Mural Pricing 101
If you’re on this page, there is basically a 100% chance you want to know how to price a mural. And you’ve come to the right place! Before we get into all that fun stuff, though, we want to address a few things…. namely, the stigma of being an artist who makes good money.
Breaking The Starving Artist Stereotype
The “starving artist” is a concept that has been romanticized by years of artists sacrificing income, material goods, time, and more to focus on creating something that has “meaning.” We’ve met so many artists who pride themselves in creating gorgeous work (as they should), while simultaneously looking down upon those who try to profit from it. They think art should be made solely for the sake of making art, and those who actively try to make a good living off of it are sell-outs. A real artist would never!
Well, if you’re new to Pandr, we’re in this space to say f*ck. that.
It’s the 21st century, people. An Italian artist was recently paid over $18k for an invisible sculpture, made out of “literally nothing.” So, yeah, we think it’s safe to say that it's about time you get paid (a fair, live-able wage) for your work.
When we started San Diego Letters in 2015 (now Pandr Design Co.), we had absolutely no understanding of how to run a business - and especially no idea on how to price our murals. We reached out to other artists and designers for advice on what to charge, but we were always met with vague numbers and dropped conversations. It was so frustrating! We quickly realized that talking numbers was a taboo in this industry, and we think that's crazy. We believe that it benefits all of us to be transparent about pricing, and we’ve since made it part of our mission to help other artists-turned-businesses break the starving artist stereotype, and make art and a great living.
Today, we have painted 200+ murals, and our business makes over $700k per year. After years of outreach, hard work, mistakes, successes, and a whole lotta tears, we’re able to make six-figures doing what we love because we know our value, and we know how to sell to clients.
5 Most Important Things to Remember When Pricing Your Mural
Price your mural based on size
Mural pricing should always be based on size. Clients should be paying a certain dollar amount per square foot or meter - end of question. A client wants to pay you XXX for 5 hours of work? No. They want to pay a small upfront fee to see some initial designs? No, again. An all-inclusive rate is better for both you and the client by ensuring that you both are clear on the parameters of the contract and project at hand from the get-go.
What should be included in an all-inclusive rate?
Design time
Design time encompasses all the pre-installation work, and revisions, that you do on your iPad, in your notebook, wherever. Typically we spend about 4-8 hours working out final designs, but that number definitely varies depending on experience, level of detail in your design, and specific requests from the client.
Correspondence
How much time will be spent communicating with the client really depends on how involved the client wants to be. Sometimes you get lucky and they’re pretty hands off, and other times you might be fielding emails left and right. This is your time, and you should be charging for it!
Supplies
Sometimes we roll onto a site with used paint brushes and old paint colors, but most of the time we are buying brand new stuff. Supplies doesn’t just mean brushes, tape, and paint, but those are what should be included in your price. Supplies NOT included in your upfront charge? Special supplies (like a scissor lift), travel to and from the site, and licensing of artwork. More on special supplies and how to charge for them in our Mural Pricing Guide!
Insurance
If you’re working on a client property, you will need to have liability insurance. More on that, here.
Average Cost of Living in Your City
When it comes to pricing your mural, we also highly suggest that you look up the average cost of living in your city. In San Diego, for example, the average cost is $100k a year. We know, that number sounds crazy for many of us- especially after years of being underpaid and undervalued. But, if we want to live an "average" lifestyle in our hometown, we need to make sure that we're bringing in $100k each. These prices vary wildly across the US, but what remains constant is that all of us should be charging enough to make a decent living. We don't want artists living below the poverty level!!!!
What shouldn’t be included in an all-inclusive rate?
Copyright of your artwork, or any additional usage besides having the mural in a client’s space for passersby to enjoy. This is a big one. If a client wants to use your work for t-shirts, a digital campaign, or in video - charge them extra. Otherwise, you could be leaving a lot of passive income on the table.
Learn more about this by checking out our Mural Art Licensing Guide. Licensing can be very confusing, so we created this 25 page guide to walk you through how to copyright your work, how to pitch licensing to clients, what to include on estimates and contracts about licensing, and most importantly: WHAT TO CHARGE!
Something to note
We don't recommend anyone do any project below $1000 - no matter what. Even if the mural is as small as 1ft x 1ft, $1000 should be the baseline fee to account for everything we noted in the all-inclusive rate (correspondence, insurance, travel time, etc). We’ve undercharged for enough murals at this point to feel very strongly about this. More on THAT in our Mural Pricing Guide!
There 👏🏻 Is 👏🏻 No 👏🏻 Work 👏🏻 Without 👏🏻 A 👏🏻 Signed 👏🏻 Contract
Can we get it louder for the people in back? If there is one thing you take away from our blog posts, it is that NOTHING HAPPENS WITHOUT A SIGNED CONTRACT. First and foremost, without a contract you have zero protection when it comes to the client holding up their end of the deal and paying you. Verbal contracts don’t mean anything in this space, and you will have no leg to stand on if a client stiffs you unless you have something written and signed in hand.
If a client doesn’t want to sign anything, that’s a red flag - especially as a contract is meant to protect them as well! A contract helps the client see everything that is included in your process and for what cost, and it gets you organized with a vision for what kind of time and energy will be needed for the job.
Finally, having a well laid out contract is just plain professional. With any business, optics are a big part of getting people to want to work with you. A contract will help potential clients take you for the serious business owner that you are.
It took us a while to get this part right, but you can cut right to the chase by downloading our Mural Contract Template. You’ll get the exact document we send to clients (yours to own for life!), so you can get right to work knowing that you and your work will be fully protected.
ALWAYS get 50% upfront before ANY work begins
It can be difficult to get the courage to talk about money with a client, especially when you are just starting out. Asking for 50% of your total fee upfront might make you feel as though you’re being “demanding” (especially if you’re a woman! IYKYK), and makes the assumption that you think your time is valuable enough to be paid for. News flash: your time IS valuable, and you aren’t being demanding. You’re running a business! There is nothing personal about asking a client to put money on the table before you produce anything; getting 50% payment, along with a signed contract, is for your own protection. Don’t you dare start designing until you have those two things in hand!
Increase your prices every six months
Your prices should increase by at least a few dollars per square foot every six months, or anytime that you get really busy. Experience = value, so don’t underestimate yourself. Considering that many companies give their employees a 3% salary increase (outside of any bonuses) yearly, you should be doing the same to account for inflation (which where we live in California is actually 7% a year!). Supplies, travel - basically everything you will need to produce good work - will cost more tomorrow than it does today. If you aren’t accounting for that in your pricing structure, you’re not positioning yourself for long term success.
Living life during a global pandemic also needs to be taken into account here. In the past 12 months alone (this article was written in February of 2022), hardware material prices have increased 19.4%! We'll be the first to tell you, that can really add up when it comes to your baseline expenses. The supply chain issues you see memes about all over Instagram isn't actually so funny when you consider that the mural industry is grounded in access to raw goods and materials. Even finding the right paint these days is difficult. Haters say we're greedy for upping our prices during a pandemic, we say we're keeping our business afloat - and you should be too!
And, finally, let us not forget that the gender pay gap in America is still alive and well, despite all the buzz about closing that gap in recent years. While we are so happy to see women slowly earning their fair share of the pie, the reality is that white men are still getting paid more than everybody. We believe if we aren't advocating for the same wages men make, we're contributing to the problem. Every time a woman is paid what she's worth, we're one step closer to equality.
Double the price for all extra expenses
You know when life is annoying sometimes? That’s not changing anytime soon. Adding some extra financial padding to your mural fee ensures that when something unexpected pops up, you aren’t eating costs that aren’t accounted for.
Some examples of extra expenses:
Going to buy paint and realizing the only color you need is 3x the cost of what you usually would buy.
You order a scissor lift and realize on day one that you need to switch it out for a taller one.
You check your bag of supplies at the airport and it’s overweight by 2 lbs - aka, you are paying an extra fee to get your tools to the job site.
Did you get a job out of town? Congrats! Make sure you factor in the cost of your flight, train ticket, car rental, or gas mileage. It’s standard practice for a client to pay for travel when someone comes to them - not just in the mural industry, but across the board.
Extra padding for last minute expenses is standard across many businesses, and has saved us quite a few times. Make sure you have that cushion!
Not sure which supplies you should come ready to paint with? Check out a comprehensive list of our personal favorites on our DIY Mural Supply List.
Go forth with confidence!
As we mentioned, we’ve been frustrated by the lack of transparency in the mural industry when it comes to what to charge your clients. Our hope is that by sharing these few tips, you will be able to implement them and lay the foundation for creating beautiful art, while also making that dough. You can do it, and you deserve it!