Understand your true total design spend across every cost category — the foundation for any decision about how to resource creative.
Download Free Template ↓Design spend is typically distributed across four or five different budget lines — salaries, agency invoices, freelancer costs, software subscriptions, and often an invisible cost of management overhead and productivity loss from design bottlenecks. No single person in most organisations has visibility of the total. This fragmentation means design is almost always both more expensive and less efficient than leadership believes.
Before making any decision about how to resource creative — whether to hire, subscribe, or engage an agency — you need an honest view of current total spend. This template makes that calculation structured and repeatable.
| Cost Category | Annual Cost (AUD) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1× Mid-Level Graphic Designer (all-in) | $112,000 | $82k salary + super + tax + equipment |
| Agency project fees (ad-hoc) | $48,000 | 4 projects × avg $12k |
| Freelancer invoices | $24,000 | $2k/month average |
| Design software licences | $6,200 | Adobe CC, Figma, stock library |
| Internal management time cost | $18,000 | 5 hrs/week × 48 weeks × $75/hr |
| Productivity loss (non-designers producing assets) | $14,400 | 3 hrs/week × $92/hr average |
| Total Annual Design Spend | $222,600 | Often reported as ~$130k |
The average mid-market Australian business spends $180,000–$320,000 per year on design when all cost categories are accounted for. Most finance teams see only 40–60% of this total because the remainder is hidden in salary overhead, management time, and productivity loss.
Includes Google Sheets + Excel versions with all formulas pre-built. Enter your numbers and get your true total immediately.
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