Transparency and trust lead to long-term relationships between you and our agency. Getting to this point means being upfront about how certain design requests could possibly increase your budget.

Because of this, we never slap surprise fees on a project that already has an approved estimate. Instead, we are transparent about what is part of your project’s scope and give you a heads-up about anything that could fall outside it.

Let’s look into some of the most common things that can bump up project costs and how to deal with them.

But first, here is a quick reminder about scope.

A refresher on project scope

Custom design projects like logos, rebrands, website redesigns, etc., are estimated based on many factors, including types of deliverables, how many, and specifications, among other things. The final estimate and scope you’ll receive include a detailed description of each deliverable, cost, schedule, and other project requirements.

Before any work begins, you’ll review and approve the scope unless there are any changes you want to make. Once you give us the “okay,” this document serves as our guide and what we refer to while working on your project.

However, there are instances where certain requests can go beyond the approved scope, leading to additional costs.

Exceeding your revision limit

We usually offer a set number of revisions for every design project. For instance, logo designs usually include two revisions to the concepts, and our designers will then refine the one you’ve chosen.

However, if you surpass this initial amount, there might be an extra charge.

What to do?
Indecisiveness is the enemy of the review process—and your budget. Consolidating your feedback streamlines your project’s progress, making it easier for the designer to understand what you’re looking for. It also helps reduce the back-and-forth that comes with one-off comments, causing unnecessarily excessive edits.

Modified schedules and last-minute deadlines

Sometimes, unavoidable situations arise that call for moving the due date up. Under these circumstances, these would be considered a “rush” or urgent request, which we’ve written more about here.

Because our team would need to rearrange the existing project workflow and bring in extra resources to meet your need deadline, you would have to consider whether it’s worth the extra expense.

What to do?
Adding some buffer room into your schedule can help decrease sudden requests. However, we realize life happens. When you need a design cranked out ASAP, we’ll work with you to see what the most realistic solution is to give you a good result that hits your deadline.

File format and specification changes

Once a final design is approved, we provide the file formats you, your printer, or the developer need to produce and launch it. We set the files up according to the original specifications provided when creating the initial project scope.

However, if these details change, especially after the design has gotten the final thumbs up, this could increase project expenses because the designers will have to rebuild the file, adjusting the graphics to fit the new format.

What to do?
The best way to avoid this is to confirm what file requirements your printer, developer, or other vendor needs to produce the final product. Double-checking the specifications helps you avoid the costs of redoing the design. And if you don’t feel comfortable speaking the language of printers and developers, our team can communicate with them directly.

Scope creep

We defined project scope earlier. Now, let’s talk about scope creep, more specifically, what is classified as a small change versus a large one. When we talk about scope creep, we mean that additional deliverables or tasks are added to a project that exceeds its original requirements.

For example, if you commission us to design a landing page and want to change a word or two, this is considered a small enough change that it’s still within the project’s scope.

However, if you’ve decided to expand the landing page design into a series of social media posts, this would be outside the original scope because these are new deliverables. Because of this, a change order is required, which would show the extra fees associated with producing the social post graphics. It would need to be approved before we would create them.

What to do?
Communication is key. A clear project scope outlines the deliverables, what they entail, and when they’ll be delivered. When you want to change it, we’ll work together to identify whether your request still falls within them or outside the scope requirements.

Communication leads to lasting partnerships

When making decisions about your project, we encourage you to consider the end result of what you want and work backward to define what creative assets are needed to get there. This planning is essential for us to create an estimate that gives you an accurate overview of the project scope and overall cost.

However, things come up even after an estimate is approved. Your deliverables may increase, decrease, or change altogether, which means adjusting the scope.

Our goal is to cultivate a partnership built on trust and transparency, not surprises. We’ll communicate whether your request falls within or outside of the project scope so you can see the costs (if there are any) and make an informed decision about how to move forward.