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Pixels and Waves
Adventures in Digital Art
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October 2006
- Vol 1, Issue 2
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In This Issue
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Quick Links
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Dear Ignatius Makarevich,
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Welcome to the second issue of Pixels and Waves,
the latest occasional newsletter of IFM Productions LLC.
Most of the readers of this issue are new, and if you're
wondering why you received it, well, I've taken the
advice of a friend, an attorney, and subscribed my
address book to the list... so... I may have met you
at a Greenwich
or Stamford
Chamber event, a CoolTea
event, given you a quote, "met" through
ArtWanted.com,
you are a current client or you're a personal friend
or something along those lines. Hopefully you'll be
at least moderately amused, and I do hope you enjoy
it, but if not, down at the bottom you'll find the
opt-out link.
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How much should a website cost?
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Whenever I meet someone or get an email or a
referral or a call out of the blue, the one thing
everyone wants to know straight away is, "How much
will the website cost?" Most of the time, my
response results in rapid flight... in the wrong
direction... which is, as you might imagine, not
good for my heart.
Palpitations are not aided by the fact that, after
scoping out the competition, the prices that IFM
Productions charges for site design are actually
pretty reasonable! Our sites are custom-built and
hand-crafted, and it is easily possible to spend a
lot more elsewhere for what amounts to the same thing.
Web design and development is pretty intensive in
building and testing labor, and there is quite a bit
of pre-production to make sure a client gets what is
expected. There are variables... whether it is to be
a "regular" site, an e-commerce site or a blog, the
scope of the design as to how many styling elements
might be needed for various pages and the complexity
of the graphical layout of the site in general.
OK, here we go... the answer, please... cue drum
roll... a basic website starts at $1,200, a blog at
$1,500. Qualifiers include minimal graphic
complexity, no custom logo design or custom icon
production. For your investment you will receive
high performance, hand-crafted and browser-tested
CSS and XHTML and a really good looking yet simple
graphic design.
Due to the complexities and
demands
of back-end programming, e-commerce sites start at
$6,500 with the same level of graphical complexity.
Adding features to standard sites like extra
graphics, plug-in support and video streams will
push the cost up around $2,000, and if you desire
something quite fancy it could get up to around
$3,000... but you'd have one heck of a killer
website... be assured of that! In most instances
such features are not required or requested, but are
certainly available if you have a need.
While any of these pricetags would decidedly be a
luxury item for an individual, for a company,
however, is it not conceivable that for the exposure
and the branding received, such an investment would
be quite reasonable?
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The Graphic Artists Guild
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Continuing on our financial theme, as a member of
the Graphic Artists Guild, I adhere to the pricing
and ethical guidelines that they have created. Who is
GAG? From their website...
"The Graphic Artists Guild is a national union of
illustrators, designers, web creators, production
artists, surface designers and other creatives who
have come together to pursue common goals, share
their experience, raise industry standards, and
improve the ability of visual creators to achieve
satisfying and rewarding careers.
We do this through democratic and egalitarian means
within a structure open to all working artists.
Every Guild member is guaranteed a voice and the
opportunity to actively participate."
If you buy any sort of art, from business cards to
websites to print ads to, well, art, then you really
should pick up a copy of the industry-standard
handbook for both pricing and ethical
guidelines. It is of course invaluable to artists,
but also very much so to art buyers, giving
you a better understanding of what goes into a
project and what should be happening as things
progress. Click the link below to check it out.
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I'm hoping that this edition of Pixels and Waves has
met with your approval and has given some insight
and enjoyment... and that I didn't ramble on too
long! As always, thanks for being there, and do feel
free to contact me if you find yourself in need of
some art. Take care...
Sincerely,
Iggy Makarevich
IFM Productions LLC
phone:
203.253.8391 cell or 203.661.9326
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Forward email
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IFM Productions LLC | 67 Valley Road | Cos Cob | CT | 06807
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