If you want to set fair pricing on catalog design, you need to consider many things. Thus, for new designers, it becomes quite hard to fix how much to charge for catalog design.

Typically, designers charge around $50–$200 for premium catalog design. This also considers various aspects such as sizes, page counts, and levels of personalization, and all this is taken into the price range. If it is a straightforward one-product gardener catalog, you might charge only about $50. When it comes to customized orders, one cannot help but charge up to $200 or more.

However, depending on your expertise, required time, and other factors, you need to set the price wisely. Read on to get the real deal! 

What Is Catalog Design?

Catalogs are a great way for companies to promote their products or services. A catalog is similar to a brochure, but it goes much deeper into the product. 

For companies wishing to give their customers more information, this is a great alternative. It gives a brief description of the different items on offer, which are often found in supermarkets as well as on the internet.

Businesses depend so much on catalogs, which customers have the option to flip through and read at their own pace. With almost all items in a catalog provided with adequate descriptions, the customers do not have any difficulty making use of the catalog either at the shop or on the net. 

In the same way, catalogs are absolutely crucial for online vendors; they furnish details on the products and services that accompany the purchases.

The effectiveness of this means of advertising still depends greatly on the design of the catalog. Anyone who approves a beautiful, practical catalog will easily find all the information. The catalog is a marketing tool that can be said to be reasonable as it has an attractive layout, quality images, and relevant descriptions of the products.

How Much To Charge For Catalog Design?

There may be several bases that determine the charges of a catalog design. Catalog design costs typically range from $50-$200. 

Catalogs that include more extensive images tend to be even more expensive. A smaller beefcake catalog that is more targeted will be more cost-effective for buyers and less time-consuming for the designer so you may charge less for them.

However, if you do outsource, you can set an hourly rate or an amount regardless of the length of the project. These rates derive from geography, skill level, and project complexity, among other factors employed. 

The Basics Of Catalog Design

A catalog that is properly designed is one of the channels that can be effective for reaching your target market. It is the ability to massage potential clients’ wants by showcasing important features and addressing a particular audience. Therefore, here are some basics that you need to know: 

Address Lifestyle

The lifestyle of your customers is the basic requirement for a winning catalog. Customers’ aspirations and intentions can be closely attached to certain lifestyles. 

Focus your items in such a manner that your lifestyle will be further enhanced, and you will get closer to your audience. Always identify the objectives of the picture before designing it. This lifestyle should be reflected everywhere in your collection, including the cover pages and the images. 

Referring to people who like the outdoors, for example, requires the use of words and images that reflect feelings of freedom, adventure, and the outdoors. Where there is an opportunity, if you can tap from their goals or their aspirations, then you may create a catalog that talks to them.

Suit The Preferences Of Your Readers And End Users

Regardless of the industry’s business-to-business or business-to-consumer focus, the accomplishment of the catalog design is determined by establishing the intended users of the catalog. 

Every audience requires a separate and unique approach. When preparing a business catalog, carefully mention the details of your products, the bulk price, and the even more compelling elements in a B2B catalog. 

In business-to-consumer catalogs, however, the design elements should draw on the lifestyle and the sentiment filled into the product. B2B clients may respond better to a straightforward, uncluttered approach than B2C clients, who are more attracted to innovative and graphic styles. 

Emphasize The Products

The objective of a catalog is to sell, and thus, a sensible catalog should perforate the things showcased to the greatest advantage. Products must be the emphasis of the composition with all the other components encircling them. 

Use images that illustrate the products in use to help the buyers imagine them in their own spaces. A product description vein also praises selling that particular item, for instance, how it helps the buyer or makes their life better. 

Customize Your Format And Size

Among the factors that influence product perception are catalog size and format. Even when there are more products in a larger catalog, the arrangement should be orderly. 

Establish how many products you would wish to present and how much space each product takes up. By adopting fewer items per page and more white space, certain specialist firms, often engaged in selling high-end goods, can verify the art and the quality of the goods. 

Consider this — who are you trying to convince when you choose to publish a print or a digital version of the catalog? Careful arrangement of the wares makes the customers linger longer at the point of sale to appreciate the displayed goods.

Use High-Resolution Images

Pictures are a must if you aim to make an impression and sell the catalog. Photographic images of a high-quality resolution are required to enhance the look of the products. Pictures make people curious enough to approach them, direct their attention to the main selling points, and increase sales in the end.

Use larger pictures to show the details of the craftsmanship and the beauty of the expensive items. All the pictures should have professional lighting and angles. Pictures are crucial in respect of how appealing the catalog looks; therefore, make sure that all images are attractive and well-lit. 

How Long Does It Take To Create A Catalog?

It is important to understand all the factors that affect the time required to create a catalog, which may vary from two to several months. It saves time if all the product information and photographs are arranged in advance. 

Simple, complete catalog management costs designers, on average, about 30 hours every month. However, if you are working from scratch, collecting research data, classifying it, and constructing the catalog can take hundreds of hours.

Out of all these tasks, the most labor-intensive and, therefore, time-consuming task when creating a catalog from scratch is gathering information and images of the products. The process can go faster and easier when you have this information ready in advance. 

7 Factors To Consider While Setting Up The Catalog Design Charge

There are a range of factors that warrant consideration when drafting a fee for catalog design. So, remember these things while setting up your pricing for catalog design: 

Size And Page Count 

The size and the number of pages in the catalog are determining factors in the price. It is more economical in time and resources to create a short catalog, usually 3-4 pages, than a lengthy one that can go as many as 30 pages. 

The timeline for the project will be increased because each page has its own imagery, layout, and product copy. The design can be refined even more if the number of products designed increases. 

In the case of bigger catalogs, though, more money is needed to print high-quality books, and more storage space has to be available on the computer. If your quote includes any number of pages, then any additional ones must be quoted since there is additional time to be spent on such pages.

Design Complexity

Catalog design can sometimes have to equal the volume of literary works. There is a linear relationship between the design complexity and the cost. 

The complex design could demand advanced software tools, more resources, and creativity. On the other hand, the cost has to match the standard of every item produced regardless of its size, from the crafting of the font type to the arrangement of the blog.

Making Use Of Clear Images

It is quite obvious that all product catalogs, but especially the ones with prestige products, require high-quality pictures. Images for a catalog should be chosen wisely, the same as any other nice, professionally done pictures.

It is the norm for the images to be bright, clear, and formatted for screen and print purposes before handing over the work to designers. When clients need high-quality images for designers to work with, timelines are likely to extend because there are images that require replacements.

The cost of designing catalogs in this manner should include the price for additional services provided, which include, but are not limited to, discovering or taking new images specifically for the catalog. 

The Assets Already Owned By Undertake Clients

In the possibility that your client already has branding or a catalog list from previous experiences, this may save some time and be less risky. It is good to have guidelines states, templates, or a catalog design already done so that creative images can be selected faster. 

Use of this will involve much time as it, apart from templates, represents the building of their logo, colors, and other trademark features. More research will have to be done in order to understand and fully utilize the brand when designing the new catalog. Your charges may also vary depending on this. 

Reviews

The revision of an already designed system should have been avoided as it is expensive and rather time-consuming. However, they are unavoidable, especially in the design stage. 

No matter how minor a revision may appear on the Client’s side, it can add rapidly. During your initial agreement, be sure to consider a specific quantity within the number of that specific number of months, as the grades would be averaged. 

Once this period has been breached, it would be advisable to charge for excess correction that is within reach. Change requests need to be taken seriously and considered as soon as they arise so that the project does not extend further than the planned budget.  

Delivery Mode

One predominant factor in determining the prevailing price is the method of delivery of the catalogs. However, the effort required to come up with the design for a print version of the catalog, including elements such as the bleed lines and the surety of it being in print format, may take lots of time. 

However, digital catalogs may add clickable links, which add a great deal of complexity to the cataloging system. Such unlike items should be studied thoroughly before giving a price as each of the items is likely to have different technical requirements. 

Timeframe 

The amount you charge for catalog design will depend on how long it will take to complete the project. In other cases, it is suggested that additional costs be incurred if there is a need for feedback within a short time frame because the particular client’s project will need to be prioritized over others. 

In these rushed situations, clients expect rapid decisions and long working hours, which means more work for the designer that may be unnecessary if the period had been normal. Then again, a longer period allows room for more revision and for not rushing. Know how long that project should take and revise sums as per the nature of that particular job and its urgency.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the 3 types of catalogue?

There are three types of catalogs: alphabetical, classified, and alphabetico-classed. Alphabetical catalogs contain items arranged by subject, author, title, or any other reference like the alphabet. Subjects or other categories arrange the contents of classified catalogs. Someone may use the combined approach of alphabetico-classed, in which items that are placed within the differently classified sections are placed in alphabetical order.

Which is the most popular form of catalogue?

The Library patrons widely use card catalogs. It uses the standard card and filing system arranged for such queries as author, subject, title, and call number, among others. This helps the patrons of the library to better search for particular items in a collection of different materials.

How to create a catalog?

The first step in creating a catalog is to gather all the data regarding the products, including their descriptions and prices. What comes after this will be where the structure and the design of the catalog book should be the next concern. Afterward, adopt the catalog creation format that is most appealing to you.  

Bottom Line 

Now that you know how much to charge for catalog design, we hope you can set the pricing for your catalog designs wisely. Setting up the price becomes easier when you consider the factors that we have given above. However, make sure to do proper competitor research before finalizing your charges for the design.