Spec Work

Blog 3:  Spec Work


In my opinion, a designer should be paid for any work done, period.  The clients that want a designer to do spec work are undervaluing the designer.  A designer that accepts spec work is devaluing him or herself. 

If a designer is confident in his work, he will request and receive payment for his work.  He will not compete for jobs in the hope of being picked.  A designer should have a good portfolio that will show potential clients what he can do, and be able to land jobs based on that.

I can see where some people would use sites like Crowdspring, both clients and designers.  There may be startup businesses that don’t have a budget to hire a design company to create a logo or branding for them.  From a money perspective it would be beneficial for them to have designers compete for their business.  From a “starving artist” side, I can see where there would be designers who just need to put food on the table.  If they were out of work completely, they may have plenty of time to design and compete.  For someone who loves to design, this may be a way to work at what they love even when they’re out of work.  They also may get paid for it.

Since crowdsourcing gets so much traffic, there must be a need and it’s from both sides.  They don’t have a huge amount of buyers and no designers, and they also don’t have only out of work or low-end designers and no one interested in their work.  They have a lot of buyers and designers.  So sites like these are meeting a need, even if design professionals aren’t on board.

I don’t agree with spec work, but I can see both sides.  I’m not sure that it will devalue the entire industry of professional designers, but I don’t think this issue will go away any time soon.