I first saw this series of books when working in house in the late 90's. I somewhat forgot about them until seeing the book at a local Big New bookstore, where I picked up the most recent copy and checked it out a bit. I realized that I should have bought this book years ago, when I first went out on my own in the design world, so I came home and ordered it up on Amazon (for about 40% off the price it was at the bookstore.) I probably should have bought it at the bookstore, since I spend a lot of time there but times are tough, you have to save where you can.

The book is broken down into just about every segment / classification you can think of. From designing stamps for third world countries to doing medical illustrations for advertisements (and literally everything in between). There are a few tiny holes (ie: catalog layout), but with so much other subjects / materials for cross referencing, it's pretty easy to figure out what the rate should be.

All in all, I'd HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone who does any freelance or contract work in the creative field. It would be a great gift for any recent or future college graduate in the graphic design / illustration field. There's loads of information inside it's covers.

I'm a freelance graphic/web designer who is looking for good resources on developing contracts and average pay rates. This is by far a very handy resource to have around.

I'm a graduating senior in Illustration and I bought this book to use as a guideline for prices but when I brought it in to school all of my teachers, who are working illustrators them selves told me I wasted my money. They told me that this book is only useful as a first indication to someone like me who has literally no idea of what market value for different illustrations are but that the information in this book is obtained by surveys sent out to illustrators and designers. In some cases they got 4 back, 3 of which were from retired people, meaning that for that section the information is just 1 persons opinion, though it's presented as the final word on the situation. As a result of the book being compiled this way the prices almost never change or go up and this book is a large contributing factor to the fact that prices for illustration and design are still in the same place they were 20 years ago. This book is only good for someone who has no idea at all what to charge, but it does more harm then good and at the advice of every working illustrator and designer I've talked to it's a waste of money.

I can tell you from first hand experience that there is absolutely NO SHORTAGE of employers who are ready to swindle out-of-work designers. I've ran into an employer that had me doing senior level work as an un-paid intern (I am happy to say that I wrangled money out of her in the end). And on another occasion there was an employer that as part of the interview had me work for 3 hours on her project under the pretense of testing my skills!

These people are parasites and although I've learned the hard way, there will always be other fresh meat to take advantage of. Which is why if you are a legitimate designer or artist for hire, I highly recommend purchasing this book from the Graphic Artists Guild. I wish I had bought the book before I even graduated as the information is invaluable. Not only is it helpful for you but it is also helps raise the standard of the field as a whole.

If you are in the graphics industry this is the book for you...everything from prices to practices...love this book.