Will work for work.
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Over the weekend part of the creative community got their collective twitter panties in a bunch over some poor schmuck, who, up until this moment I’d never heard of . Short story is he wrote a book, and then is trying to get the cover designed on crowdspring.
Spec work by itself, isn’t anything new to the industry, nor are the arguments for or against it. Every designer at some point has been asked to do it. The practice of asking people to work for free, then paying them after the work is done to your liking is becoming more institutionalized through contests, or sites that set up the jobs like a contest, (crowdspring, logotouranments, and so on). For many it’s too tempting a situation to pass up, if you need some work done, you can get hundreds of options, for less money and work on your end than finding and hiring your own creatives. As a creative, you can cherry pick the jobs you want, put in minimal effort, unless you’re really into an concept, and potentially walk away with some easy money. There in lays the biggest threat. It makes everyone lazy. It makes creatives crank out work that is less inspired, with less attention to detail. Its a breeding ground for unscrupulous designers who rip off others work and pass it on as their own. In doing that it lowers the expectations of clients, of what it takes to make quality work, and what quality work is. For example, not to pick on Guy Kawasaki, but his creative brief can be summed up as, “here’s a concept picture, and I want it to be awesome and stand-out on a shelf.” If you have a concept, find a designer who’s style you like, and hire them. Also congratulations, you just described every goal of every book cover ever made. Lazy. There’s no opportunity to foster the communication between the client and the creative needed to make the project truly “awesome.” It also makes me wonder how much someone values their own project when they decide to let something something as important as the design to an unvetted collective of peoples who’s only qualifications to work on a job is that they’ve signed up to the site. The design of a project dictates the publics first impression, as well as its ability to communicate to the end user. It make’s and breaks projects everyday. I And, that’s where I think much of the creative twitter rage has come from. It’s not because some one is looking to get the most work for the least amount of money possible. It’s because it’s seen as another step in cheapening all that creatives do, it simultaneously puffs up the work while cheapening it saying “you’re lucky to be doing this fantastic work, so lucky the we’ll tell people you did this and the whole world beat a path to your door. If we choose your design .”
Now, I’ve done spec work, I’ve thrown a couple hats in the ring at those sties, and have won some and lost some. As a creative doing his thing, I’ve done it as a side project/distraction, but it didn’t feel right. It was cold and disconnected. Too often abysmal work got chosen over some really solid designs. But when you start seeing bigger and bigger names, and bigger and bigger projects going that route, it’s hard not to argue that its taking the industry in a bad direction. On the other hand its an option for designers to work on projects they may not normally have the opportunity to work on. It’s a rock and a hard place. The “clients” know they can hundreds of options, and keep getting options until they get the one that trips their trigger, and it will cost them a tiny fraction of hiring a firm, or freelance designer. The designers are looking for any foot in the door or creative outlet they can get their hands on. (not to mention people who think they’re designers, but thats a whole other issue.) I’m not a fan of bitching and moaning and arguing one side a a problem, but not putting out a solution. So how about this:
If you need some work done, take some time go to sites like behance, aiga, or any other collective portfolio site for the type of creative you’re looking for. Find some that have the style you’re looking for, look for project similar to yours, or just find people who’ve done work you like. Reach out to them, send them an email, tell them about you’re project, explain your project to them, ask them if they’re interested, if they are, explain you don’t want to dump a ton of money into concepting and risk not getting anything to show in the end. Ceatives, be open and lenient with potential clients. Budgets are tight, keep that in mind, find some common ground with potential clients where you can assuage fears, and boost their confidence in you. Educate them, try to let them see how much work goes into a project. You need to counter the idea that all you do is sit at a mac and turn hit a couple filters, and pick some fonts.
If you don’t like spec work, than don’t do it, and explain (calmly) to your peers about it’s perils. If you see this kind of spec work as an acceptable practice then keep is as professional as you can, make it actually worth someone’s effort, and remember those that tried to win the work the next time you have a job and throw someone a bone.
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