Is Spec Work Evil?

[Cwilk]

I've always thought it humorous that some of the largest advertising firms in the world do spec work in hopes of landing that one big project. And to my knowledge, they still do it! They put in hours and hours of work to do a presentation to land a client.

So why all of a sudden has 'spec' become this bad thing? Is it because designers are taking work away from the larger firms? I honestly think it is. Several of these firms have now closed their doors for good. Too much overhead, too little of larger clients, too little, too late.

I'm not advocating spec-work by all means, but really when it boils down to it, spec work is not a new thing so why all of a sudden do so many designers consider it evil?

[blueocto]

The agency I worked for did spec work, and from my observation it was a waste of time - the amount of jobs you win were grossly out-weighed by the ones you failed to get, which was a lot of man hours spent for nothing in the end.

[D856C]

It's not spec work, it's the something-for-nothing mentality.

Is it something-for-nothing if the client puts in time and effort to develop a truly informative design brief? I think not.

Is it something-for-nothing if a client decides to give a well thought out reason for deviation from what the client asked for and, thus, enter into a genuine collaboration rather than attracting those who only take design dictation? The arguement can be made it is not.

Where each side works together, the situation is not what gets under the skin.

And where the format, the system of submission and set up of the "crowdsourcing" discourages anything approaching a functional client-designer relationship, spec work isn't the problem. The vast majority (perhaps every last one) of these sites are set up as a social firewall where the client doesn't collaborate, they dictate. They don't consider design, they avoid any design thinking they can help. It's really just about the client never "working with" a designer, and only using these sites to keep any design thinking from infecting the corporate culture.

These sites are an echo chamber where the client never hears anything but their own voice. Street people muttering to themselves are less cringeworthy.

How to win a logo design contest exposes the big lie designers are spending a lot of time on entries. Some will. Most won't. What designers don't get is the experience of working with a client or advocating for their design decisions.