Dear R,
Thank you very much that is excellent advice!!! I can now make a quotation to this client with total confidence!!

While I have never come across such thing as an official guideline, I hope this will help.

For me, designing a range (no matter how small) means providing mood boards, along with line sheets, specs, construction sketch and a first pattern. All this is delivered in a CD along with one hard (printed) copy of each item.
The price for such a project would range anywhere between £50 and £200 per _style_
If they only want a sketch, they need to clarify what they will use it for (mood board, line sheet, construction) and where they expect me to work from
95% of my projects are created from my studio, delivered and approved via e-mail.
For those few accounts who insist on watching my every move my rates work out very expensive, but this is to discourage them from making me do unnecessary trips or force me to use outdated computers.
OTHER FACTORS I TAKE INTO ACCOUNT FOR PRICING ARE HOW SOON THEY WANT THE PROJECT (12 hours, one week, one month) AND HOW MUCH WORK I AM GETTING FROM THIS CUSTOMER ON A REGULAR BASIS (Am I constantly fixing other people's projects?, Do I only get the difficult ones on a very short notice?, Do they give me work on a regular basis?)

With first time clients, I DON'T EVEN SWITCH ON MY COMPUTER UNTIL WE'VE HAD A BRIEFING, THEY HAVE UNDERSTOOD AND SIGNED THE CONTRACT AND PAID A 50% DEPOSIT.

Good Luck!

Hello R - thank you for the good sound advise. I am struggling with what price level I should quote as I do not want to under sell myself but at the same time I do not want to scare off this potential client - is there a _base_ rate for this kind of service?

Hello!
Having worked on a freelance basis for the last 7 years, I have learned to work around two main price structures.
One is the itemized way, for instance one flat rate for a black and white sketch, then extra for every colour added to it, and then extra if they want a hard copy instead of an email file.
The other way is to figure out how many hours you think the project will take you, then multiply it by an hourly fee that you feel comfortable with.
THE MAIN THING IS FOR YOU TO PROVIDE A WRITTEN PROPOSAL OUTLINING THE BASIC TERMS OF YOUR SERVICES (WHAT, WHY, HOW, WHEN, WHERE, HOW MUCH), AND THIS WAY IF IT TURNS OUT TO TAKE LONGER THAN ANTICIPATED, YOU CAN ILLUSTRATE WHY THE PRICE HAS CHANGED ACCORDINGLY.

i have been approached by a company to do a small collection of ladies design sketches. I am not sure how to price this - i need a guide line.