On being a professional designer
I’ve been concentrating so hard on dealing with meatspace issues (and reading… Okay, I admit that I’ve willingly tuned out at least a little bit) that I’ve almost completely forgotten about my online haunts, particularly DesignObserver. While “gone,” an article was published by Pentagram design guy Michael Beirut that addressed the ongoing issue of doing spec work, or doing design work for a potential client with the hope that your designs will be chosen and paid for. If that’s not clear enough, here’s another term: design contests.
I have no beef with pro-bono work, nor the occasional participation in a design contest where the folks running the show truly are piss poor. But spec work for large, successful companies is where I draw the line. It seems I’m not alone. The AIGA (of which I am a member) speaks harshly of spec work, as do my design professors, as do most designers that I know. Regardless, solicitations for spec work appear to be on the rise.
A designer named Andy Rutledge has spoken out about spec work a number of times, one of which is his article about six apart’s majorly sleazy spec design contest in which they got lots of folks to give them design work, paid a few for their designs, then used all the “losing” work anyway without paying for it. Rutledge says six apart hates designers. I don’t know that I agree, but I do think they suffer from the same disease as many other businesses: they think design work is easy and cheap.
Friends, design work is NOT easy and it’s NOT cheap. Every problem looks easy when you’re staring at the solution. Case in point: everyone who ever looked at a painting or a design and said “yeah, I could have done that.” No, you couldn’t, not if you weren’t already doing it. There’s a universe of difference between duplicating something that’s already been created and CREATING — FROM SCRATCH — SOMETHING THAT DOES NOT EXIST YET. Try it. If you’re not experienced, one of two things will happen: either you’ll end up with something you’ve seen hundreds of times already or you’ll get frustrated and give up. Creation is very, very difficult.
If the previous chat didn’t illuminate why spec work is bad, let’s try different angle: dating. The fore mentioned Rutledge offers the following in the intro to his diatribe against Wikipedia’s “re-design our site and we’ll pay you nothing for it” contest:
I’m hosting a competition. I need a partner with whom to have a serious relationship but I don’t want to invest any time or effort in finding the right woman; I shouldn’t have to. I’m a great man and any woman should be proud to be with me, so I’m holding auditions. I’d like for all interested women to visit me and show me your “wares.” I’m definitely looking for someone with a hot bod, and not afraid to show it off. Extra points for staying the night and letting me sample your attentions and enthusiasm. One lucky winner gets a $400 wedding ring and the prestige of having me for a partner (‘cause I look good). The rest of you just get screwed. Awright, who’s with me?
Ladies, would you? Guys, if this was reversed and a woman posted this, would YOU? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess “no.” This is literally what people do when they solicit spec work.
And if THAT’S not clear enough, I guess we just don’t see eye to eye…
(For what it’s worth, I’m not an elitist. All levels of art/design/whatever are valuable, but professionals need to recognize that some levels require more training, more expertise, more time, and more MONEY, and should be ready to pay accordingly. If one more person asks me to create a mind blowing design by saying “oh, you’re good, that would probably take you about a half hour, right,” I’m going to blow a gasket.)
