE Pringles chip. They’re so easy to munch that pretty soon you’ve had half of the can. — Michael’s books are like that, only they help you make money and better decisions.

I just bought both BYP and Michael’s Psychology of Design Pricing books and I’ve gotta tell you that I wish I’d had these when I started designing 14 years ago right before I started college. I’ve already begun marking pages up with notes and filling the books with post-its as I hop from chapter to chapter.

BYP is 1 part handbook, 1 part inspirational biography, 1 part personal development guide, and 1 part design mentor. It’s the closest thing you can have to sitting in the same room and getting to ask Michael every possible question you could think of about being successful in the design industry (and even some stuff about being a good human). There’s tons of stuff I wouldn’t have even thought of in these books that it absolutely invaluable now that I know it (ex: “Next Worry Date”)

The Psych Pricing book is so valuable that you’d have to probably pay a personal coach thousands of dollars to give you this level of access and actionable strategy. He’s literally giving you his "secret sauce” approach that he sued for winning accounts with some of the biggest brands in the world.

The books are “snackable” too, meaning you can jump in to any chapter of the book and get quick, actionable, honest and humorous advice and lessons. — I love that he gives examples, scripts, structures and visuals to help illustrate the concepts and how to use them. And each section has fun drawings that help bring the content to life and make the reading experience super fun.

Michael doesn’t just write like he’s talking to you, he writes like he’s talking to you and you actually enjoy listening. You can tell he’s actually a cool guy; and he is! I bought both books after finding him on Instagram and asking him questions via DM. He’s so generous with his knowledge and time, it’s insane, considering the fact that he probably gets hundreds of messages a day, is building his brand, traveling, and also has a family on top of that.

He covers literally every topic you could encounter as a design professional in the way only a successful veteran can. And you learn just as much from his honesty about failures as you do from his extensive expertise.

Lastly, these aren’t just for designers. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that anybody who desires to succeed as a creative professional should buy both of these books.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered both of Michael Janda’s books after seeing him on The Futur. I read this one from cover to cover in one sitting. It is dense, value-packed, and highly actionable—all qualities that make for a great business book.

The number one thing on my to-do list after finishing this book is to calculate my burn rate (I did this sloppily about a year ago, and much has changed since then), and figure out what my break-even rate is for different types of branding projects.

Buy this book!

[Esteban Mulki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is filled with pretty good insight that comes from author's work experience. It's easy to read and very very practical and applicable stuff. On the other hand, it probably could have been at least 40% shorter (lots of pages with redundant content or blank templates for the reader to use) and it falls short on management background for most of the tips and concepts. Recommended as a first read on the topic.

[Samanta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just finished reading "The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing" by Michael Janda. The book centers on setting fair, value-driven prices that work for both clients and designers. It emphasizes a strategic and transparent approach to pricing, focusing on each project’s unique needs and goals rather than arbitrary numbers. While it requires a bit more thought and time, this approach can lead to better outcomes and help keep projects aligned with the agreed budget.

[Sara Felgueiras · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great demystifier of the "pricing monster". It's a guide with worksheets to allow you to get into the whole process of Design Pricing. I thought most of the advices there were very useful and I'll apply them for sure to my professional life.

[Jamie from The Doer Co · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for a freelancer going from beginner to intermediate. Personally I'm a little advanced for this book, and you are too if you're closing $10k+ projects.

[Prasanth]

nice

[Bre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and insightful. I can't believe I was doing things the way I was before! Very very helpful for designers who are wondering where to start with pricing.

[Alice Nalepka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the simple breakdown Janda provides. I work in marketing and the formulas work great for a variety of industries, not just graphic designers. I even loaned it to my sister who has a plumbing business to help them ensure their pricing lines up best with the services they offer.