I have read through some previous discussions about custom fonts and quotes (all quite helpful), but I don't recall a specific mention of pricing a "modified" font for clients (as opposed to a start-from-scratch "custom" font).
Modified, in this case, means altering just a few glyphs to an existing, published font to fill a specific branding need.
Aside from amount of weights, glyph count, features, etc... I'm wondering more specifically about the rights assigned and cost differentiation. So these scenarios below would be costs for the design work plus the license type.
Scenario 1: Modified font is priced based on the glyph design alterations, and the license is non-exclusive (essentially matches the cost of licensing the existing font).
Scenario 2: Modified font is priced based on the glyph design alterations, and the license is exclusive for this modified version (other, non-exact, modified versions can still be created for different clients in future).
I figure a pretty big price difference between Scenario 1 and 2 due to exclusivity, so my question is: how much of a difference? I think I'm defaulting to comparing this to a fully custom, start-from-scratch font where an exclusive license might double the cost.
In most cases, if a client is requesting a modified version, I would think an exclusive license would be desired to protect it.
Thanks.
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Scenario 2: Yeah, what you said.
I think part of my struggle is an example like this (not factoring in design cost, only license here):
Say it's a mod of 2 weights, and only a few glyphs are being altered in design (not enough to change the existing font drastically, but there will be some spacing and kerning tweaks resulting too). A single-user, non-exclusive desktop license for those 2 weights might be $50.
If the client only needs a single-user desktop license with perpetual, exclusive rights, then doubling the original cost would only be $100 for the license part.
That seems relatively low for an exclusive font license (even though it wouldn't restrict sales of the original or future mods). Wondering if I'm looking at this wrong or if there should be a threshold for a base cost of a smaller exclusive license like this.
As this is somewhat hypothetical at this point, the x factors would be if the license need is larger and bumps the cost up.
Figure out a fair cost for that work, and then multiply it by AT LEAST two times, probably more, to cover the admin cost around the whole project—including this very discussion. On top of the licensing fee for number of seats.