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no-spec Practical advocacy for designers

Practical advocacy for working designers

Designers should not work for free. Whether the unpaid pitch is called a contest, a trial, or a promptable mockup, the answer is no.

no-spec is an editorial site for the working design profession. We argue against spec work, against AI as a shortcut to designer thinking, and for fair rates and clear contracts. We are not affiliated with the original No!Spec organization; we run a new editorial brand on the same URL because the argument still needs making, now more than ever.

Read the Spec Work pillar Read AI and the Designer

Four arguments

The site is organized around four pillars

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Rates, Contracts, Scope

What a freelance day rate actually covers in 2026

Overhead, downtime, software, taxes, and the unbillable hours that make the billable ones possible. The number is higher than clients think, and lower than it should be.

The Professional Record

What the 2008 No!Spec movement got right

It named the practice, gave designers language to refuse it, and lost anyway. The reasons it lost are worth studying now.

The question "will you do this for free, on the chance we like it?" has gone through three forms in twenty years. It is still the same question. The answer has not changed.