Custom icons

It’s tempting… to get icons from the internet. Because it’s fast, convenient, and sometimes free. Like food delivery. But that also means your business ends up looking like everyone else.

My icons service is suitable if your brand has reached a point where you can no longer use stock icons or you want to go the custom route from the get-go. Whether for your website, app, or print materials, I‘ll design icons that feel like the perfect extension of your brand.

Wanna see how our conversation might go?

Rhetorical question. Read on.

Hey Zlatko. My app has been using free icons for years, but I‘ve reached a point where I can no longer compromise on that. Moreover, my product is too specific, and stock icons feel too ambiguous to describe our features.

Hi fancy client. This is a struggle for many. Businesses rarely pay attention to those little visual gems unless they start to feel off-brand.

Right. So I‘ll need 5 icons for each of the services my app offers.

And then, I like to replace all system icons we use in our app with custom ones. They are about 50 or so. How much will it all cost?

Depends on the complexity and context.

The 5 icons for your services will cost $100 per icon.

That's more than I expected. Why such a price?

Such icons are rather expressive, complex, and rich in details to the point of being very close to illustrations. We might review plenty of iterations on them to nail down a story for each. Also, the quantity is only 5, and I usually lower the price as the number of such icons increases.

Got it. Can you send me an example of what you mean by expressive and rich in details?

Sure.

Neat. That‘s exactly what I need. How about the other 50 system icons?

Such icons are usually designed on a tiny canvas and are pretty simple. Their purpose is to explain, not to tell a story, so they must rely on universal visual metaphors. Thus, it‘s easier to design them. Considering the large quantity, I‘ll quote them at only $30 per icon.

Wanna see an example?

Sure, go ahead.

These are designed for a client‘s mobile app.

That‘s it. So, all in all, the total price will be $2,000.

Yeap.

And what if I need an extra icon or two in the future?

That usually happens. In such cases, I go with the following pricing tiers.

For 1–5 icons, the price will be $60 per icon.
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For 5–10 icons, $45.
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Everything above 10 in a bulk will go by the original price of $30.

Interesting approach.

We have a marketing team in our company that dabbles in design. I wonder if you can provide some guidance so that instead of you, they can design additional icons in the same style.

Sure. I can create an icon guide booklet that explains the anatomy, the unique features, and other technical gimmicks, which helps other designers continue on. That‘ll cost $500 more.

I see. And what would be the deliverables?

The usuals. I‘ll provide you the icons in vector and raster format and the icons booklet in PDF format.

Alright, so $2,500 in total for the whole project.

How does the payment process go?

Simple. I ask 100% upfront.

Oh, why not 50% before and 50% after?

We can do that, but I‘ll remove the money-back guarantee from the agreement.

You offer a money-back guarantee?

Yeah, as a token of trust.

Fair enough. And once you provide me with the deliverables, I‘ll have the right to use the icons in any way I want, right?

True. I address that in the agreement as a work-for-hire type of collaboration.

Excellent.

It‘s a deal, then. Have a great rest of the day.

You too. Cheers!

And don‘t forget to bookmark this website.

Wait, what? Oh, wow. That‘s so meta. 🤯

😊

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