How Much Should Postcard Design Cost?

Postcards are a fun, unique, and effective way to share your brand or event with others. Custom designed postcards help you stand out from your competition and offer a personable experience for your clients, potential customers, or friends.

Strong postcards are not only captivating, but they are very informative and welcoming. Strong postcards also offer a great glimpse into your brand and its values.

Your business’s brand identity (everything visual about your brand) is one of your most valuable assets. And, consistent branding is the best way to build strong relationships with your customers. So, you should view your designs across all mediums as a long-term investment.

But, design companies and agencies typically charge thousands to tens of thousands of dollars for their services. And, you can easily find an amateur designer who will create a generic design from a template for only $5!

With such a wide price range, it can be tough to identify the sweet spot that will deliver you an awesome, custom postcard design for a reasonable price.

Here are important elements that you should look for when you buy design services:

• Custom, Brand-Informed Design. Look for designers or design firms who create unique, original designs that fit your brand. That’s one reason why crowdspring thoroughly vets, in every single design category, every designer who applies to work on crowdspring. It's also the reason we accept only a small number of applicants.


• Collaborative Process. Design is not a one-and-done transaction. Design is a collaborative process, especially when it comes to postcards. If the designer doesn’t provide proofs for your review and isn’t willing to make changes based on your feedback, or the turnaround time is weeks or months, any price is too high. As an example, here’s how design projects on crowdspring work.


• IP Protection. Stock art and templates create problems with trademarking and protecting your design. Without a unique brand identity, you expose your business to potential future lawsuits. If your postcard designers or design company lacks the procedure for preventing intellectual property and transferring ownership to you, any price is too high.


• The Final Deliverables. In the design world, the design files you walk away with are called your final deliverables. For each type of design, you should receive specific high resolution and low resolution files, suitable for online and print use. Anything less will leave you spending much more money trying to modify or redesign that postcard later.

Obviously, the most cost effective option is to create your own postcard design. By using free design applications, or those you already own, you can craft your own postcard based on your own vision.

But not everyone has the talent, or time, to make a DIY design. Plus, doing so would require you to know, or learn, a graphic design application such as Adobe Illustrator ($20.99/month) or Affinity Designer ($49.99).

Moreover, you also have to print them yourself – increasing your cost of production. Instead, some brands in this range turn to online postcard templates, which provide generic designs. These online printers charge anywhere from $0 to $50 just for the design(s), but can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars if you print with them, too.

If you have a slightly bigger budget and need a high-quality professional postcard design, freelance designers and design contests are your best option (both options are available on crowdspring). They also happen to deliver the best overall value.

Freelancer designers can invest their time to create custom, unique designs that will help you stand out from the competition. You can share your values and your vision, and have a professional designer create unique postcards that reflects your unique brand.

Usually, freelance designer costs fall in the following ranges:

• Offshore Designer: $150 – $250


• Beginner Freelancer: $250 – $1,000


• Experienced Freelancer: $1,000 – $5,000


• Renowned Freelancer: $5,000 – $15,000

Similarly, design contests, like those you find on crowdspring, also incorporate a high-quality, professional, and personable process. Yet design contests go a step further, and allow dozens of designers to submit their own unique designs. At the end of the project, you pick the postcard design you love best! And, importantly, you set your own price.

With design contests, not only do you get that superior quality (with the added benefit of many options) – you get excellent service and communication, all wrapped up into one price.

Typical prices you can expect from design contests are:

• About 40 designs: $400 – $500


• About 50 designs: $700 – $800


• About 20 elite designs: $1,000-$1,100


• About 40 premium designs: $1,200+

A postcard design contest is a perfect fit for businesses and people planning a big event like a wedding, bar mitzvah, mat mitzvah, anniversaries, important birthdays, and more.

If you have a big budget, and are already a well established, multinational brand, or want the 'complete branding package,' then brand agencies are your best option.

Branding agencies are equipped with talented teams of creative professionals. If using an agency for your project, they dedicate a team of creatives to design and plan your brand’s identity. They also create a consistent visual style across your platforms, completing the all-inclusive package deal.

But the price can be staggering and out of reach for most businesses. Depending on your needs, and your budget, the following ranges represent typical agency costs (these costs do not include the custom postcard design - this is just for the overall brand identity):

• Local Agency: $2,500 – $3,500


• Small Agency: $3,500 – $5,000


• Mid-Sized Agency: $5,000 – $10,000


• Large Agency: $10,000+

As you can see, brand agencies costs are significantly higher than other options. But, if you have the budget to invest heavily in your brand, this is a good option for you.

Below, we share questions you should ask before picking a designer or agency.

Original designs belong to the person who creates those designs, until intellectual property rights for those designs are legally transferred to a new owner.

In our digital world, where everyone has easy access to millions of designs on the web, it’s more important than ever to ensure that the designs you commission are original. Otherwise, you may find another business or designer knocking on your door with a cease-and-desist letter, requiring you to pay huge fines and forcing you to pay tens of thousands of dollars to rebrand.

That’s one reason why crowdspring, from the day we launched in 2008, has included a free, custom legal agreement transferring the full intellectual property rights to any original design you buy on crowdspring, to you. And, it’s also why crowdspring is trusted by tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, small businesses, brands, and agencies from over 100 countries.

A single designer can only excel in a limited number of unique design styles. And, the lower the price, the fewer design options you’re likely to see.

If you’re not 100% sure what you’re looking for, it helps to see many options. And, a team of a dozen designers all providing varying artistic perspectives will ensure that you’ll find a design that resonates with you.

Your designer should send you a range of file types so that you can flexibly use the design in the future.

The most commonly used file formats are PNG, EPS, AI, and PDF. The designer should send you files in each of these formats in case you need a certain format for future use.

Each format has its benefits. Here’s a quick summary:

• For digital purposes – from presentations to image watermarks – use PNG files. You can also use PDF and other similar formats They have a clear background and are a small file size. However, they can lose quality when manipulating the size.


• For printing, use vector files for images like logos, and proper native files (like AI) for the actual postcards. Just remember you might need special software to view and change vector and other types of files.


• When you later need to make changes to a design, use SVG, AI, or EPS files. And remember to request designs in CMYK and RGB colors for use in print (when you send direct mail, for example) and online.

Design is a speculative field. You never really know what the end result will be. And, if you’ve been present and engaged in the creative process and you’re still not satisfied, sometimes it’s best to walk away.

Look for a designer, design company, or agency that offers a 100% Money Back Guarantee that covers all costs and fees paid.

Here are some of the classic warning signs a designer or graphic design company may not be worth your money:

• They only ask basic questions like your business name and industry. A designer can’t differentiate you from other businesses when they aren’t asking questions specifically about your brand, the audience you want to reach, and the emotion you want your brand to convey.


• The price they are charging is too cheap to believe. For designers, time is money. A low price equates to little time and effort invested. This is true even for overseas designers who have become accustomed to being paid US rates for their design services. The quality of a design and the final deliverable files you’ll receive will both suffer if the price is too low. A unique, quality design evolves from a thoughtful and collaborative relationship with a designer - which will cost a bit more but is well worth the investment.


• No satisfaction guarantee. It’s a bad sign if the designer or design company doesn’t stand behind their work with a complete money back guarantee based on your satisfaction. If the designer isn’t confident enough in their work to offer a refund, why should you trust them with your brand’s visual identity?

If just one of these classic warning signs are present, you might want to keep looking for another designer or design firm.

A postcard is a mailer that advertises your brand in an eye catching, information-packed, and strategic way. Postcards are made to give the receiver a glimpse into your brand and how your business can benefit them.

These days, information and authenticity is everything. People take the time to look into brands before stepping into the role of a customer or investor.

Prospective customers are typically looking for five different bits of information, depending on the type of postcard. A good postcard contains the following:

• Who you are. You should provide your name and logo.


• What can you do for them? Why are you sending them the postcard?.


• How to get in touch? You should clearly display your company’s number and email.


• Where are you located? Be sure to indicate your address and the hours of operation or event.


• A welcoming design. Simplicity goes a long way. Be sure your design is unique, reflects your brand, and follows your website and other branding.

Postcards are made to show that you mean business in a fun and informative way. When potential clients receive a postcard, they should be able to clearly understand your company’s values and, more importantly, what you can do for them.

Brand Awareness is no one-and-done process. Rather, it’s a lifetime strategy for your business. As such, one of the most important aspects of branding is through visual elements such as logos, websites, and postcards. Therefore, postcards should echo the ambiance of your company.

If properly designed, they are impactful, memorable, and evoke emotions. Your customers won’t forget a unique postcard design. thatșs why your postcards should be distinguishable from the competition and should give a face to your brand.

Ultimately, your postcards should have accurate, easy-to-read information. If people can’t easily read details like contact information or your company’s name, your design has failed. Also, make sure your postcards have the most essential information and keep the design elements minimal.

When designing postcard, it is important to plan out your design in a simple, yet effective way.

Your postcards are a fundamental part of your brand, so they should be clean and well-structured. Multi-sided designs might work well for your brand, or it may be better to stick to one side only. In general, when in doubt err on the side of simplicity.

Flimsy materials are like limp handshakes: they feel terrible in your hand and leave a poor first impression.

The quality of the material you choose reflects on your company. If you’ve picked fragile paper for letters, or have printed postcards on cheap cardstock, you may make people feel like they’re dealing with an unreliable or low-quality company.

We know you have many choices to design postcards for your business or important family event. The most common method is to hire a freelance designer, and you can work 1-to-1 with an expert designer on crowdspring.

There are other ways to get your custom postcard designs. For example, you can crowdsource your design by starting a postcard design contest on crowdspring.

Nothing makes us happier than connecting people, businesses, agencies and nonprofits with talented designers.

We have a terrific community of logo designers, graphic designers, web designers, illustrators, product designers and namers. Over 220,000 talented creatives from 195 countries work on crowdspring.

When you post your custom design project on crowdspring, you’ll get custom designs submitted by designers from all over the world. You won’t have to waste your valuable time digging through bids and proposals. You’ll pick your favorite from actual designs. In fact, clients have told us that choosing their favorite is the hardest part of the whole process!

When using crowdspring for custom design services, you can focus on getting the best result possible. We take care of everything else. With our award-winning customer service, hassle-free guarantee, customized legal agreements, strict intellectual property standards and fantastic project management tools, we know you’ll be happy. And if you’re happy, we’re happy.

And if you prefer to work with a single designer, we’ve got you covered. Just like a traditional crowdspring project, in 1-to-1 projects, you decide how much your project will cost. The minimum price for a 1-to-1 project starts at $200 (which includes crowdspring’s fee) and you can always increase the award.

Designers receive 100% of your award. Our fees cover the cost to host the project, our award-winning tools, escrow and payment, and custom contracts and non-disclosure agreements.

You and the designer you pick will be able to negotiate both the scope and the price for the project. When determining your award amount, please remember to price your project based on the scope of work. More labor-intensive projects deserve larger awards than very simple projects. You can set your own budget or you can ask the designer to provide a price quote based on the scope of work. It’s your choice.

We like to have fun at crowdspring, but we take our business very seriously. Although the vast majority of the businesses we work with are smaller, we regularly work with the world’s best Brands, including Amazon, LG, Random House, Starbucks, Barilla, Phillips and many more. We also regularly work with many of the world’s best agencies - and tens thousands of entrepreneurs and startups from over 100 different countries.

We would love to help you!