Hi, this is not directly about JUCE per se, but as the JUCE forum brings together many audio developers I figured it would be an appropriate place to ask.
I am currently talking to someone about doing graphic design for a plug-in I have developed. We are discussing payment, and I wanted to ask around to see what the going rates were for this kind of work. Their end of the project would involve creating animation frames for knobs, sliders, and a level meter, as well as designing a background and logo and selecting an appropriate font.
I want to compensate them fairly, but at the same time do not want to overshoot the budget of this project. If I could get an idea of what people are normally paid for this kind of thing it would be extremely helpful.
Depends on the complexity of the design. It can range from several hundred USD for a simple one or two days job, to literally several thousand USD for something that takes several weeks.
While there are sites where you can hire folks to do this… there’s no guarantee what their work will be like… We went with a recommendation from a fellow developer with an iconic line of plug-ins… While it’s a more expensive option around $150/hour… you know the artist has experience developing for the format and you can trust them. That said, I’ve also had an Artist in Canada do artwork at < $50/hour (with less experience) who is very creative and has done some really good work for us.
My recommendation is to rely on word of mouth or checking out their portfolio.
That said, making your plug-in designer friendly goes a long way to save the artist’s billable time - I created a class to use comma delimited files to set object size and placement and a Graphics preference page where the artist was able to change the CSV files and resources externally and then press a button to have the whole plug-in refresh it’s graphics… and also set colors for different objects dynamically. That way the artist can instantly see their artwork inside your plug-in and adjust things to fit.
