08/31/2026
How much should I charge as a designer? Most advice skips the part that actually matters, so let me say the quiet part out loud.
Most of us designers are introverts. Talking about money feels awkward, even a little rude. That discomfort is exactly why so many of us get underpaid. It's not a personality flaw. It's a pattern, and patterns can be broken.
Here's the reframe that changed it for me: as a designer, you're usually not setting the fee. You're responding to an offer. So the skill isn't pulling a number out of thin air. It's knowing what your work actually costs you, the research, the drafting, the revisions, all the invisible hours, so you can look at any offer and know whether it works.
That's your floor. Not your base fee. The number below which you're literally paying to work. You don't go under it.
Can you ever take less than your ideal fee? Sometimes, yes, but only if it stays above your floor and only if you can name exactly what else you're getting: a director you want to build with, a new work you believe in, a room you're trying to get into. Name the value, or it's just underpayment.
And if you're holding back your rate out of fear of losing a theatre that underpays everyone: you're not losing an opportunity. You're dodging a bullet.
So where do you get stuck, knowing your number, asking for it, or holding it? Tell me. I read every comment.
