It all depends on the quality you're going for & who you find But don't believe the "you get what you pay for" myth - plenty of overpriced lousy designers out there, I'd say most of them charging high prices are.
Well, of course that depends. Some of my friends charges $100 for a clean and professional looking design, but they're not professional designers. I had a teacher once who was a graphic designer. A fellow student of mine wanted a design for his blog, and she charged him for almost $800. He was OK with it though, but as you can see the price varies a lot.
is all depend who u dealing with , i used to hire a student here to do icon and banner, he charge around .50cent to 1.50 per item (he busy on his study now ), the result is pretty satisfy (worth much more then what i pay for ,fast and responsible) ..... Yesterday another so call Pro designer quote me $20 for banner design but the result not even close to the student ....
students are Low price employee. that's it.but anyhow i suggested you searching for a theme,there really tons of themes for wp on web,there must you can got one fit your needs,then you can modify it yourself