The bad and the ugly of spec work exposed
Speculative work is harmful for the design industry and clients alike. It sells the design activity short and it doesn’t get the best perfomance out of designers, to best serve clients.
Many designers find themselves having to explain this to their clients over and over, but now there is a tool that can help them in this regard. That tool is NO!SPEC.
I am a proud contributor of the site, but just one of many, amongst which you can also find some of the Creative Latitude folks. From NO!SPEC:
The mission of this blog is to educate both clients and Visual Communication designers (also known as ‘graphic’ designers) about the nature of speculative, or “spec” work.It also serves as a vehicle to unite designers who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.
We encourage those who are like-minded to support this effort by placing a “NO!SPEC” logo on your site, distributing the “NO!SPEC” poster created by top Illustrator Von Glitschka from Glitschka Studios, as well as contributing your thoughts, comments, articles and insights.
The only requirement for participation is putting the appropriate value on your profession.
If you need to educate your client, or you are client who wants to know how to get the best from the designers he hires, have a look at this site.

