Creative Synthesis

As someone who occasionally does design work I rail against spec work and everything it stands for. As someone who is an objective human being - I have a different perspective. I don’t (with either hat) think spec work is *evil*. As a designer it is unfortunate to be asked to do spec work, but I think saying that it’s evil almost outrageous.

What are you talking about? Why talk about this? A lot of people are complaining about a site called pixesh. Pixesh is a forum from Derek Powazek (Powazek’s book, Design for Communities is regularly on my student reading list) for posting pictures or illustrations in response to a particular call, or assignment. These assignment postings offer some monetary reward or a prize to the pictures or illustrations that best matches the posting. A lot of people are upset about pixish. Adam Howell has the clearest framing of the concern. Beckley Roberts begs to differ (with Powazek apparently - nearly everyone else seems to agree with this position.) Colin Fahrion agrees that pixish is a great way of streamlining the spec work process to take advantage of designers.

I’m following pixish because it is another new example of *crowdsourcing* which is a topic that I’m very interested in. I signed up for pixish. I toyed with posting a contest for students to demonstrate what I think a responsible use of pixish is and to see how it works. To be fair, however, I can’t really imagine using pixish in the future. Any time I’ve worked with illustrators or photographers in a professional context I’ve tried to do the right thing.

Do I think that pixish is right? Is good? Is socially and ethically acceptable? I don’t know. I could agree with it in certain circumstances. As it stand right now? Probably not. Some things are too susceptible to inequity (the payment/reward process - for one). There are some things about pixish that could be tweaked slightly to make it quite interesting. For example, what if there was a more controlled voting system and the top vote getter instantly won (and was rewarded - from some sort of escrow), rather than being entirely at the mercy of the poster?

Still, to read all of the things being said about pixish right now, one might imagine that the assignments that are posted have been created by inhuman monsters, intent on branding their highly lucrative business around the theft of a poor designer’s work. Actually reading the assignments one find a much more casual (and human) need for design help. People asking for a user avatar they like. Someone who wants a tattoo to represent their new life choices. A children’s chess site. A T Shirt design with a royalty deal (to be worked out - implying equal say by both parties!).

An awful lot of these postings are either ridiculously fair (like the t shirt deal) or something so casual that its unlikely that the poster would think of reviewing portfolios and hiring a ‘real designer’ at a market rate. The postings are almost so innocent and innocuous that I wouldn’t be surprised to see a grandmother asking for some nice labels for her spice rack - with the reward being a plate of home made cookies. On almost every posting I was completely convinced that the poster is a fair person on the up and up. They are legitimately unsure of what they are looking for and are planning to use the one they actually like. There are casual design users. Shouldn’t design be for everyone? Not just design professionals working in design consulting jobs for real companies? Even the more professional postings seem to be geared towards collecting large amounts of work (like lots of pictures - where lots of people will be rewarded) - and this seems like a good way to accomplish it.

Looking at the user profiles for the content creators is interesting as well. It looks like a lot of people who consider themselves artists (which is very different from being a designer), or are just looking for a little fun. They like doing this stuff, not just for money but for fun or personal improvement. I don’t see a lot of professional AIGA designers on the site.

Pixish is Speculating

Part of the problem is that pixish is similar to asking for speculative work - so called spec work. Spec work is (in a favorable light) when a client isn’t quite sure if they want to work with a designer - or of a few designers, which is the best match. I don’t think this is a necessarily evil thing. A lot of designers think this makes the client evil. In a negative light spec work is about getting a lot of work done for very little money, and taking advantage of designers. Realistically, I think there are plenty of reasons that a client might ask for spec work. They might not be familiar with the design industry. They might be a new company that is simply inexperienced. They might be extremely concerned about their budget - whatever, it happens. As an AIGA member I’m against spec work - I don’t do it. As a human I understand where it comes from. I’d like to proceed on a rambling tirade about spec work.

Let me be very clear. The kind of spec work that I might consider to be ‘ok’ is a call for works, or sketches of works, intended to be reviewed, and then either rewarded (at fair market) or rejected. I’m not talking about ’spec work’ where the client always owns what you did no matter what - that’s just foolish. I’m also not talking about clients who unethically steal or use ’spec work’, or make promises about future work they don’t intend to deliver on - that’s a completely different problem. What I’d like to talk about is the idea of doing work with the expectation of pay, given that the work is selected as being appropriate after its creation. If ethical behavior is followed for pixish, entries shouldn’t worry about seeing their work illegally used by the poster down the road.

To student designers or novices. I would offer only this advice about spec work. If you do spec work, admit to yourself that your work might not get rewarded. First do the math. If you could estimate that there is a 50% chance your work will be appropriate for the company, it is worth 50% of whatever you would charge for a contract project. Plan ahead. Don’t assume future work that is guaranteed in writing. Don’t do something for $5 today for a 1/100 chance for a $100 tomorrow (that’s only $6, thinking about the probability). Second, ask why the company is asking for spec work. Talk to other designers about them. Make sure that they treat designers fairly. If they don’t - don’t do any work for them period, not just spec work.

Arguments Against Spec Work

There are a lot of arguments against spec work, and I think most of them just end up making designers look bad to non designers. One of the arguments is that ‘design work is hard’ and therefore its unfair to ask for design work to be done without the guarantee of pay. Fooey. There is nothing unique to the design profession here. Plenty of people in other professions regularly do ’spec’ work. As an academic I’ve found that funding organizations usually ask for proposals before they give you money. Journals and conferences generally expect full complete articles to be written before they consider them for publication. This is, on its face, no different from spec work. It takes a significant amount of time, money, and resources. There are plenty of industries where work needs to be evaluated before it can be rewarded. No one thinks it is *evil* although it is certainly unfortunate to spend a significant amount of time on something only to realize that the purpose for which it was created will go unrewarded.

You know what people in other industries do when this happens? They move on. There are generally two options when your work doesn’t find a home.

• It’s possible that your work is very tailored to a specific purpose and niche. Fair enough. This probably means you can’t get a lot directly out of your work (at least financially). Did doing the work improve your skills? Did you learn something you didn’t know before? You should have. If you didn’t then why were you doing the work in the first place? If you really need to pay the bills - yes, I would avoid spec work.
• It’s much more possible that your work has some inherent value on its own. One would think that a lot of designers should think this. If it does, even if it was rejected by the client - it is still valuable! If its really a good design / illustration / photo then I can almost guarantee that someone will pay for it. In fact, now that the client doesn’t want it - you own it. That means that instead of getting a one time payment, you could sell it yourself.

There are a lot of other arguments being bandied about:

• In a public forum, there are a lot of people that can steal. In my mind, this is the best argument against using pixish - but I don’t think its an argument that makes pixish evil. I don’t think this is a particularly new problem. Any portfolio posted on the web could be misused in such a way. And is pixish ethically responsible for another person’s illegal action? Is Flickr responsible for misuse of posted imagery?
• It hurts the industry. This is an incredibly flawed argument and I really wish designers wouldn’t jump to it so quickly. Yes, you’re right. Spec work probably does hurt the industry as it exists right now. This doesn’t make spec work evil or unjust. “The Industry” is not the highest good, or necessarily the best instantiation of design work. I’m sure plenty of people in the Tobacco industry used this argument against regulation. It didn’t sound compelling when they said it, did it? Part of the designer’s problem is often convincing the client their work is valuable. This problem is shared by other industries as well. An argument that “you shouldn’t ask for spec work because I can’t convince you that my work is valuable” simply isn’t very compelling to a non designer.
• Clients view all design work the same, and having lots of cheap design work make it hard to them to see the good designs that cost more. This is a slightly better argument, but again this is true for anything. Even if a client recognizes that the design is better, but is unwilling to pay for it - does it matter why? Maybe they are cheap. Maybe they simply don’t have enough money. If it is a company that should be able to pay a fair market value - and refuses to or misuses its influence over the industry - I’m completely in favor of collective action against that company. Don’t work for them. Don’t encourage other people to work for them. Loudly protest if they try to take advantage of spec work. Beckley Roberts writes about an experience with a contract for a startup. There are dangers for anyone who works with a startup. Even lawyers have to deal with it. Ask for equity. A designer working with a startup is likely responsible for shaping companies brand in a huge way. They should act like it.

What would happen tomorrow if every designer in the country decided they were going to work at a startup for a partner’s share? If I was in that startup I would feel much more confident about our ability to go up against the established competitors. I really do think that design can make a difference and have a quite significant impact. Designers - you should too. Designers are not accountants and its the sad sometimes that they think like them.

This problem has nothing to do with being evil, and everything to do with how difficult it can be to establish trust. Look. For someone to pay you money they have to trust you. There is exactly one way to establish that trust. You can ask them to trust you and you can sell them on the reasons why they should. The only other alternative is to remove trust from the equation, which is what spec work does. The point is the company doesn’t have to trust you. They are paying you. It’s your job to make them trust you. Get better at this.

Get over it

Pixish is real. It is here. Designer, how will you deal with it? My impression is that pixish is not really a threat to professional designers, illustrators or photographers. In fact, it might be a good outlet for unused work. Framing it more directly as a student/novice forum, or a design contest aggregator might be a better move. I’m not sure how much human administrative review has been required to create the kinds of postings that exist now - but if it keeps up pixish will never be what you’re worrying about. I think the endeavor comes with the best of intentions and maybe Powazek would be smart to bring some of the people rallying against pixish on board to shape it in the direction that I think I see. Ok. I’d love to hear any spec thoughts people might have. Fair warning - I will not pay for them.