You do get to see, pick up and even read pages from the book before you buy it at Barnes and Noble.

You can try on the Jewelry and see how it fits you before you buy it.

You can actually see the painting on a wall before you buy it.

With design it’s all speculation hoping that the designer will do a good job. Not a good argument.

“Try getting a sample book from Barnes & Noble
Try getting some sample gas from Shell
Try getting some sample jewelry
Try getting some sample art from a gallery”

Classic!

Quoting is time consuming enough much less spec-work!

http://upstack.com/blog/2010/05/spec-work-the-internet-sweat-shop/

No reputation = not hired = no money.

That’s the sort of equation I’ve come to terms with myself at the moment, but I hope that in the future, I’ll be able to prove myself wrong.

That’s not true! It’s entirely not cool for people to donwload free mp3s and I believe there is a growing consensus that it’s just not cool at all to listen to stolen music. I know quite a few people that have dumped huge portions of their music collection because it bugged them that they didn’t pay for it. One person said all she could hear was “this is stolen” every time she listened to it.

Of course it’s never going to go away, but we can limit stolen music, and spec work, to the realm of seediness. We need to keep a permanent frown locked on the spec work (and stolen music) industry.

do you think miraculously, somehow, the music industry will ever go back to what it was, where people actually consistently PAYED for their music? No. unless they substantially get rid of bit torrent sites and the like, and ban access, then piracy will stay rampant forever as long as it’s easy enough to do it like it is now….

the same goes for spec work. and that’s not something that even IS illegal, so it’s definitely never going to go away just because you’re on a blog criticizing it. i doubt you’ll even put a dent in it. it just seems pointless to me for designers to tell other designers to stop doing spec work…it’s just way too much of a huge, flooded, saturated market now for it somehow to change based on viewpoint alone. there’s always going to be newcomer designers starving out there trying to make a buck any way they can, even if they try to give away 500 of their designs and get no where. i’m not saying it’s not stupid. i’m just saying i dont see spec work disappearing anytime soon now that it’s so rampant….

“It seems fruitless to me to write articles like this criticizing spec.”

I hope you don’t have a huge mp3 collection of unpaid-for mp3s! We need to pay artists. It’s a much deeper issue about where we are as a culture, globally, where creativity is held at zero value in some places. Spec work always has someone’s financial benefit at stake, and it’s not the designer.

I have a feeling I’m not going to get any free coffee either. Or free CDs from Walmart.

If you’re just starting out and if the client is a good friend or family member or maybe they saved your life once so you owe them a big favor, then MAAAAybe I can see doing spec work for them. But in any other situation, you’re selling yourself short and saying to that client “I don’t think I’m truly worth the money I’m asking you for, so I’m willing to do it for free and then hope you like it enough to pay me. Please, oh please, be my friend!”

Try getting some sample design from a real design shop that makes places like Starbucks and other retail monster-hits what they are. You won’t get it.

To me, it sounds exactly like you are simply taking advantage of a glut of designers in your area. You know there are a bunch of young guns with little experience, so you are simply taking advantage of them, not really helping them out.

“I do not have to put up with your demands of how you wish to conduct business. Why can I say this? Because I have many choices.”

You have many poverty-ridden, inexperienced, slightly-desperate, hope-laden choices. You are simply taking advantage of them and calling it good business.

Let me have one hour of your time, at say $50 bucks. Translate that into wholesale coffee prices, say $5 a pound. Now, send me 10 pounds of coffee. I’m a coffee snob BTW. If you send me 10-15 pounds of coffee (you pay for shipping too), I’ll post back to this thread. I’m a HUGE fan of Tanzanian Peaberry French Roast, but any French roast will do. Don’t grind either. You’ll get a TON of business and exposure. I’ll tweet it and write an article on it. Since you need the business in this tough climate, I can’t see how you’d lose. Thousands of people read this article and quite a few are subscribed. I’ll also let some other big anti-crowd source folks I know and we’ll all write about it.

The only thing the deal hinges on is whether or not I like the coffee. I do spend tons on coffee though. I swear I keep the 2 Starbucks near me in business. We go through about 4 pots a day. We grind it Turkish to keep the flavor up and the quantity needed down.

Your move!

Well Doug it is clear from the above that you do not understand how business works. The law of supply and demand.

There is a glut of graphic designers, photographers, web designers (can we say Square Space) et al in the industry. There are more of your type than there are coffee shops in lets say 10 square mile radius (Let alone all the college students who are going to school to learn this stuff). I do not have to put up with your demands of how you wish to conduct business. Why can I say this? Because I have many choices.

There are a lot of small businesses like myself who are content with doing their own designs. But hey maybe a nice approachable graphic designer who is willing to design a sample logo could be persuade me to pay them money to do the work for me. I have to be sold to spend money for something I am content doing myself. I have to be given a reason to go for you rather than someone else. Supply and demand.

You have to sell your wares just I like do.

As to my business I often will give out samples of my wares because I believe in my product. I authorize my employees to give out 1 free drink coupon per week to a person who has never been to our shop. Why? Because I believe in my product. I believe that it is better than Starbucks and most of my customers agree. I do not have to give away my store to satisfy a customer but sometimes a freebee is all that is needed to win someone over.

It is called thankfulness and humility. I know I am succeeding in this tough economy because our shop provides excellent service, and products. We understand that our customers make us or break us. I understand that they have choices (i.e. at home, other coffee shops etc) We must earn their loyalty and dollars. We are not entitled. You have it backwards.

This quote sums up my problem with your article, “There is a lot of work, with little, to no pay”

Dough, buddy, welcome to the real world. I have not spoken to one new business or person beginning a new business that this would not describe their life at least in the first few years of starting. You are doing new graphic designers a disservice if they go away with the idea they can and should avoid working a lot of hours with little to no pay.

No, my advice is be prepared to work many hours and be prepared to make very little. Work hard, put the customer first and you will be rewarded with loyalty. Maybe not always and yes people may take advantage of you, but I believe most will not.

Al

“I run a coffee shop” and “you want my money, you must earn it”.

Let’s try this. I’m going to order lunch for 3 people, along with 3 expensive bottled beverages from your fridge, and 3 double cappuccinos, one with an extra shot, all skim milk. And a blueberry scone.

If’s it’s good, I’ll pay for it.

Why is that not OK? I could just go to Starbucks.

Designers are a dime a dozen and I would rather do business with a hungry one. FYI from the client side.