We all know we shouldn’t do spec work for free. Right? Well, it seems that recently there have been a slew of companies that are rewriting this unwritten rule by redefining the term ‘speculative’ as ‘crowdsourcing’ or ‘competition’.
The recent fervent backlash in the design community kicked off when the people at the Obama Campaign began soliciting designs for a poster to promote The President’s jobs program. The prize? A handsome framed and signed print of your winning design worth just under 200 bucks. The trend continued with Moleskin crowdsourcing a new logo and the waters were further muddied by a competition run by ESPN to design a winners’ medal for the Winter X Games.
Don’t get me wrong. As designers we’ve all done the odd wedding invite or birthday card. But this, of course, is different. These companies are cash-rich and clued-up. For sure we all reserve the right to work for little or no fee if we so desire, especially if it is for a cause we believe in. However it feels like what they are really trying to do is get a massive amount of work done on the cheap, dressed up as an opportunity of exposure for designers. There isn’t even a proper brief.
One winner. Thousands of losers. Actually, make that no winners. We all lose. Those that submit an entry will also give up the intellectual property rights to their work and the time that they spent creating their entry which could have otherwise been spent on finding new clients. Time is indeed money.
In an interesting development, Moleskin amended the rules of the competition by removing the stipulation that the rights to all work would become their property upon submission. However the fact remains that Moleskin will have their pick of a large number of designs that they will never pay for.
In such austere times of slashed budgets it can be difficult to keep current clients, never mind win new ones and those designers who are desperate for work can easily be tempted into taking part. However, if we are to keep our dignity intact and protect those designers who will follow in our footsteps we need to take a hard line with competitions such as these. Spec work is still spec work no matter how you tart it up and by taking part we only hurt ourselves.
Sounds straightforward doesn’t it? However, in the real world it doesn’t always work like that. The real world is a huge blurry grey area. If I am applying for a job and I am asked to complete a project, should I refuse? Not really, because if I do, my CV goes straight in the bin.
Ultimately it is up to us as designers and masters of our own destiny to do what we feel is right, at that particular point in time. If we feel we could benefit from the exercise of entering into such competitions we should feel free to do so, without worrying about what our peers or the AIGA may think. As creatives we have something unique to offer the world. We would all do well to recognise that and learn what its value is. Both figuratively and literally. Only then can we decide for ourselves how much of that we want to give away.
