Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

ty, tyvm

Hence we have to chalk out the intention of our customer. If it is a first job, ask for as little advance as much he can give to cover the bare minimum for your cost. It is an accepted principal of marketing that once you have lower your image or price, it is very difficult to raise later on. Because you have to work very hard for raising even a little amount of money.

So forget the word FREE. Nothing is free in this world. Rather I would suggest some other professional word for free. This may be Cost of promotion of advertising which should be recovered from the same client.

So dear artists never be depressed. Do not say other that you or others are weak. Do business as others want to do with you. Do not cheat them but be not cheated.

Everything lies in manliness. Never get defeated. A time will come when your art will be accepted with due regard and for due value. Awake arise and not stop till goal is achieved.

With good wishes

Walia.

First, I am an owner of a design company who uses contract design labor for all projects. I can quantify that 75% of the contractors I find whether through CL, Guru, contract services or word of mouth are a) unreliable b) unethical c) difficult to deal with. We have deadlines and most miss them. I have budgets, many have taken my “required deposit upfront” and ran. The arrogant ones think they are marketing experts even though they have no training or knowledge in the field.

I come from the corporate world and I can also say as an Art Director that all my design teams fell into this catagory as well. When I have gotten lucky enough to find out about a contractor through my network they were contracting because the kept being fired for not showing up for work, not getting work done on time or were so arrogant they were impossible to work with.

I have been a designer for over 23 years and worked my way up the ranks. I can tell you and so can my clients that I am ethical, reliable and humble about my skills. I do what I am asked and complete work ontime and onbudget. Do I want to work for free? No, but would I do a job for free if it guaranteed me more work in the future and it was my way of showing my skills? Sure. Would I do more than one project for someone like that? No, because they were obviously taking advantage.

I now vet designers by asking them to do a project for me for free so we can see how they work, how committed they are to the work and to see if they will run. Most run. The ones who have stayed make good money with me and get a profit share at the end of the year. My 6 designers 2 writers and 2 project managers each got a check for 18k last year from profits and we are a small company. When things got slow for a couple of months this year, everyone started networking on their own and brought in business till out big clients came back online. They all make commission for everything they bring in to. Could they have done all the work themselves, went off on their own? Sure but they are good people, loyal and see that there is a lot more to a job than money.

Even when a school runs a competition and pays the winning student X amount of $, everyone else gets nothing. I feel it is a beginning for many students to learn what doing spec work is like and it is not a good example from the school/university.

I’ve fallen victim to some spec work in the past, as well as some friends, mostly due to our lack of knowledge in the field. I felt I had to do some work, like I had to start somewhere. When I was studying graphic design, I felt like my school did not do enough to push participation in AIGA, I wish I had known more. I never found out the benefits. That could’ve been my lack of participation and I blame no one but myself.

However, I do support NO!SPEC and would love for it to be more widely known to the design community, especially in schools. It’s just as important for any person in society to be aware of how spec work hurts designers/artists. I agree that the more artists are aware of the negative effects of spec work, the more everyone (artist or not) will know and avoid doing and asking for spec work.

Thanks again NO!SPEC, and the author of this article!

The starving artist is a myth. Especially when it comes to commercial art. How many starving physicians, lawyers, engineers, technicians, can you name?

>> EXPERIENCE and GETTING PUBLISHED- That’s what an artist needs before they can seek paying assignments, because no one is going to pay an inexperienced and non-published artist.

Why do you presume that someone must work for free to gain experience? How many lawyers, doctors, engineers, accountants or carpenters do you know that started out working for free?

>> An artist may not get paid, but they’re getting the experience and their art published, what they need in order to be taken seriously by paying customers.

Anyone that talks about a ‘good opportunity’ usually has a vested interest in snookering someone else into working for free. Hint the proponent of free work is, inevitably, making money on the deal.

>> Many times it is a “good opportunity” for artists to get their work out there and get noticed by having their work on things (as long as they’re credited properly)

It is just as easy to take a ‘good opportunity’ for pay that will likewise get the same, perhaps more, notice. As to the point of building a portfolio the inevitable question comes “So what have you done for a real, i.e. paying, client?”
In the real world Artists need to get noticed or else they’ll starve, and getting noticed may require one or two free jobs. Artists have to make sacrifices if they want money for their work.

Again the question: Why do it the way you’re suggesting. Any busienss that wants to get noticed advertises and promotes themselves and the product. They don’t give away the farm. Not if they hope to stay in business.

>> Think of it this way-Art work for free is like the samples of food a new restaurant/food brand gives out to get people to buy their food. Not that many people are going to buy a box of a new brand of food unless they tried and liked it or someone they know has and recommended it.

If you wish to adhere to false analogies: A portfolio is akin to a taste of food from a restaurant. Carrying your analogy to the end, just how many restaurants have you frequented that provided your party an entire meal, much less several meals, for free?

An aside I’d like to see you try that dodge in some of the restaurants in NY or New Orleans. I’ll wager you’ll end up stealing more chain than you can swim with. (Hint both the Hudson and the Mississippi are cold and deep.

>> Free art assignments is advertising, so it really isn’t stealing from artists (*as long as they credit the artist), it’s getting the artist PUBLISHED. PUBLISHED artists get more paying work than non-published artists.

So what, paid published artist get more paying work than non-paid published artist. With our interns we’ve found that paid non-published artist get more work than non-paid non-published artist. Perhaps it’s because they EXPECT to be paid and the clients value their work accordingly?

Free art assignments are NOT advertising, as it is not placed in a place or in a manner that is designed to bring busienss to the artist or the studio. If the truth were known, links between having our name at the bottom of any work product and a referral are rare.

>> Free artwork is like the internship everyone has to do after college before they get the official job.
It is only in the creative arts that students are now expected to work for free. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants are all paid for their time and skill set as interns.
In reality, an artist will have to do one or two maybe more) free art assignments in order to get the connections and referrals that leads to paid assignments. I’m sorry, but that’s the real world.

>> Everyone in every creative field of work has to make sacrifices in order to get that paying job. Filmmakers (they won’t get paying work until their 30’s), writers (they sacrifice the most), musicians, actors, poets, I could go on. That’s the reality of being in a creative field, being an artist, you have to sacrifice to get paying work or else you’ll starve.

Again I ask you Why?

We’re now retired with over four decades of professional experience. We were paid for our intern work and have made it a policy to pay our interns as well. Not because it’s the right thing to do (as it is) but because it’s flat good busienss.

>> Wake up!

Wake up? Why not move into the real world. You know the one with Darwin economics where a business plan based on free labor is destine to fail?

That’s not just my opinion but also a fundamental in Business 101 in every good busienss school.

EXPERIENCE and GETTING PUBLISHED- That’s what an artist needs before they can seek paying assignments, because no one is going to pay an inexperienced and non-published artist.

An artist may not get paid, but they’re getting the experience and their art published, what they need in order to be taken seriously by paying customers.

Many times it is a “good opportunity” for artists to get their work out there and get noticed by having their work on things(as long as they’re credited properly)

In the real world Artists need to get noticed or else they’ll starve, and getting noticed may require one or two free jobs. Artists have to make sacrifices if they want money for their work.

Think of it this way-Art work for free is like the samples of food a new restaurant/food brand gives out to get people to buy their food. Not that many people are going to buy a box of a new brand of food unless they tried and liked it or someone they know has and recommended it.

Free art assignments is advertising, so it really isn’t stealing from artists(*as long as they credit the artist), it’s getting the artist PUBLISHED. PUBLISHED artists get more paying work than non-published artists.

Free artwork is like the internship everyone has to do after college before they get the official job.

In reality, an artist will have to do one or two(maybe more) free art assignments in order to get the connections and referrals that leads to paid assignments. I’m sorry, but that’s the real world.

Everyone in every creative field of work has to make sacrifices in order to get that paying job. Filmmakers(they won’t get paying work until their 30’s), writers(they sacrifice the most), musicians, actors, poets, I could go on. That’s the reality of being in a creative field, being an artist, you have to sacrifice to get paying work or else you’ll starve.

Wake up!

Download firefox, for example. Enjoy it – you deserve it.