It’s the first question on every capital raiser’s list and the one almost no design studio answers in public. The honest answer: the cost of an Information Memorandum isn’t one number — it’s four variables, and you can name all of them before you ever speak to a designer.

The four things that set the price

1. Page count. IMs run anywhere from 25 pages for a tight property syndicate raise to 80+ pages for a resources company with geology, tenement maps and structured appendices. Every spread is designed, not templated, so the page count is the single biggest driver.

2. Data design and illustration load. Financial tables, charts, project timelines, JORC-style resource tables, custom diagrams — this is the work that separates an investor-grade document from a Word export, and it’s the part off-the-shelf templates handle worst. A document with heavy data visualisation costs more than one that is mostly narrative, and earns it back in readability.

3. Deadline pressure. A deal cycle that needs the document in under a fortnight is achievable when capacity allows — but compressed timelines concentrate the work, and pricing reflects that.

4. Content readiness. If your copy arrives settled and approved, design moves fast. If the content is still forming, the engagement carries more rounds and more re-flows. (A useful trick: lock the design system early and let the content settle into it — that’s how the timeline is protected without re-scoping every data update.)

Fixed fee, not hourly

This studio doesn’t bill hourly, and for a deadline document you shouldn’t accept hourly from anyone. An hourly rate makes your cost open-ended exactly when your raise needs certainty. A fixed fee tied to scope and deadline means the number you approve is the number you pay — and minor data updates between drafts don’t get re-scoped.

The real cost comparison

The design fee on an IM is a rounding error against the raise it supports. The comparison that matters isn’t designer vs designer — it’s the cost of a document that looks amateur in front of the investors you worked hardest to get in the room. Investors read dozens of these; visual shortcuts read as corner-cutting everywhere else in the business too.

How to get your number

Bring three things to a 15-minute scoping call: a rough brief, whatever brand assets exist, and the deadline. You’ll have a confirmed timeline before the call ends and an indicative fixed price in your inbox the same day. If the material is market-sensitive, an NDA can be signed before the call.

Raising this quarter? See how EMD designs Information Memorandums — 25 to 80+ pages, NDA-first, delivered on a locked date.