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The NO!SPEC campaign: Serves as a vehicle to unite those who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.
Our mission: To educate the public about speculative, or 'spec' work.
Our target: Those who use creative services, as well as creative professionals (designers, photographers, illustrators, typographers, writers and those in marketing, branding and advertising).
What you can do: Read NO!SPEC's Protocols. Place a "NO!SPEC" logo on your site. Sign the NO!SPEC petition. Distribute the "NO!SPEC" posters. Contact us with your thoughts, comments, articles and insights.
Requirements: The only requirement for participation is putting the appropriate value on your profession.
Creative pitches are toxic by Andy Budd
I’ve long held the belief that creative pitches are toxic, and unpaid creative pitches doubly so. This view is upheld by a number of professional design associations that actively ban their members from engaging in unpaid creative. Creative pitches are bad for the client, bad for the designer and bad for the industry as a whole, and I’m going to explain why …
For the rest of Andy’s post, go to Creative pitches are toxic.
The Copywriting Maven: Why I Don’t Work “On Spec”
Spec is short for speculation. In the copywriting and creative services world, that means a potential client says to us, “I’m not sure about hiring you, so let’s see what you do with this speculative assignment. We’ll pay you if we like it. And if we do, there will be a lot more work to come. But if we don’t, no $$.”
Even a newbie copywriter’s time has value. If a new client wants to see what you can do for them, show them samples (paid, pro-bono or generic samples you’ve written for youself), give them client testimonials, and/or offer them a great deal to give you a shot.
For the rest of Roberta’s post, go to The Copywriting Maven: Why I Don’t Work “On Spec”
Designing “on spec” - bad for you, bad for us
Creativiti is a supporter of the creative industry’s NO!SPEC campaign. This section outlines why designing on spec is a poor compromise for everybody.
If you invest in a designer’s time and place your confidence in their abilities, they will work closely with you to create a custom solution to meet your needs and requirements, and to help you achieve your goals.
If you demand work on spec, they simply won’t have the means - or the will - to produce their very best work for you if they have no guarantee that you won’t simply take their ideas and walk away with them without payment.
Ultimately, designing on spec produces poor results for you, and is unfair to the designer, and that is why Creativiti wholeheartedly supports the NO!SPEC campaign.
To read the rest, please go to Creativiti’s Designing “on spec” - bad for you, bad for us
The Road to Hell: Now Paved with Innovation?
Designers don’t have many advocates as enthusiastic and highly-placed as Bruce Nussbaum. An assistant managing editor at Business Week, he’s spearheaded the magazine’s coverage of design and innovation for years, and has become an important online voice for how business can use design as a strategic tool. That influence will only grow this week with the debut of INside Innovation, his new magazine that promises “a deep, deep dive into the innovation/design/creativity space.”
I’m as intrigued as the next guy about what’s to be found in the dark recesses of the “innovation/design/creativity space.” But I suspect there’s one fact about the genesis of this new magazine that will disturb many of my fellow innovation enthusiasts: the actual design of INside Innovation was created largely through an unpaid competition.
Designers, welcome to the brave new world of spec work.
To read the rest of the article, go to Michael Bierut’s The Road to Hell: Now Paved with Innovation?
