MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Pricing is a dark art, especially in our creative field. There are no set rules, and everyone faces the dilemma of whether the services a creative provides are overpriced or underpriced.
From freelance workers to agencies and studios, while creative and design work is loved and celebrated, one cannot survive on sheer determination and passion alone. It’s pretty hard to think of Pantones and typefaces when faced with bills and accounting matters.
We have many classes on creativity and the technical aspects of design, but we still lack lessons on finance and business acumen.
To combat this, Extra Price Please was held last October 12 at Yuchengco Museum, in collaboration with the Design Center of the Philippines and the Communication Design Association of the Philippines, as part of the celebration of Design Week Philippines.
This event was originally launched under “I Saw Design” in 2018 and was recreated for CDAP in May 2024 at Manila Middle Ground. The reception was so positive that it had to be relaunched on a bigger stage this time.
The event featured three speakers, all representing different points of view: Edward Nonay of Wall vs Crayon for freelancers, Joel Darwin of NS Design for design studios, and Katherine Castro of Thrive Global, representing the accounting firm perspective.
Edward Nonay kicked off with his computations on expenses and explained how to calculate the hourly rate that a freelancer can use as a starting point for making better business decisions on pricing. Joel Darwin, the second speaker, discussed determining your true value using fixed cost items like bills, and advised getting a good accountant as your studio grows. Lastly, Katherine Castro provided a simple yet comprehensive step-by-step explanation of concepts such as costs, sales price, and net and gross profit.
It was a jam-packed session, and with only three questions asked during the Q&A portion due to time constraints, it seems like there’s a need for another session. Also in attendance were Hon. Cong. Toff de Venecia, proponent of Republic Act 11904 or the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act, and Rhea Matute, Executive Director of the Design Center of the Philippines.
From Extra Price Please, we now need extra sessions of these to learn more about the business side of design!
