March 28, 2006 @ 10:29 PM
Preaching ”no spec work!” is easy when you have more work than you know what to do with. But as a student just starting out on your career, the temptation to do work up front for little or no pay in the hope winning a project or future opportunity is hard to resist.
I used to teach Senior Illustration Seminar at Milwaukee Institue of Art & Design. It was exciting because the entire class was full of students ready to embark on their careers as professionals. All that useless information living between my ears was suddenly valuable to those 17 people. I remember what I used to tell my students about making your own opportunities, and paying your dues. You’d think spec work sounds like a great way to be competitive and gain exposure when you’re just starting out. You’d be wrong.
Let me start by saying I’ve done plenty of spec work. It took me a long time to be confident enough in what I do to expect companies to pay for it from the get-go, the way they do any other product or service.
Jeffery Zeldman provides an excellent account in Don’t Design on Spec, of why agencies should avoid doing creative work up-front (on spec) in hopes of landing a gig. As someone just starting off on their career though, you are an unknown quantity. Clients are asking to see a track record of great “design”, and you can’t show them that yet. So how do you break into the industry without compromising the value of what you do? By listenting to Zeldman’s most salient point - that design is not merely decoration, but rather the art of problem solving. You are selling yourself to your clients, not pretty pictures. Your portfolio should include pieces that demonstrate your ability to solve problems (which most student work requires you to do). Then present your work to the client just that way. “In this piece, I had to use an elephant to convey the idea ‘lighter than air’. To do this I did X,Y & Z. This solution works because...” Then, discuss the challenges your client needs solutions to.
The fact of the matter is, starting off is hard. There are no two ways about it. Here are five things you can do to get your foot in the door, while avoiding the temptation to “do-work-to-get-work” or before you have a payment agreement.
HAVE REFERENCES.
If you don’t have the work to show, have the people. Teachers, mentors, former employers. Always have ready a list of people who will vouch for your ability to get a job done well.
INTERN.
My senior year I took a paid illustration internship with a large studio in Milwaukee; probably making a lot less than I should have been. The benefits aren’t always monetary though. The next youngest person in the studio was twice my age. The experience I garnered there probably would have been worth doing the work for free. But I still provided value, and therefore was compensated for it.
GET A REP.
If your portfolio is limited and you’re not yet able to get in the door with larger clients, consider hiring representation. I called an Illustration Rep in Atlanta, drove down there and pitched my book (and myself) in person. He agreed to represent me. We started with one client (Geico, I think) and that turned into many clients including real estate companies, editorial publications, major commercial brands; companies I could never have gotten an audience with on my own. He was well worth his commision (he provided a valuable service, and got paid for it).
TAKE PRODUCTION WORK.
Many agencies bring in freelancers to do production work. This is a great way to be exposed to, and become proficient with, the tools you will go on to use thoughout your career. I’ve met a lot of Art Directors who can barely operate Quark or Photoshop. I think this illustrates a certain lack of depth. Grunt work or “paying your dues” isn’t a bad thing, as long as you’re getting paid fairly for it.
GET A JOB.
That’s right. I said it. Go get a job at McDonald’s or UPS or any place else that will give you money for your time. Until you reach the point that you can sustain yourself doing professional design, refuse to get mired down in carrot dangling clients, who believe that they are giving you an opportunity by asking for work up-front (for free).
Every client and situation is different, and there’s alot more gray area here than I think some of the NO!SPEC evangelists acknowledge (but we still love them!). I agree in general that by doing work for free, especially in a competitive situation (contests, RFP’s, etc...) you’re setting yourelf and your client up for disaster. To start with, the work you do will be at best, ill-considered. Without a formal agreement and working relationship with your client, you are designing based on impressions and guesses. The result will most likely not meet the clients needs, thus losing you the opportunity you were working to get in the first place. Also, it sends a bad message to the client. It says that all that leg work you did really doesn’t have any value. See what the ”hard-liners” have to say about it. 
Comments
My prof in college was somewhat sensetive to the whole nospec thing, but he didn't say that you should never give your work away. He did advocate people do pro-bono stuff as a way to build up the ol' portfolio. But the two things he did adamantly suggest were 1: choose their free clients wisely, and 2: Make sure they know what they're getting for free. Go ahead and do a bid for them and lay it all out so that they know exactly what it would cost if you did charge them. It goes a long way toward them respecting your work and not treating you like a volunteer. There are causes that I see it worth giving your work away for. Most causes I would get behind are underfunded to the point that they can't pay for a good designer and need one. In that case, though we're talking about pro-bono work, not spec work. Big difference.
Good article Mark. I'm glad this topic is making the rounds.
Yeah, always send an invoice for pro bono work! It's important the people you're working for fully understand the value of what they're getting. There's some more good advice on that HERE.
I suppose "large studio" is a relative term 
I'm doing some pro bono work for a good friend's new business venture. This is the third project I've done for a friend - all pro bono - and the most important thing I've learned is: Don't commit to doing free work if you aren't going to treat it like a paid project.
I think there's a tendency to let the free stuff slide down the priority list, and also to approach the process more informally than you normally would (cutting corners on documentation, communication, etc.).
Hey, until Al Gore invented the Internet - that place had every client in Milwaukee. :D
Im a student designer in Toronto and was planning on doing some spec work over the summer to gain some experience.... well that was until I stumbled upon your blog and read this. Thanks for this insightful post, nobody has ever taught me about this kind of stuff :( Starting off is definately tough. BTW I absolutely love your website. Exceptional design and very inspiring. I feel like I've learnt more just reading your blog entries than I did in the past two years in my program!
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