Every project we take has one number on it. It is written into the scope before work starts, and it does not move unless the scope does.
We didn't choose this because it is easy to sell. We chose it because of what hourly billing does to the work.
Croissant bagels at Flux. Their Sprint had one problem to solve, so it had one fee.
Once the fee is fixed, nobody watches the clock. Clients ring with the small question, and that call is cheaper than a reprint.
Ruth Calloway
Founder
·
Origin®
What hours reward
An hourly rate pays for time. It pays more for another round of options, another meeting, another week of drift. Nobody plans it that way. It is where the money is.
It also puts a price on every question. A founder who is watching the clock stops calling. The small question that would have saved a reprint goes unasked.
A fixed fee turns that round. The longer a project runs, the more it costs us, not you. So we work to finish well, not to keep going.
How we set the number
The number comes from the scope, and the scope comes from the first call. I take that call and write both. You get them in writing within a week.
The scope says what we make, how many rounds you get and what you receive at the end. Two rounds, then we build. Photography and print are quoted separately, once we know the quantities.
Each way of working starts from a fixed figure. A Sprint is two weeks on one clear problem, from $8,000. A Project is six to ten weeks for an identity and its packaging, from $24,000. Partner is monthly, from $6,000.
If the scope changes, we write a new one before we do the work. Nothing reaches an invoice that you didn't agree to first.
Why it is a design decision
A fixed fee pulls the hard choices to the front. Before we draw, we have to agree what the project is for and what it leaves out. That conversation is design work. It shapes everything after it.
It also keeps us small. We take four projects at a time, and each fee is set so that five people can do those four properly.
