How to Price Event Design Work

Day rates, packages and value pricing for freelancers and studios, with worked examples.

Ask ten event designers what to charge and you may hear ten numbers. This guide shows you how to work out the lowest day rate you can accept, build packages from deliverables and price large events by their value. Worked examples for a gala, an exhibition and a product launch show each method in round numbers.

How much to charge for event design starts with a floor, not a guess. Work out the lowest day rate you can accept from your income, your overheads and your real billable days. Sell packages built on deliverables. For larger events, price against what the event is worth, as three options. Every figure below is made up, in round numbers, to show the method.

Why pricing feels impossible

Pricing is hard at every stage. A graduate with years of event work may still have no rate. An event manager may have to price one long shift, such as New Year's Eve. A new service has to package private and corporate work side by side. Many designers also plan and produce, a mix the planner, designer and producer guide untangles.

Three mistakes sit behind most of these questions. The first is copying someone else's rate, which carries their costs, not yours. The second is pricing time instead of outcomes. The third is quoting one number with no options.

Find your floor

The floor is the lowest day rate you can accept. To find it, add your target income to your overheads. Then divide by the days you can really bill.

Floor day rate = (target income + overheads) ÷ billable days

• Target income: $70,000
• Overheads for software, insurance, equipment, travel and accounting: $15,000
• Total to recover: $85,000
• Weekdays in a year: 260
• Less leave and public holidays: −30
• Less admin, sales and unpaid time: −90
• Billable days: 140
• Floor day rate, $85,000 ÷ 140: about $610

In this example, only 140 of 260 weekdays earn money. That is the minimum you can accept, not the price you should quote.

Day rates and when they fit

Day rates suit on-site work, crew roles and open-ended consulting, where the scope is the time itself. Set four rules. Ask for a minimum booking, such as one full day. Set the half-day rate above half the day rate. Decide whether travel days are charged or capped. Charge overtime after a stated number of hours.

Quote no market rates you cannot source. For design pricing practice, the Graphic Artists Guild's Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines is the standard reference.

Event design packages built on deliverables

A package is a list of deliverables at a fixed price. The client buys a result, and you keep any time you save.

Deliverables menu

• Brief and site review. Essential: Yes. Standard: Yes. Full: Yes.
• To-scale layout. Essential: Yes. Standard: Yes. Full: Yes.
• Revision rounds. Essential: 1. Standard: 2. Full: 3.
• 3D renders. Essential: 2. Standard: 4. Full: 8.
• Walkthrough video. Standard: Yes. Full: Yes.
• Production drawings, plans and elevations. Standard: Yes. Full: Yes.
• Site visits. Standard: 1. Full: 2.
• Supplier coordination. Full: Yes.
• On-site supervision. Full: Yes.

Illustrative package prices

• Essential. 400-guest gala: $3,500. 60-stand exhibition: $5,000.
• Standard. 400-guest gala: $7,000. 60-stand exhibition: $10,000.
• Full. 400-guest gala: $12,000. 60-stand exhibition: $18,000.

The floor sets the bottom tier. Say Essential takes five days. Five days at $610 is $3,050, so $3,500 leaves a margin. Never price a tier below its days times the floor.

Value pricing for larger work

For larger events, ask what the event is worth before you price. Think of sponsorship, exhibitor revenue, sales pipeline or launch reach. Ask what failure would cost. Blair Enns, in Pricing Creativity (2018), argues for pricing that value. Jonathan Stark advises three options at different levels of ambition.

Take a made-up product launch. The client expects it to support $2 million of pipeline. Three options set against that value might look like this. The first is $15,000 for the room and the reveal. The second is $25,000, adding renders and a walkthrough for the sales team. The third is $40,000, adding on-site direction. Each is a small share of the value at stake.

Some production managers charge a percentage of the budget. That model has a flaw. The fee rises as the client spends more, so it rewards a bigger budget, not a better event.

All three examples, priced three ways (illustrative)

• 400-guest gala. By day: 6 days × $610 = $3,660. By package: Standard, $7,000. By value: $7,000 / $11,000 / $15,000.
• 60-stand exhibition. By day: 10 days × $610 = $6,100. By package: Standard, $10,000. By value: $10,000 / $16,000 / $24,000.
• Product launch. By day: 12 days × $610 = $7,320. By package: Full, $12,000. By value: $15,000 / $25,000 / $40,000.

Revisions, changes and payment terms

A revision refines the agreed design. A change alters the brief, such as the headcount, format, venue or date. Price every change order before the work starts.

A change-order form records five things. It notes the change requested, in the client's words, and its trigger. It lists the deliverables affected and the fee and time added. It ends with the client's approval and the date.

Stage your payments. Take a deposit on signing, before work starts. Take a payment at concept sign-off and another at final layout. Bill the balance when the drawings are issued. Put cancellation terms in the contract too. Work completed is billed, and the deposit covers the time already reserved.

How to answer "what's your hourly rate?"

Steer to the package and the outcome.

• "I price by deliverable, so you know the full cost before we start. For this event that is the Standard package."
• "If your system needs it, I can show the package as capped days, invoiced at milestones."
• "The fee covers the approved layout and drawings, however long they take me."

For precedent, point to companies that bill by the project. Pitches follow the same rule, so win without giving away the design.

What tools do to your prices

Faster tools shorten production. If you sell packages, keep the price and let the margin grow. If you sell days, your income falls, which is the case for ending billable hours. Put software costs in the overheads of your floor.

Frequently asked questions

Should event designers charge hourly or by project?

Charge by project wherever the deliverables can be listed. The client knows the cost up front, and faster work becomes your margin. Keep day or hourly rates for on-site time and open-ended advice. Cap them, so neither side is surprised by the final invoice.

How much deposit should an event designer take?

Take enough to cover the work done before the first milestone payment, and take it before work starts. Stage the rest against concept sign-off, final layout and issued drawings. That way payment tracks progress, and no stage of the project is done unpaid.

Should I publish my event design prices?

Publishing starting prices for packages can filter out clients who cannot afford you before the first call. Keep value-priced work off the page. Its fee depends on what each event is worth to that client, so no single number fits.

How do I price my first event design job?

Work out your floor day rate first and estimate the days honestly. Then quote a package at or above the days times the floor. Write the deliverables and revision rounds into the quote. That way the first client learns how you work, not just what you cost.

Monet makes the layout, 3D renders and production-ready drawings from a venue plan and a brief, and one change regenerates all of them. If you sell packages, that saved time becomes your margin, not a smaller invoice.