About
no-spec is an editorial site for the working design profession. It argues against spec work, against AI as a shortcut to designer thinking, and for fair rates, clear contracts and provable authorship.
Why this site exists
Designers are still asked to work for free. The request has changed its clothes: in 2008 it was a logo contest, then it was a "paid trial" that never paid, and now it is a client who has typed a prompt into an image generator and would like the result finished by Friday, ideally at no charge. The answer is the same as it was. Finished work before an agreement to pay is spec work, and spec work is a bad deal for the designer, a bad deal for the profession and, more often than clients believe, a bad deal for the client.
This site exists to make that argument in public, with sources, in language a designer can forward to a client without embarrassment.
What we publish
Five pillars. Spec Work is the legacy mission: what spec work is, who runs the contests and what to say when asked. AI and the Designer treats the generated mockup as the new unpaid pitch and works out how to price, scope and disclose AI in a practice. Rates, Contracts, Scope is the practical shelf: day rates, revision clauses, charging for discovery. The Professional Record reads the history, including what the 2008 movement got right and what the associations have said since. Proof of Work, added in September 2026, is the fifth: how a designer records and demonstrates that a design is theirs, from the evidence a designer keeps to the disclosure clause a contract should carry. It is the practical half of the argument the other four make.
How we work
Every claim is sourced inline, to the contest's own terms, the survey, the association statement or the government guidance. Pieces carry a byline; until named contributors join, that byline is "the no-spec editors". Nothing is sponsored, nothing is placed for payment, and no company gets to review a piece before it runs. We discuss practices, not people: a designer who publicly defends spec work gets a link to their argument and a reply, not a name-and-shame. Corrections are welcome and are noted on the page when we make them.
What we are not
We are not a marketplace, a directory of designers for hire, a portfolio review service or a tool review site. We do not rank AI logo generators. Those boundaries matter because an advocacy site is only worth reading if it has no stake in the outcome.
Independence
no-spec.com is not affiliated with the original No!Spec organisation, whose domain this was, nor with AIGA, RGD or any designer association, and it does not claim to speak for any of them. The URL was taken on because the argument still needed making. The editorial brand, the writing and the positions are new.
Write to us
Corrections, rebuttals, contract clauses that worked and spec requests you have received all go to the editors. The privacy policy, the terms of use and the disclaimer set out the small print.