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A client’s argument against free-pitching
John Scarrott and the Design Business Association thought it would be interesting to get a client’s perspective on free pitching, so asked Tom Foulkes, marketing director of Peter Brett Associates, about how he buys design expertise. “Fundamentally, we believe the creative pitch is commercially toxic and is a tradition the marketing profession can do without.…
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In for a penny, in for a pounding
Joe Rinaldi, VP of business development at Happy Cog, wrote an excellent article aimed at design clients about how spec work doesn’t just threaten the design businesses that take part, it threatens the clients’ companies and their projects, too. “Each time agencies pre-invest in spec work, they mortgage their organizations on winning the work and…
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Refuse to work for nothing
DA&D’s past President Mike Dempsey shared his thoughts on the recent speech given to young design graduates by D&AD chairman Dick Powell. Mike Dempsey said: “This attitude dovetails into the alarming increase in free pitching that now runs throughout our industry, from the smallest to the most prestigious firms. Every company that embraces this and…
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Donating the unpaid labor of others
Steve Douglas wrote an in-depth piece about “the arrogance of crowdsourcing,” where he talks about the design contest for the Dallas Mavericks. He also reviews “unofficial” contests for Sony Playstation, Daft Punk, and Manchester United, where spec work websites “have nothing to lose — they’re donating the unpaid labor of others.” “It’s a copyright and…
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The dangers of speculative design
Lisa Barrett of Birmingham-based Sixth Story published the studio’s experience of speculative design, where the “pitches” they ultimately lost ended up looking very similar to the designs that were actually used. “We produced some branding work, name generation and packaging concepts for a start up business in order for them to secure funding and investment…
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Powerhouse Museum tries crowdsourcing for Sydney Design, then pulls contest
“People are free to decide what they do with the efforts of designers of any stripe – that’s entirely ok. But when a publicly funded organisation (whose entire justification for their funding, and thus their existence, turns on promoting and championing design) chooses a crowdsourcing model, it’s incredibly disappointing to say the least.” Quoted from…
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Obama crowdsourcing to support American jobs?
A tweet from Niki Bivona (@nikibivona) on Twitter says it all: “RT @nospec http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/artworks-submission Obama is now crowdsourcing a poster, about job creation. Irony.” Obama, if you aim to support American jobs, then perhaps paying designers to create your campaign posters would be a good start.
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US Department of Interior is crowdsourcing their logo?
Here’s a petition found via Twitter that you might be interested in. @LogoMotives Petition: Stop the US Department of @Interior from Crowdsourcing a Logo | @nospec #nospec | http://bit.ly/NOSPEC-DOI “The U.S. Department of the Interior currently has posted a design brief on crowdspring.com (http://www.crowdspring.com/project/2296807_logo-us-department-of-the-interior/details/) asking for graphic designers to work for free in order to…
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No more spec shooting!
If you plan on being in Las Vegas this Sunday, Ben Chen is scheduled to speak at the SPAA Convention. SPAA: stands for Sports Photographers Association of America. No More Spec Shooting! Sunday, February 20, 2011, 1:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. “After more than 10 years of speculative shooting of several youth sports, Ben Chen…
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Spec work and design students
We regularly receive letters from design students and those new to the design industry. In their correspondence the students often explain how they were not educated about spec, and/or were sent to contest sites by their instructors. Earlier this year we discussed the subject with a design student, Thomas. One thing led to another and…
