Too harsh? Let's begin. In the beginning, there was pro bono work. Pro-bono work is work taken on for free, with no expectation of payment outside of any out-of-pocket expenses. The typical client is a non-profit, and people feel a boost of altruism livens their spirits.
Spec work, short for speculative work (short for "I'm speculative over whether I'm going to get paid for this or not) is work taken on with little more than a handshake (no contract, no deposit, no binding agreement). The danger is that the client will either reject, or in some cases steal your work, leaving you unpaid for countless hours of toil. Spec work makes the typical designer into a non-profit who's lack of blood sugar makes them feel a boost of swooning.
Lately I've been getting a few tweets (twitter messages, for the uninitiated) about "design contest" sites; "contest" being the operative word.
Here's the skinny: a client posts a brief looking for work with a typical budget of between $30 and $250. Hordes of would-be designers begin churning out work, all whittled down to the low-end of that $30 - 250 spectrum, then sit back and patiently await the client's verdict on their work. In these contests, there are a lot of losers, and one winner, who is also a loser, with $30 in his pocket.
I understand how economic downturn and whackjobs like the Arnell Group pissing through $1.2 million to rebrand Pepsi's look and feel certainly do claw at John Q. Businessowner's ability and desire to pay a premium for something as benign as a logo treatment. I get that. But spec work is at best, a potentially syphillitic blind date, and if this same business model were applied in any other industry, they would innevitably crumble flat into a Economopocalypictic landscape.
Case in point: I'm hungry. I put out the word on a "cuisine contest" site and 2,173 would-be chefs looking for work each make me a full-course dinner, and then 2,173 would-be chefs sit back and patiently await my verdict on their work.
I elect one (1) who will receive some compensation for their time and expenses, but remember, there were a few thousand entrants, so the real contenders had to lowball their rates to remain competitive. 2,172 would-be chefs now go to the next "I'm hungry" posting to design another dinner hoping one day they will get paid for their work.
I was going to use an image of scrimage at a UNICEF supply drop, which illustrates a similar kind of desperation, but the eyes of the hungry in the Sudan have more self-respect than this, so it just didn't fit. Spec work is cancer, we all agree. This trend towards "design contesting" may not be actual AIDS, but it is certainly a degenerative disease that eats the meat right off the bones, so play safe out there.
2 comments on "Design Contests: a lot of losers and one Winner (who is also a loser)"
That chef analogy is great. You're absolutely right. Well done.
The chef is a great example, because that's EXACTLY what happens on a daily basis! If you live in a big city then you might actually already have a choice of about 2,173 meals which were already prepared for you since there are dozens of restaurants all over the place. Many of the restaurants precook the meals without knowing if you're going to buy the meal or not, heck they don't even know if you're going to order a taco or a 16 oz filet Mignon (if they offer both in the same restaurant). If you're looking for a slice of cheese pizza, then you can walk into just about any restaurant and get one while the other restaurants that also cooked a cheese pizza will be holding the bill. Additionally, if your food comes and you don't like how it looks, then you can simply refuse it and walk out the door. Heck, even if they don't cook it they have to worry about the products getting spoiled. If you have a problem with how this part of the market works, then we don't need to have any further conversation.
Now fast forward to the designs: what happens if I hire you to design a logo for me (because I've seen your spectacular portfolio), you churn out a worthless logo, I ask you to give me a better one but even after your revision I'm not satisfied and I want to walk away without using your logos? You might not be happy because you spent time on making a logo, but I also won't be happy because you've totally wasted my time... I don't think I should have to owe you a single penny.
So what are the problems?
1. I don't know if you and I will be able to communicate well enough.
2. I don't know if you'll be able to deliver something for me, even though you've delivered for others.
So what can I do to improve my odds of not getting burned? If the average logo takes 15 hours to complete and you ask for $50 an hour, then the logo would cost me $750. With that in mind, I find 20 designers, review their portfolio, select the top 4 designers that I'd like to work with, ask each one to make a logo spec (which should take them about 1 hour), I pay them for their time ($50 each or $200 total), and then out of those 4 I pick one to do the actual logo. It's all fair here since everybody got reimbursed!
Now the other 16 designers feel like they could have presented me with a better spec than the four I actually picked, but I don't have an additional $800 to pay everybody for a spec just to see if they're going to prove me wrong... if they want to prove me wrong, then I'll be happy to accept their spec, but I simply can't pay all of them for it. What if some do feel very strongly about their skills, they decide to actually spend an hour of their own time and they do present a better spec? I look at their spec and I say: "hey, they really DID do a much better job than everybody else." Would it be OK if I would rather use them instead of the one of the four I initially selected?
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