I am sad to say that I am in complete support of No!Spec. It is unfortunate that something like this even needs to exist.

No!Spec for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term is a vehicle to unite those who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client. Basically it addresses the fact that doing spec work, providing examples of customers of ideas and work, free of charge not only is a disservice to the client, but also hurts the whole creative industry.

I say it is unfortunate that something like this needs to exist because it is sad that it has gotten this far. I completely understand that it is a competitive market and that the customer wants to get the best bang for the buck. This is capitalism at its best. The problem lies when a customer doesn’t want to do the research work and asks for pitches, examples and meetings with many companies, agencies or individuals (I will refer to this further as “the creative”). Pitches; examples, proofs, concepts, meetings and even phone calls take time, and time is money.

If the average client asks 10 equally qualified potential creative for spec work then it is safe to assume that the creative is awarded contract for about 10% of the work they bid on. Lets say the creative has to finish two jobs on average per month to pay the bills. This means the also need to bid on 20 jobs per month. A good pitch takes hours or even days depending on the job. At 20 per month, you can see a “good pitch” isn’t possible. So what ends up happening is that the creative can’t afford to not pitch a job at the 10% potential success rate, but also can’t afford to put in the time it takes for a good pitch as it would eat up all their time on pitches and no time, so the creative gives a pitch based on lets say 2 hours worth of effort.

Now try squeeze something that could take 5 hours into 2, let alone something that should take 20. You do not end up with the same output by any means. This isn’t laziness on the creative’s part, at 20 pitches at 2 hours a piece he is putting one full work week every month into pitches. That other 75% of time isn’t just spent relaxing, keep in mind someone has to do the work for the 2 pitches per month that he/she actually wins.

So now we have a client with a bunch of crappy pitches to pick from and an overworked creative. No win situation.

So what can be done? This is a matter of education, and that is what No!Spec is trying to do. There are two potential “solutions” for this problem:

1) Clients do more research ahead of time regarding a creatives portfolio. Only ask for pitches from creatives you are really serious about. Compare apples and apples; figure out what you need and what you can afford and ask for pitches from people who can meet that need. Don’t ask for pitches from design only agencies if you need development, don’t ask for pitches from agencies you can’t afford, don’t ask for pitches for jobs you aren’t sure you are going to actually go through with and don’t expect that if you didn’t like their portfolio work, they will somehow match your expectations. Only only ask for pitches from super narrowed group of creatives, say 2 or 3. This increases the creatives succeess rate from 10% to 33% or even 50%, allowing them to do less pitches and spending more time on those pitches. With a little effort on the client part, they will end up with higher quality pitches to choose from, most likely ending up with a higher quality product.

2) Be prepared to pay for your pitches. This is where No!Spec comes into play. While the option of research (above) would cut down on a lot of issues, unfortunately many creatives have been burned by clients who ask for big pitches and either lie to the creative about their chances or don’t even end up doing a project. The creatives have then had to take matters into their own hands and for those of us who are sick of providing “half-assed” pitches to clients, we support No!Spec and request a minimum level of commitment and/or minimal payment for the time it takes us to do a good pitch IF we are not selected for the project. This is successful two fold, because clients who are “just looking” usually don’t want to pay, so we cut out a lot of non-serious buyers. We can spend the time doing good pitches without the fear of not being selected as we are paid for our time. This payment isn’t expected to be something you would want to live on, but mearly something that at the end of the day, if you aren’t selected for the job, the creative doesn’t panic that they can’t pay their bills. I think this price is negotiable based on how much time the creative expects to put into the pitch, how many options contained in the pitch, etc.

So what does this mean? While I can’t speak on a whole for Powered By Geek, as a no-spec supporter, I will no longer take on new clients who require work based pitches free of charge. I am happy to speak with clients, show them past work and perhaps based on a per project basis provide them with references, but any creative work, mockups or samples will be provided at a minimal cost.

On a personal note, I now feel I need to go fatten up my portfolio