I wouldn’t say it’s evil, but it’s a pretty stupid way to run a business.

Also, the argument that spec-work gives new designers an opportunity to get their feet wet is ridiculous.

People need to quit trying to debate this. It only encourage exploitive spec-work site owners to pretend like they have some morals. AIGA has a very clear position on this, and I couldn’t think of a better opinion to listen to.

@Mitch I don’t know. Why should the AIGA opionion be leading here?

Doing SPEC work isn’t the ideal way to run a business ofcourse, but there are ways you can profit from it. I worked at a large agency and we had to do a lot of pitches to win clients/projects. Isn’t this the same thing and aren’t we just scared for losing our jobs to “amateurs”?

I can only speak for myself offcourse but as a designer it really got my freelance career started and still manages me to generate some interesting leads now and then so obviously I have no problem with it.

Jeroen

I’d say a definite no. You might have the heart of gold and lips of truth, but the other person won’t.

Value yourself, charge for it, and others will follow your lead.

Don’t value yourself, don’t charge, and others will follow your lead (by not offering you any paid work).

Hard-bitten experience talking.

Arguments against spec work come from those who have tried it, seen how it pans out, and learned from their mistakes. I think this falls into the category of passing out advice (DON’T DO SPEC WORK) to people who just cant understand why not until they find out for themselves.

When you realize for every client that wants you to do spec work, there are 10 more who are willing to pay, you can quickly see it is futile. When you are a new designer, and all you have $10 bucks left, and you think this will help you land a job… all the arguments in the world won’t keep you from doing spec work.

Our studio will not partake in spec work because it is a waste of time and money… but it is not “Evil.”

Nice link, good to see some open discussion on design.

as a side note… Perhaps I shouldn’t be saying this but I feel it’s very relevant.

I was contacted by SXSW 2009 to do spec work for motion graphics work, It was a title sequence/intro for this years SXSW Show. Let it be noted that I did not pursue this.

Well I guess it’s not evil, its just a form of doing business, but you have to see it from the standpoint of the buyer. A lot of them don’t have experience about working with designers, and its a huge bet to make a mistake about hiring any professional and losing time and money for a result that may not be satisfactory. So spec work is a good way for them to get confident about working with designers.

I know there are people who takes advantage of designers with spec work but that’s on every business. Think of architecture contests, huge engineering projects, defense contracts for airplane design, all those are spec work intended for big companies. The loser on that contest gets it real hard on wasted time and money.

Also spec work for designers is a very poor line of work, most of the briefs are about a logo, a homepage or a brochure. There’s not a research involved, or the creation of a copy, production on specific locations or testing. So good design is still safe and its price is somehow fair. Spec work for designers it’s not a problem solving scenario but a simple design task.