You may never revise the project cost stated in the Contract.

Clients often think that the project cost stated in the Contract is set in stone when they first approach a branding agency. If the agency has quoted a price, they should stick to it, right? Regardless of whether the client decides to change the design concept halfway through the project or if there are sudden changes in the shape and size of the packaging for which the design project is being developed…

However, we want to challenge this mindset and provide some recommendations on changing the cost of packaging design projects.

No matter how thoroughly you discuss the brief before starting work, no matter how carefully you draft the contract, there is always a chance that during the process, you will want to make changes, additions, increase the number of sketches, or make more revisions. This will require additional agency hours, and of course, they should be paid for.

Nevertheless, if you have built a good relationship with the agency team and plan to continue collaborating, you can always ask for a discount on additional work or inquire about the possibility of offsetting them against a future project.

We believe that any reputable branding agency will always be willing to do a little more than promised in the contract, especially if you recommend them on your social networks or to your business partners through word of mouth. After all, any company values ​​good relationships with clients and positive recommendations. Such an exchange of services will be mutually beneficial.

As an example of such cooperation, let us share a case with one of our clients, a manufacturer of low-alcohol beverages. “Hot Idea” won a paid tender to develop the design for a line of gin tonics. We successfully completed the first stage of the work. The client liked the packaging design concept. The choice was to receive the previously agreed payment and leave or refine the layout to the final production stage (which was not initially included in the contract).

We decided to participate in the refinement process and bring it to completion. Moreover, during our collaboration, we had established good rapport with the client, and it was gratifying to help them a little more than originally agreed, on a purely human level.

Approved Phase 1 design concept for logo and packaging for gin and tonics:

As a result, our client got “his dream packaging design”, and we got a bright project for our portfolio (albeit without additional payment)), plus a new regular client and the prospect of interesting projects in the future.

Final gin and tonic packaging design sent to production: