Pricing a Mural

Introduction

Pricing a mural is something that I wanted to talk about as it can vary from one mural painter to another depending on reputation, experience and even location.

People looking on from the outside may think the pricing structure for a wall mural is as simple as figuring out the amount of paint used, size of the area and complexity of the project. In some respects this is true, but I would like to go in to this in a lot more detail stating the pros and cons and what I would do in each situation looking at things subjectively.



I believe there is no set way to pricing a mural job but you have to have set rules which you stick to which are clear and concise with your customer.

Consultation

When you receive that initial phone call or email from your next potential client what do you next? Do you offer a price to draw design ideas based on your conversation and messages? Or would you choose to come-up with designs free of charge?

This is an important factor to decide because coming up with designs in-itself can be the trickiest part of mural design, especially if the client is unsure exactly of what they want, they may have an idea in their mind but struggle to convey that idea correctly to you. This could result in a few week of creating designs which takes time and money to ultimately be denied the job.

Murals Edge Response;

For me personally I choose to process my design ideas and concepts up until the final design is created on a “free” basis. This is something I will re-evaluate in the future but at the time being it is part of my service.

Location

The location of your client is something important to consider.

Maybe you will choose to only work a set district or town or within a certain distance from your location. For example you may have a 50 mile radius which you are prepared to travel too.

Obviously, you can post your work worldwide if your client wants a canvas painting or something which is of a portable size.

Murals Edge Response;

I will never rule out the possibility of working anywhere, sometimes a client will want your work and will pay whatever the expenses are to have you work at their location, be it home or abroad – unfortunately this hasn’t happened to Murals Edge yet but one can hope!

With regards to sending a portable sized piece of art, be fair and charge the exact amount to your client and wrap your work extremely carefully. Most importantly send your work through a courier service with a high reputation, send recorded with tracking identification and a signature requirement on arrival.

Your work is a unique item which is irreplaceable, do not cut any corners with the costs and fully insure the work to the correct amount.

Travel & Accommodation Expenses

Being a muralist is similar to working as a contracted worker like a builder, plasterer, painter etc… so be prepared to travel to various locations.

If you are working outside your local area you may have to stay at a hotel close to the home or business you are working on for convenience.

Murals Edge Response;

From my experiences I have always asked for my daily travel expenses to be accountable for. I have never worked outside my local area on a mural painting job yet, this is something I would definitely consider discussing the various options but ultimately I would expect my hotel expenses to be paid for or something alternate arranged.

Paints & Material Prices

The wall mural has been designed and drawn and now it’s time to paint the mural.

So now the question is, do you charge your customer for the price of the paints and other various materials that you may use.

This is a difficult question for me to answer and is just my stance on the subject so I’m not saying that I am right but it is my honest opinion.

Murals Edge Response;

For me this is a slight grey area and another of the tricky factors of pricing-up a wall mural painting. For instance, do you know exactly the colours that you would need if you were painting a very colourful scene? It’s not like a painter & decorator who just needs a container of white paint to paint a ceiling and a container of colour for the walls, painting a wall mural is a much more complex beast and can contain over 50 unique colours which you can never foresee at the start. As a mural painter you will also be mixing the various colours to create that “exact” shade that you would need to replicate a famous graphic or character.

My solution is to ask my client for a percentage of my payment up-front which I then use to stock-up on various paints which I feel are very important for the job I’m working on. I do also like to keep my stock of acrylic paints up to date and add to these on a regular basis.

Ultimately I don’t feel like it’s fair to charge the customer for the paint expense as you cannot accurately count the volume precise enough due to my points made above. Would a portrait painter sell you their painting and then charge you for each colour they used on the painting? No, they just charge you for the final piece and that’s how I feel about mural painting.

Showing Your Prices

You are selling a unique product to each and every client, your expertise, style and knowhow to create a one of a kind wall mural which will be cherished forever. So, having said that, do you show your prices?

Murals Edge Response;

My answer to this is a resounding “NO!”  Here is my argument, if you are buying a mass produced product, a product that is always identical, then I agree that you can set a price. It’s the same as buying a product from any store.

You cannot put a price one a unique art piece. I work on a day rate price and make my estimations based on how long I think the project will take, most of the time being very inaccurate costing myself valuable time and money.

Time Factor

This for me ranks as one of the most important factors to consider and can be miss-judged to a great degree sometimes.

Murals Edge Response;

In the past I have taken twice as long as my estimated time-frame due to one reason or another and unfortunately if you have an agreed price in-hand (which I would have), then you must carry-on with the wall mural working essentially for free. This is an area which everyone will judge better as you become more experienced as a muralist. I always state to my client the amount of time that I think the project will take and if I surpass this I will offset at my own expense.

It is very difficult as a muralist because “time is money”, as they say but, extreme pride is taken by an artist to complete the work at the highest possible level at the same time of trying to meet a deadline.

Finally

There is not a right or wrong way about the pricing structure, choose what you feel is right, stick by a set of rules and be absolutely clear with your client from the start and try to not to undervalue your work too much – which I know is hard in the current climate.

Thanks for reading this article and I hope it was informative and helpful to you, it kind of feels like I have interviewed myself but I wanted to give the pros and cons objectively before leaving my response which may not be right for everybody.

Neil