Sometimes I cannot sleep when I begin to think about the future of professional web designers.

It’s exciting (well… as exciting as office life can be) to see the designers all fueled-up when a project arrives.  They investigate, plan out, argue, try, fail, try again, correct, correct again, make last minute adjustments and then they pull out something amazing.  It’s kind of cheesy to say this, but you can actually see the guys love what they do. Or maybe they don’t really LOVE it, but they respect the tools of the trade and the trade itself.  One thing can be said:  they all expect to grow as professionals within the creative industry

That’s why Spec work makes me so angry.

“Spec” work or “speculative work” is any kind of creative work that is delivered to a potential customer or employer on which the conditions and fees are not ensured at all and the product is delivered before any kind of agreement is made.

“What’s wrong with that?”, you might ask.  And I’m glad you did.

Here’s an analogy to answer your opportune question: Let’s say that you’re strolling around the food court of a mall.  Comfort food? Check.  Big soda? Check.  Okay, let’s find a seat and watch.

Someone (a tall skinny guy wearing a black coat, a black hat and dark sunglasses) stops at every single stand and orders the same thing, warning each manager that he will only buy the first dish to come first.  He says he doesn’t have any money with him (’cause he left his wallet in his other black coat), but that serving the quickest dish is an excellent publicity stunt that will be rewarded not with cash but with recognition.

As you can imagine, not every restaurant in the food court offers the same style of food or has the same amount of employees (and some of them have no idea of how Chicken Fajitas look like.  Oh, yeah… that’s what this dodgy man ordered).

The food court goes bananas.

Queued orders pile upon each other on every stand.  Food is spilled and splashed everywhere and every cook is on commando mode.  Some restaurants send people to sabotage competitors.  Other restaurants send spies.  Everyone is stressed beyond physical endurance.  The man in the black coat sits back. Orders keep piling up.  Customers leave in haste, completely upset.  At this point, everyone is stealing from each other: recipes, ingredients, workers… anything goes.  Only five minutes have passed.

Finally, the Bavarian restaurant was able to pull a Chicken Fajitas dish.  An eyesore dish, served cold, with potato salad to the side and reeking of sauerkraut.

The man in black walks towards the Bavarian restaurant’s manager and effusively squeezes his hand.  He pulls a tin badge from his pocket and clings it to the manager’s lapel.  Turns around and walks away.

If there was a moral for this story, it would be too long.  Think of all the  resources, planning, strategic relationships and real business challenges lost in this story.  Time wasn’t lost.  And the guy got his chicken (kind of) fajitas for free. It’s not that different when it comes to web design:

• Spec work doesn’t guarantee that the designer will get payed fairly for his work
• Spec work doesn’t value the working force behind a finished product
• Spec work lowers the quality of production in order to meet deadlines
• Spec work lowers the bar for designers  and reduces their chances to grow within the industry.
• Spec work doesn’t distinguish a professional work from an amateurish disaster as long as it’s dirt-cheap and quick

I love to see our web designers working their… hearts off.  The birth of a web design is a beautiful thing.  But sometimes I can’t get any sleep.  I hope they never relent and start working for… well… nothing.

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 12:38 am . You can leave a response.