Seeking Pricing Advice for Custom Piece

[HARJO]

Hi all,

I appreciate everyone's advice on this forum, so I figured I'd throw this one out to get some feedback on what you'd charge.

New customer contacts me to essentially replicate the piece pictured.

customer example.jpg

Sized at 36" width. At least two layers for the main body of the piece, to achieve that "engraved look", and mounted to a 5' stake. She wants to have each layer powder coated in metallic colors, I send out for powder services, so I usually just add the actual for that service to my total.

What would y'all charge for design time, and to produce the raw piece? Thanks!

[adbuch]

Except for the fact that the lettering is not "stencil" - so the centers of the BOARD letters would fall out, It looks like the heart is 2 layers with the background layer painted white to show thru for the letters and small white dots. You would really need to see some better photos to figure out exactly how the lettering is done. The butterfly is mounted on top - so really 3 layers. I think pricing depends on your hourly rate for design/cutting with materials/paint added on top of that. If it needs to be an "exact" duplicate, then you probably need to do a manual trace on the butterfly. Otherwise there are plenty of generic butterfly images on Google. Since I am not in the business, I probably work a little bit slower than the pros. Between programming, setup, cutting, grinding/cleaning, travel time to powder coat, assembly, etc. I would guess I would probably have at least 8 hours into it. If my rate was $50/hr, then $400 plus materials/paint. So maybe around $600 total. I'm sure that others might be faster and charge less, or maybe they are "high dollar" and charge more. I have heard of some charging $100/hr.

I spent a little time playing around just to see how I might do it. Other than the letters, this is what I came up with. My dxf file would need to be scaled down by about a factor of 16 to achieve the 36" size of the heart.
David

heart with butterfly image 1.jpg

heart and butterfly image 2.jpg

heart and butterfly.dxf

[AREA]

Just a quick quote in my mind I expect I would charge around $500-$600 for this one powder coated and done.

[HARJO]

WOW, @adbuch I massively appreciate the drawing! Also, thank you @AREA for the price range suggestion!

[adbuch]

WOW, @adbuch I massively appreciate the drawing! Also, thank you @AREA for the price range suggestion!

No problem. Be sure to show us the finished product if you get the job.
David