Naturally I’ve had to cut back the amount of freelance work I allow myself to do at any given time. I limit myself to no more than 2 projects at a time. This helps me stay sane while balancing a career, a personal life, and extracurricular work.

The other day I was having a discussion with my good friend Justin, when we stumbled into the topic of our freelance work and how we handle pricing now. I felt like it was a very good discussion and I left it feeling rather vindicated and happy with how I go about handling my current billing system. So I wanted to go ahead and share how I roll.

When I was doing full-time freelance work, one of the toughest decisions every project was deciding how to go about figuring out the right amount to charge. Pricing has always been such an elusive subject amongst designers, especially those that are just beginning their journey into freelance work.

In the beginning I often went the route of discovering the clients budget, then trying to estimate the amount of time it would take to complete the project and what it would break down to per hour based upon said budget. If I felt like the hourly rate was fair, then I would take the project, if not then I would pass and move on to the next. That worked well for me for a while.

One of my college professors taught me a simple rule that he lives by: “Pick two, not three…”

The client may choose to have the project done for a good price and quick turn around while sacrificing quality. Or for high quality work for a good price while understanding that it may take much longer. Or with a quick turn around and top notch quality for a hefty price. It’s all about the “push / pull” when it comes to setting your prices.

Well after landing full-time employment I had to change things up, and I like to think that I’ve taken it up a notch though. By only having one “option” from the triangle available. My goal is to deliver top notch work for a great price.

I now have one hourly fee for any and every project. That fee is $20/hour, which I know is very low for design work, but it works for me. I’d say that about 99% of my clients are more than happy to work with that hourly rate. I refuse to deliver something to a client that I wouldn’t feel comfortable using myself. With that said, I do inform the client that with the price and the attention to detail, I am not able to provide any sort of “overnight” turn around.

What if the client needs the project done faster? Then unfortunately I am unable to help them, and I’ll recommend someone else who may be able to help them in the time frame that they need.

What if the client needs it done faster and is willing to pay top dollar? It’s not about the money for me, it’s about being able to satisfy the needs of a client and learning new techniques.

When working as an in-house designer I think it is necessary to have outside projects in order to stay sharp and continue growth. By setting these rules and pricing guidelines for myself it has really helped prevent me from becoming too overwhelmed.

Yeah I know, I need to work more on my delivery. But besides that, I just wanted to add that everything I’ve mentioned in this post is just what works for me. I’m not claiming it is the right way or the wrong way. I would love to hear how you handle things, especially if you work as an in-house designer.

Recently I’ve had the great pleasure of writing a few reviews for this site, and I must say they have one hell of a team running things. I feel like saying anything more than, “They kick ass, go check it out.” would be overkill. So if you’re into metal, do yourself a favor and spend just a few minutes reading some of the reviews. You won’t be disappointed.

http://thenewreview.net »

We thought it was pretty funny. Then today I made an eyebrowless floating head image of myself.

Then a couple other coworkers sent me photos, and I made some more eyebrowless floating heads. And with that The “No Eyebrows” Project was born. My goal is to create 100 eyebrowless floating heads on colorful backgrounds. So far I have 12 completed, and about another dozen heads waiting to be stripped of their eyebrows and bodies.

I am looking for about 75 more heads to meet my goal of 100. If you would like to be a part of this project you can email your headshot to me@timschmidt.us. Upon sending your headshot it is a fact that you will become 100 times more awesome.

And if that wasn’t quite enough, there are plenty more on flickr.

In the end I decided keeping the design very simple was the best route for me. When I have the spare time I’m sure I’ll add / remove / tweak / etc… various aspects of the site. My over all goals for this site are to show off some of my work and write about stuff that may or may not be related to design / metal / tattoos / videogames / movies / etc…

Feel free to follow me on twitter (@iheartrendering) if you’d like. \m/