Spec Work: any kind of creative work, either partial or completed, submitted by designers to prospective clients before designers secure both their work and equitable fees.
Would you go to an attorney’s office and ask them to try your case for free so you could see if they were qualified before agreeing to enter into a contract with them or compensate them for their services? Or enter a grocery store and ask to eat a cake from the bakery before deciding to buy it? Most of you wouldn’t.
It’s become quite commonplace for potential clients who walk into our office to ask to see designs and concepts before entering into an agreement with us. Designers are often asked to submit work in the guise of an entry exam on potential jobs as a “test” of their skills. Our team at SmartBomb Creative understands that every project will involve at least minimal amount of research and spec work before a client signs on the dotted line. We want to work with clients to produce communication materials for your organization, but within the scope of a formal production schedule. We do this to avoid the quality of work you are entitled to being compromised and to uphold a long-standing ethical standard in the communication design profession.
There are two main reasons for our position:
To assure the client receives the most appropriate and responsive work. Successful design work results from a collaborative process between a client and the designer with the intention of developing a clear sense of the client’s objectives, competitive situation and needs. Speculative design competitions or processes result in a superficial assessment of the project at hand that is not grounded in a client’s business dynamics.
Requesting work for free reflects a lack of understanding and respect for the value of effective design as well as the time of the professionals who are asked to provide it.
That’s why SmartBomb Creative takes a more effective approach to speculative work. Designers are willing to submit examples of their work from previous assignments as well as a statement of how they would approach your project. You can then judge the quality of the designer’s previous work and his or her way of thinking about your business.
The designer you select can then begin to work on your project by designing strategic solutions to your criteria while under contract to you, without having to work on speculation up front.
If you would like to work with our firm in developing a process that will benefit you most and maintain the high business standards we expect, our designers can provide you with solutions that will far exceed your expectations for an appropriate budget and schedule. In the end, this approach ensures a more effective, professional and profitable process for everyone involved.