La SDGQ dénonce le travail spéculatif

The article is in French. Below is the babelfish translation into English.

The Company of the graphic designers of Quebec (SDGQ) officially gave an opinion against speculative work, not remunerated. According to it, the companies should not need to see creative proposals to choose a studio; or they should, if necessary, remunerate them for carried out work.

The SDGQ rather recommends to the customers to select a designer according to its portfolio and its experiment. It recalls that it is always possible to interview various candidates to check their comprehension of the project.

(a big thanks goes to nomad2224, who sounded the alert)

I swear, when I die I want to come back as a Canadian …

Yesterday, Steven Luscher (Group Organizer for the Vancouver Graphic Design Meetup) contacted NO!SPEC about the VANOC 2010 Mascot RFP.

VANOC is the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee.

Steve’s post on the Vancouver Graphic Design Meetup message board:

Congratulations to everyone responsible for giving VANOC the guidance it needed to do the right thing, and congratulations to VANOC for working with and listening to Canadian Designers.

I could hardly restrain myself from jumping up and down over the news. Way to go Canada!

Shortly after, the VANOC 2010 Mascot RFP was posted at GDC’s blog:

This is a shining example of a large organization working closely with the Canadian design industry to create a respectful and appropriate call for candidates and an excellent example of real advocacy by the GDC on it’s members’ behalf.

Peggy Cady FGDC, GDC National Past President:

We are trying to teach businesses and organizations about our best practices, and how we want them to work with us. It is a great victory for the profession when organizations understand where we are coming from and are willing to adjust their proposals.

I’ve long known that Canadian designers and design orgs are way ahead of the game when it comes to the issue of working on spec, but now they’ve got the strong support of a professional organisation such as VANOC.

Kudos to VANOC. Kudos to GDC. Kudos to Canada!

Three Top Creatives Speak Their Mind at ANA Conference

Is this the beginning of the end?

In surprisingly strong comments before a gathering of the nation’s largest advertisers, three ad agency creative chiefs last week criticized the account pitching and compensation models that currently govern their business relationships with advertising clients.

Check out the whole article at: Advertising Age, Bitching About Pitching and Agency Compensation

So, what do you do when you’re an internationally recognized, successful band with millions of dollars in CD and concert ticket sales? If you’re the Barenaked Ladies, you slap an industry in the face by running an unethical, exploitive contest, that’s what.

Over at the web site Deviant Art, a recent contest was posted for the development of a t-shirt design to promote a new Barenaked Ladies tour.

The details of this contest are glaring examples of the problems this trend creates within the design community. The fact that it comes from a representative of the music industry, an industry very vocal in the protection of artist’s rights, makes it all the more disturbing.

Thanks Robert!

March/April of this year saw the launch of the NO!SPEC campaign. Since then I’ve come across a range of confusing posts, some even using open source interchangeably with spec. To clarify the spirit of the campaign I’ve put together a short rundown on what working on spec is, and isn’t. What the NO!SPEC campaign is, and isn’t.

Spec is not:
ProBono
Open Source
Industry Awards Contests

Spec is:
Working on the SPECulation of getting something of value in return.

The NO!SPEC campaign is not about:
Taking the fun away from what we do.

The NO!SPEC campaign is about:
Educating designers so they can make educated choices.

The NO!SPEC campaign is not about:
Coming up with a lot of tight rules to stifle the client / designer relationship.

The NO!SPEC campaign is about:
Educating the public on ethical business practices.

Still confused? Then please stroll through the roundup of the latest blog posts and articles I’ve compilied at NO!SPEC Campaign: Rundown and Roundup.

Thanks for listening,
Catherine

Design Melt Down gets it with Yellow

Yellow is somewhat of a less popular color. It doesn’t show up very much in web design, at least not in very prominent ways. Lets look … to see what kind of meaning was gleaned from the color.

The no-spec.com is the first to stand out. They clearly use yellow to reinforce the purpose of the site, to warn people about the down side to accepting spec work.

The entire site is a great big caution sign, it is only appropriate that they use the color yellow. Caution is one of the most common connotations of the color yellow.

From Kevin: I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Carmen von Richthofen, the Executive Director of Association of Registered Graphic Designers and John Furneaux, the President of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers and Managing Director of Karacters Design Group in Toronto about the issue of spec work and the damage that can be wrought by such practices.

The interview: Shooting oneself in the foot and other truths about designing on spec: An interview with Carmen von Richthofen and John Furneaux of the RGD.

Writers Ask Minister to Rein in TVNZ
Media Release from the New Zealand Writers Guild
12 May 2006

The New Zealand Writers Guild have asked Minister of Broadcasting Steve Maharey to amend the terms of an in-house competition being run by TVNZ.

The Life’s a Pitch contest invites TVNZ staff to pitch programme ideas to the content department. TVNZ takes the copyright to all entries it chooses to use but provides no payment to the creators. In the real world, when TVNZ commissions a show any creator could potentially expect to receive thousands of dollars.

Said Guild Executive Director Dominic Sheehan “We requested that the Minister require that TVNZ allow all entrants to retain the copyright to their entries. TVNZ will be free to contract for the rights, but at least then any creator will be able to negotiate for fair rates and conditions for their work.”

TVNZ’s own Charter requires them to ‘support and promote the talents and creative resources of New Zealanders and of the independent New Zealand film industry’. Sheehan points out “How is not paying people for their work supportive? TVNZ are wilfully breaching their own Charter. It is the government’s job to ensure that the terms of this Charter are adhered to which is why we’ve asked the Minister to intervene.”

“TVNZ keep calling this contest ‘a bit of fun’ but in fact their actions amount to a rights grab. It’s akin to copyright theft and that’s no fun at all.“

For further comment contact: Dominic Sheehan 021 707 344.

FIDIUS – fighting for fair design competitions

The objective of the association FIDIUS – fair design competitions, which is now in the process of being founded, is to ensure that in the future there will be fair conditions and that competitions strictly and consistently adhered to them. To resolve disputes outside the court and to pledge secrecy on the matter is simply not enough. Numerous victims do not even summon up the courage to claim their rights at all; and many do so for fear of a financial disaster.

FIDIUS will start its activities in 2006. Until July 30, 2006, designers are invited to submit to the association examples of an unfair and/or particularly fair design competition and are asked to make sure that they enclose the corresponding invitation documents of the competition. Invitations that feature an award of contract, claiming they are looking for the right designer to carry out a given task, will also be considered. Eligible for nomination for the upcoming first FIDIUS award are design competitions from the period 2000 to 2005.

For further information, please contact Sabine Zentek at: sabine.zentek @.gif t-online.de

Dear Prospective Client

I understand your apprehension. I really do. Hiring an independent writer – or programmer, or graphic designer, or anyone else – can at first seem to be a scary enterprise. There’s a bunch of us out there, and no one wants to make a bad decision. Both time and money are at stake. It’s totally understandable that you want to guard against every contingency of being burned …

For the rest of this informative post, go to The Stapler – Dear Prospective Client