Surface Guilding Question? ( Pricing)

[John Arnott]

This is a normal surface guild question.......A regular wholesale manufacture customer wants a quote to guild some back light channel letters.
They supply the set of letters (18" upper case Helvetica light) painted a goldish color to guild.
The returns a 2-1/4" deep.
Now what I've been doing is quickly Laying out the letters in upper and lower case, just like the a finished layout.
Now I exaggerate the spacing and outline the letters with a 2-1/4" outline.
Now I can quickly figure the square inch or square foot of gold needed.
The 18" upper case "K" is 4 square feet.
The lower case "e" is 2-1/4 square feet.
I price it at $75 per square foot.
What are your thoughts on this way of pricing?

[Kent Smith]

While I think your system for figuring the sq ft is good for figuring how much gold will be used, I dislike using a sq ft price for anything. It does help to figure how much time the gilding will take though so that your profitable shop rate can then be applied plus a differential factor for the gold as a material of choice for the hourly.