As a designer it’s frequent that companies contract me to do design work, especially for websites.  Often they either don’t have a staff designer or need something in a style they know I can execute well.  I love to design and so I take on these gigs cheerfully, unfortunately there is a downside to this way of working.  Please keep in mind that I love my clients and I’m writing this, not to vent, but as a cautionary tale for other budding designers.

When you’re the contractor on a project the client belongs to the company who has contracted you.  That seems pretty straight forward right?  So it’s no surprise that the company maintains communication with the client whom you are ultimately doing the work for.  Sometimes this can work or even be good if communication flows to you properly.  The company may filter communication allowing you to focus on the design portion of the project. On the other hand it’s frequent that the company who contracted you waters down the communication from the client. Design by nature is a holistic process. The designer therefore needs every and all details, no matter how fine, to craft a proper visual interpretation of the clients’ needs.  When you put someone in between the designer and the client thing gets lost, almost without exception.

Here’s a real-life example I experienced recently:

Me: Do you have a creative brief from the client?

Company:  No, it’s pretty straight-forward, just hit these 3 points, XXX.

Comp is designed and sent to client.

Client:  Hmm, this isn’t anything like what we discussed with the rep.

Another potential issue is presentation.  The client is likely not an expert on design.  You are.  The client also may not be the intended market for the piece you’ve designed.  They may not understand it.  It’s vital that the designer present his or her own work and be able to field questions and defend the decisions that produced the design(s) being discussed.  I’ve been blessed to work with good clients and so this has been less of an issue for me personally but it’s one that plagues many organizations.

Lastly, execution often suffers. It doesn’t matter how fantastic your developer is.  Chances are when they hand the code off the first time things just won’t be perfect.  Design is all about the details and developers operate in a world of function.  They simply don’t see it.  When you’re a hired gun you don’t have the power to tell the developer to fix this and that.  It will often hit the public eye with missing elements, the wrong font and poorly spaced elements here and there.  Personally I find this demoralizing.  You’ve labored over a design with little direction, gotten it past the approval stage only for it to be produced in a sub-standard fashion.  Now not only did you make a small amount of money on the project but you can’t use it in your portfolio because the execution was sloppy.

When it’s your project, or you at least are on the team, you have the ability to push back on the developer or go in and fix it yourself.  And likely you’ll be the one doing the maintenance so you can ensure the design isn’t wrecked down the road.

Last but not least is the client relationship.  You may have done work for a hundred different companies but since you were the contractor, they don’t know who you are.  When your client moves on, so do the contacts.

When you’re a freelance designer contract work is a necessary evil.  Despite the pitfalls I still do it and will likely continue to take on contract projects for some time.  Arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can, insert yourself into the conversation and push back in the name of quality whenever possible.

Of all the fantastic panels and discussions I attended at SXSW here in Austin last week; there was one that stood out, and not in a good way. Spec work has long been a sore subject of the graphic design industry and a conversations on the topic have become more and more common with the help of awareness campaigns like http://www.no-spec.com/. If you’re scratching your head as to what spec work is, it’s simply work done in hopes of being paid later. The most common example would be a so-called design competition in which participants are asked to create a particular logo and the winner will be financially compensated. This may sound innocuous enough on the surface but think about the bigger picture.

You wouldn’t ask 2 attorneys, let along a hundred, to draw up a contract specific to your needs and then promise to pay whoever had the best verbage. How about your doctor or even the plumber? The idea quickly because laughable. But that’s exactly what people are asking designers to do when they post “contests” or matter of factly ask for design before agreeing to pay for it.  People assume designers are artsits and artist love to create art whether compensated or not.  That may not be a huge stretch but the fact remains that creating a logo or design for a company or individual based on their specific requirements is the furthest thing from art. So here’s where the panel discussion began.

The panel consisted of David Carson (davidcarsondesign.com), Lydia Mann (AIGA), Jeffrey Kalmikoff (skinnyCorp / Threadless), Jeremiah Owyang (Forrester Research) and  Mike Samson(Crowdspring). You might expect Mike Samson to get beat up on in this discussion since it seems obvious to most designers that spec work is indeed a bad thing, but in reality it was David Carson who took most of the audience heat.  In a nut shell David Carson was firm in his disdain for spec work and sites that promote it such as Crowdspring. Jeffrey Kalmikoff was also adamant about the ills of spec work. Jeremiah Owyang was essentially for it or at least for letting the market do its thing. Mike Samson was, of course, all for it, and Lydia Mann offered litle opinion at all.

All was to be expected except I didn’t realize how outspoken Jeffrey was on the no-spec issue.  He was getting quite angry, especially when Mike told him Crowdspring was based on Threadless.com.  I’ll attempt to sum up the arguments and give my own 2-cents for each. You’ll quickly see that I am against spec work!

Pros for Spec-work according advocating panel member(s).

Spec-work markets like Crowdspring allow budding designers to get work they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

That may be true, many of the participants on spec work sites wouldn’t have access to those clients otherwise. However only a small percentage are ever compensated for the work they are putting in and there are other, better ways for new designers to get business - most of which include pay!

Small businesses can’t afford to hire professional designers and must use sites like Crowdspring which attract amateurs.

The argument holds that maybe they can’t afford not to hire a professional designer. Owner, Mike Samson, admits that most of the work presented on the site is sub-par. I’d say the addage of “You get what you pay for applies here.”

Designers on spec sites get other work resulting from participation on the site.

I’m sure a few do but it’s the vast minority and if you’re good enough to capture work(ie. win) then you didn’t need a spec site in the first place.  It still says nothing for the countless designers who put in work and received nothing.

Cons of Spec work according to some panel memebers.

Only the designer who “win” are paid.

The work designers do on these spec sites can not be reused by the designer.

The designs rendered are based on a brief and is therefore specific to the needs of that client.

Spec work degrades the design profession.

It certainly does but I do believe good designer will always have work and be compensated according to their skill.

The clients who use spec sites are suffering as a result.

Un-doubtably the client is getting an inferior service.  Part of the design process is a two-way exchange between the client and designer.  This serves the purpose of conveying the company’s mission, attitude and market aspirations to the designer. And also provides education and advisement to the client from the designer.  A large part of what you are paying a designer for is their expertese not only in illustration but also what makes a logo function out in the world.

So, back to the panel.  As I mentioned Jeffrey became angered by the comparison of Threadless.com to spec sites like Crowdspring and here’s why.  Threadless is not just a t-shirt shop. It’s a design community full of designers creating illustrations that inspire them.  There are no deadlines or specifications. Designer create what they want to create and if it’s popular Threadless will print it on a shirt and split the money.  They also pay noticeably better than spec-sites.  I could go on but I’ll spare you.

If you want to waste more of your life you can watch the discussion for yourself.

SXSW 2009 Is Spec Work Evil?