well, for one thing, the typeface will need to be able to be read upside-down

hyuk hyuk hyuk

i actually just did this for someone in california. based on time, id' charge at the very least 15K. the project was about six months of daily back'n'forth on an altered version of an existing typeface. not fun.

“I have a specific design in mind”

That means trouble. Double your hourly rate.

I wonder why he's come to you and not say a local Australian type designer? Is he a fan of your work, or maybe he's just spamming a whole bunch of freeware designers that he thinks may work for less money than established vendors who do corporate work. Is the "specific design" he has in mind one of yours? If not I assume he's going to want you to do something that's similar to an existing font and indeed that seems like trouble. The way you describe it the whole thing does seem a bit fishy.

Anyway re. pricing treat it like any other work for hire, ie. your hourly rate x expected number of hours plus additional fees / mark-up for changes.

Cheers, Si

Si- I suspect that is exactly what is going on. The actual email I got was just as vague as I described, and I have not yet replied. My only released fonts (learning projects made years ago) have been distributed at free font sites like http://1001fonts.com and http://dafont.com so, while he might think my fonts have some merit, it is likely he has contacted other free-fonters out there too.

I suppose going through the exercise of quoting on the job might be worth-while in itself. But I'd tread carefully, do some research on the guy and his firm, ask for references and get some money up-front. ;-)

Cheers, Si

I have received the same email...

Me, too.

he's clearly shopping on price. this will be a difficult sales cycle at best, and the design process will more than likely not be productive. i would not consider this a serious sales prospect.

I got it too. I would rather be dipped in acid than have to do a custom font.
Jess Latham
www.bvfonts.com

>I would rather be dipped in acid than have to do a custom font.

That's why David Berlow drives a 2006 575M Ferrari Maranello, with the license plate CU$TOM, and you drive a... :-)

Oh, SNAP!

Simon had a sassy sandwich this morning... hehehehe :-)

Hahaha

High Fives all around!

LOL! Waaaaaa.
Jess Latham
www.bvfonts.com

>>>I would rather be dipped in acid than have to do a custom font.

>>That’s why David Berlow drives a 2006 575M Ferrari Maranello, with the license plate CU$TOM, and you drive a... :-)

>LOL! Waaaaaa.

The punchline... "a car that looks like it dipped in acid?"

;-)

I'd be happy to make a custom font. And not too 'spensive. "For exclusive corporate use"? Ooh, now, that's going to cost.

I got another message in the email again, requesting a modified version of an existing font he'd seen on dafont.com of my design for exclusive use plus condensed and bold versions, though not specifying which font.

This guy seems more legit than the last one: has phone numbers and links to a German design studio web site on which his name appears with an email address from the same domain. Still smells a bit fishy, based on the similarity to the last one, but not as much so. What do y'all think about this? Anybody else getting a letter like this lately?

Anyone?

Anyone?

I replied a week ago, but the Germans have yet to get back to me. Oh well...