I like to design web­sites. I like it so much, that I occa­sion­ally take on a pro bono project pro­vided it’s for a wor­thy cause (either that or if a friend of mine has a good idea that’s just for fun). I have a list of friends who are also design­ers with whom I con­verse about design related things and the state of the pro­fes­sion. We even trade work and refer­rals on some occasions.

Why would we trade work, you ask? It seems, on the sur­face, that giv­ing your poten­tial client to some­one else is silly, but look at it from the per­spec­tive of the client. Have you ever met some­one who you just knew you couldn’t work with? There are many rea­sons you might not be able to work with some­one, from the per­son just rub­bing you the wrong way to irrec­on­cil­able dif­fer­ences of opin­ion. In the design realm, it helps to be adult about those cases.

There are a whole slew of rea­sons to rec­om­mend a client to another designer, not the least of which is style. No designer is every­thing to all poten­tial clients. If my style doesn’t match your busi­ness model, atti­tudes or direc­tion, does it make sense for you to hire me? Net­work­ing with other design­ers gives us an oppor­tu­nity to make sure the client gets exactly what is asked. As any decent designer will tell you, style is vital, espe­cially where a com­pany iden­tity is con­cerned. A good image can make a com­pany as surely as a bad one can sink it.

Not all logos send the right message

Have you ever seen a logo and thought, “What was that guy think­ing?” There is a ques­tion of style that was never asked when you see things like that. The client either didn’t think through what was needed or didn’t under­stand that a logo is one of the more impor­tant deci­sions that a busi­ness can make.

So what’s the deal with spec (spec­u­la­tive) work? Firstly, we’d have to define it. If you come to me and say, “Design me a logo and if I like it, I’ll pay for it,” what should I say as a ratio­nal per­son? I can think of a few mono­syl­labic replies which would apply, and the only one which is proper is “no.” If you were a home builder and some­one came to you with a pro­posal like that, I’m sure you could relate. That’s what spec work is. Do the work, and get paid if it is accepted.

You can see how shirts could be lost with this busi­ness model. So, why would any­one chose to do it this way? Well, the answer is sim­ple. Many would be design­ers join the var­i­ous web­sites which pro­mote this con­cept and start crank­ing out work for peo­ple they’ve never met and busi­nesses they know noth­ing about. They usu­ally do it to start a port­fo­lio, but some do it to see if they have what it takes to be a designer. Either way, some­body loses, and usu­ally both sides.

Per­son­ally, I think spec is a blight on the design indus­try. Not only is it unfair to the poten­tially hun­dreds of other sub­mit­ters (the poor saps who didn’t win), but who ulti­mately owns all that work? Does the cre­ative who came up with it, or the com­pany to whom it was submitted?

What about pla­gia­rism? In the spec com­mu­nity it seems to be ram­pant. Let’s say that you have a spec con­test to design a logo, and award goes to a 14-year-old kid in Plano. Did he steal that logo or por­tions of it from a local com­pany? Maybe. You’ll find out when the law­suit papers show up.

Most good design­ers don’t want to get a client spec­i­fi­ca­tion fol­lowed by a pay­check. They want to get to know you, your busi­ness, your clients or cus­tomers and find out what will appeal to every­one involved. Spec­u­la­tive work cuts out that per­sonal part of the process. There is no way to nail a design of any kind on the first try, and believ­ing it should go that way is only going to hurt the client. Most design­ers will have an open loop, gath­er­ing feed­back from mul­ti­ple sources as they go through the process. That 14-year-old kid in Plano… Not so much…

I sup­port ini­tia­tives aimed at end­ing spec­u­la­tive work, but at the same time, I know that those ini­tia­tives will not com­pletely erad­i­cate it. There is obvi­ously a mar­ket for it, or there wouldn’t be so many places to have it done. The only way to stop this unfair, uneth­i­cal prac­tice is to edu­cate would be buy­ers of the dan­gers. Poten­tial law­suits, poten­tial missed oppor­tu­ni­ties and poten­tial busi­ness fail­ure are all inside the realm, because design and brand­ing aren’t things to just get off the plate.

Think about that when you shop around. I’m biased against spec, nat­u­rally, but if you look past the sur­face and into the heart of the mat­ter, you would be too.