Comments on: AIGA panel on spec work

By: Jarrod Bell

Jarrod Bell — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:15:29 +0000

I think it’s a problem with end results. If you order a Big Mac you know that your receiving a burger that resembles the taste of hamburger, you buy a car you get a big metal box that moves fast. People have some idea about what there going to get, except with design. All they get are some scribbles on a page and and probably think that they could easily do it them self, or that there’s no way that it should cost so much.

By: Vanessa MacLeod Design

Vanessa MacLeod Design — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:15:38 +0000

Doing spec work has been an important part of my learning curve, even though my design diploma is extremely geared toward ‘real life experience’ in terms of assignments etc. When I started out freelancing, I sent out an email to 7 friends offering them one free project each on the proviso, that they act like paying clients in terms of how they present feedback to me, and how I presented work to them. From the start I made it clear that this was a ‘one time only deal’. 3 out of the 7 came back to me for more real paid work (and were insistent that they pay me good rates), and nearly every client since has been a word of mouth referral growing out of the original seven. If I hadn’t put myself out there, I may have never have been able to do enough to make a decent go of freelancing. I feel that there is definitely a place for spec work, and if a design certification or guild helps to raise the profile of designers again – after the availability of stuff like Photoshop to the masses has given rise to the belief that “anyone can be a designer” caused the profile of designers to dim a little, then I would wholeheartedly support it.

By: Tim Phelan

Tim Phelan — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:17:26 +0000

Im doing spec work while listening to this. Why? Because the life of a recent design graduate is ladened with the familiar catch 22.

I can’t get a job without experience, I can’t get experience without an internships and I can’t do an unpaid internship without some form of income.

So, when someone needs work under a small budget and I can see that project providing real time experience for my portfolio I think of it in the sense of ‘serving time’, that will pay off in the long run with a sustainable career. Also, I can focus my time on developing extra skills, be extra creative and push boundaries with clients allow more freedom (because im working for FREE!)

By: Karen Tuttle

Karen Tuttle — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:04:48 +0000

I’ve been doing design work on the side while finishing college and starting a family. My “free” work has been for non-profit organizations I’m involved with, like my choir or opera theater. This work has given me some great real-world experience, portfolio pieces and some great networking contacts. They really appreciate the time I give them. The one job I did for free for a company did not lead to anything worth while… they called a few years later expecting the same work for free. When I gave them my rates, they never called back. So, if you’re going to do free work, do it for someone who will appreciate it and benefit greatly.

By: Si

Si — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:10:58 +0000

What Jeff said

By: Jeff Deibel

Jeff Deibel — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:14:59 +0000

Let’s not pretend spec work websites give young designers real work experience. I get it, it is easy. There is instant work. Sometimes the easy road isn’t the best road. To quote Robert Frost :

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

When has a frozen pizza ever tasted better than a pizza cooked fresh?

Be creative (it’s a requirement in the field) and treat the challenge of finding work the same way you’d approach a design project. Assess the needs and find an elegant way to solve the problem.

Do design work for a friend’s band, offer flyer services to your favorite local bakery, pick a NFP you believe in and help them with their visual communication. Pick influential people in your community who get the word out. Do right by them and they will do right by you. Don’t be afraid to get off the computer and actually communicate with people.

These suggestion will lead to more paid leads and get you on the path to a solid network of people. I wonder how many spec work contest winners have received future work from the same client or clients they recommended. I imagine it’s very low.

A losing design in a spec contest equals wasted time and won’t impress any prospective client. Even if your design is horrendous, but you did it for an NFP and they love it, you’ll get more (better) leads than if you put an amazing design on a spec site.

By: Ray Pettersson

Ray Pettersson — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:20:02 +0000

I strongly believe that speculative work is so intrinsic to the design industry that is an issue that will never go away. How the majority of designers develop their skills? Have you ever heard of a designer that started in an agency without no skills whatsoever, and learned everything from the beginning while being paid? I never did.

What once was just a path to the designer profession, now has become the profession in itself. Companies like crowdSPRING and 99Designs are promoting speculative work, and they are doing a terrific job on it. Together, they already served more than 59.000 businesses all around the world. More importantly, they are helping to create a mindset. Their core message is that design is something you don’t need to pay for, if you don’t like it.

I don’t think we should eliminate speculative work simply because it’s impossible. Instead, we need to find ways to help to draw a line in between what’s considered amateur and what’s professional in the design industry. Then clients will appreciate the value of design and make their choices accordingly.

I strongly believe that crowdSPRING, 99Designs and other companies who promote crowd-sourcing should be doing something to minimize their negative impact on the design industry. This is a sustainability issue. It’s pretty much obvious that a client who receives more than 100 designs and and pay for just one is an unfair, unbalanced and unsustainable situation.

Don’t we expect BP to pay for their negative impact on the environment? Why not demand the same from crowdSPRING, 99Designs and others? Shouldn’t they do something about the negative impact on the economic environment?

Finally, I strongly believe this issue must be continuously stressed to raise awareness, and eventually a solution will come up trough intensive debate. David, thanks for sharing!

By: ste

ste — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:27:32 +0000

Hi David,
Great post on this issue, which seems to me, will just not go away. I actually like the idea of some sort of certification for designers. I think it would ad some gravitas to our profession and that can only be a good thing. In fact I think that is one of the major obstacles we face as designers.

Most designers I know really love doing what they do and this come across to the clients they work with. To some extent I think that clients would ask us for spec work because they may think that we love designing so much that it something we do for nothing. As designers we may be a little guilty of aiding and abetting due to having a heightened interest in a particular project and providing work on spec with the usual “there might be more work from this” thinking.