How to Quote a Commission From the Brief
Quoting a commission by feel produces two failure modes: the quote that loses the job and the quote that wins it and then costs you money. A structured quote avoids both by making the price a consequence of the brief.
Build the quote from the brief
The commission calculator takes a base rate for one simple subject and applies the things that actually change the work: complexity, the number of subjects, revisions beyond the included rounds, commercial use, and a rush deadline.
Take a base of 150. A detailed piece (complexity 1.5) with two subjects, two extra revision rounds at 25 each, commercial use at a 50% uplift and a 25% rush charge comes to 937.50 — six and a quarter times the base.
None of that is a markup pulled from the air. Each step corresponds to something the client asked for.
Complexity is a multiplier, not an addition
Flat colour and full rendering are not the same job with a bit more effort; they can differ by a factor of two or three in hours. Multiplying the base captures that, and it scales correctly as the base rate rises with experience.
The multiplier is worth calibrating against your own tracked hours rather than adopting someone else's. Two or three brackets — simple, detailed, complex — is usually enough.
Subjects multiply too
A second character is close to a second piece of work: another design, another pose, another set of corrections. Charging per subject rather than adding a small surcharge is what stops a "quick group portrait" becoming the worst-paid job of the month.
Include revisions, then charge for them
Two included rounds and a stated fee beyond that is the standard arrangement, and the point is not the revenue. It is that an unlimited-revision commission has no defined end, and open-ended work is where commission projects go wrong.
Say the number in the quote. "Two rounds of revisions included, further rounds at 25 each" is a complete answer to a question clients otherwise ask halfway through.
Commercial use is a different licence
A piece used for a personal profile and the same piece on packaging are not the same product. The client is buying a different set of rights, and the uplift reflects the value they will get rather than the extra hours you will spend, of which there are none.
Agree the scope in writing — where it will appear, for how long, in which territories — because "commercial" covers everything from one social post to a national campaign.
Rush fees protect the rest of the schedule
A compressed deadline displaces other work or takes evenings, and both have a cost. A percentage uplift prices that honestly and, usefully, gives the client a real choice: many discover the deadline was softer than stated.
Show the breakdown
Send the quote with its lines visible — base, complexity, subjects, revisions, licence, rush. A single number invites haggling over the total; an itemised quote turns the conversation into which line to remove, which is a far better conversation to be having.
One quote, built up a line at a time
| What the client asked for | Running total |
|---|---|
| Base, one simple subject | $180.00 |
| Detailed rather than simple | $270.00 |
| Two subjects | $540.00 |
| Two extra revision rounds | $630.00 |
| Commercial licence | $945.00 |
| Rush deadline | $1,181.25 |
The same commission is $180.00 at its simplest and $1,181.25 with everything the client actually asked for — 6.6 times the price, arrived at one reasonable-sounding request at a time.
The two lines clients never expect
Revisions. 2 rounds are included; the 2 extra add $90.00 at $45.00 each. Saying so in the quote converts an argument into a line item.
Commercial use. The 50% uplift adds $315.00 here, and it is not a surcharge for the same work — it is a different thing being sold. A personal-use illustration and a licence to put that illustration on packaging are not the same product.
Why itemising wins the negotiation
A single number invites haggling over the number. An itemised quote moves the conversation to scope, where the client can genuinely reduce the price by asking for less — one subject instead of two, no rush, personal use.
That is a better conversation for both sides. The client keeps control of the cost and you stop discounting the work.
Check it against your rate
The commission calculator gives the price; the rate calculator tells you whether it is enough. At $63.77 an hour, the $1,181.25 quote has to be deliverable in 18.5 hours to be worth taking.
If it will realistically take twice that, the quote is wrong regardless of what the client thinks of it.
Put the exclusions in writing
What is not included is as load-bearing as what is. Source files, print rights, exclusivity, the right to alter the work later — each is a separate thing that clients reasonably assume is included unless the quote says otherwise.
A quote that names them costs nothing extra to write and removes the conversation where a finished $1,181.25 commission turns into a request for the layered file, for free, at the end.
Deposit, and why it belongs in the quote
A commission is bespoke and unsellable to anyone else, so a deposit is not a formality — it is the only protection against a client changing their mind halfway. A third up front on a $1,181.25 quote is $393.75, and it also filters out the enquiries that were never going to become work.
Quoting a range, and when not to
Early enquiries often cannot be quoted precisely, and a range is honest. The mistake is quoting a range and then delivering at the top of it — clients hear the bottom number and remember it.
A better shape is a firm price for a defined scope plus a published rate for anything beyond it: $180.00 for one simple subject, with extra subjects, revisions past 2 rounds and commercial licensing each priced separately. The client then controls the total, and the $1,181.25 version is something they chose rather than something that happened to them.