First freelance job: one-page site for an indie magazine with a lot of custom art. What should I quote?
Hey everyone. I’m a designer and this is my first real freelance job. A client sent a long brief for a one-page site for her print magazine. I’m only designing the UI/UX, not building it. I have no idea what to charge for the design side, so I’m hoping you can help. All the art is custom and made by me (stickers, starbursts, doodles, cut-outs, mascots). The client strictly doesn’t want AI art or stock. My art is pretty detailed, so each piece takes real time. You can see my style here: vishejeetportfolio.vercel.app The brief wants a different look for every section, so I can’t reuse a template. The style is 90s ad meets Y2K, loud and collage-like. The buy section needs two designed states, sales open and sales closed. She sent two reference videos with 3D-style animation, page transitions, cursor effects and video backgrounds. I’d have to design and explain all of that for a developer. Everything has to work in mobile, tablet and desktop layouts. The brief asks for a full handoff pack, so a developer can build it without guessing. Page sections I’m designing Hero with logo and a big visual Clear path from the hero to the buy section About section “What’s inside the mag” preview (spreads, images, snippets) Monthly buy section with two states: sales open (live buy button) and sales closed (holding state that sends people to the newsletter) Newsletter sign-up with a value pitch and a success message Contact section (form, email link, or both, still undecided) Menu that jumps to each section Mobile, tablet and desktop layouts Design and custom art (all by me, no AI) Stickers, starbursts, doodles, cut-outs and callouts Mascots or caricatures, if needed Cut-out photography and editorial image treatment Oversized type, loud colour blocks, layered and asymmetric layouts A different look per section that still feels like one brand Temporary placeholders for any unfinished art, replaced before handoff Motion and 3D (from her reference videos) Designing and explaining scroll animations and moving stickers Cursor-reactive effects on the artwork Page transitions between sections Draggable carousel Real 3D (flipping cards or a 3D magazine) Video backgrounds A lighter version for phones I’m planning to offer three levels (simple animation, medium, full 3D) so she picks. The more motion she wants, the more design and explaining it takes. Brand rules Logo used exactly as supplied, no redrawing or recolouring Hi-res transparent logo and alternate versions for non-green backgrounds Fixed 7-colour palette (neon green, magenta, bubblegum pink, aqua, butter yellow, black, white) Contrast checks, especially neon on pastel Custom fonts (original files and web-use licences needed) Body font options are Apple’s SF and SF Mono, which need checking for web use Accessibility and usability (design side) Readable body text and easy-to-use forms and menu Alt text suggestions for images Clear heading structure, page title, meta description and share preview image text Handoff to the developer Editable design file Exported assets Font and licence notes Responsive layouts Short guide for updating the monthly sale info What would you quote for the design side of all this? A rough range for the base design, the custom art and the motion/3D design would help a lot. Thanks in advance, really appreciate any advice.