In my previous posting, we talked about the importance of educating ourselves in order to educate our clients and potential clients, about the value of our time and creativity. I covered the important First Step; basic practices for protecting your designs, images, illustrations ect. The Second Step is getting a contract or written agreement on design work.
In this section, we’ll discuss “Spec Work”, how it affects our industry and our bottom line. “Spec Work” simply is: work done for free, in hopes of getting paid for it. Many times, I have been asked to “send samples.” No problem, I send samples of previous work for other clients. It get’s tricky, and turns into spec work when the potential client asks for samples directly related to their project, “just to see how it looks.” without a contract in place. The request I like best is: “I like your work, but I want to see if you can make my stuff look good.” As if I intend on doing their project with Crayon on a diner napkin.
I have gotten trapped by this, and have done the work, only to have it rejected and find an exact design idea show up as the output of another designer. (This is how I learned my First Step) A concept that we, as designers and artists, need to remember and effectively communicate to our potential clients is: any ideas that we come up with is owned by us as much as the design that carries the idea.
There is some tact that must be employed when letting a potential client know the downfalls of spec work. As designers/artists, we tend to focus on what our interests are. This is usually a sure fire way to scare off the potential client. I have found that the best approach is to act and speak in the clients interests as well as our own. Communicating the risks that the designer and client may suffer in engaging in a spec work agreement is important; here are just a few:
•Clients risk compromised quality as little time, energy and thought can go into speculative work, which precludes the most important element of most design projects—the research, thoughtful consideration of alternatives, and development and testing of prototype designs.
•Designers risk being taken advantage of as some clients may see this as a way to get free work; it also diminishes the true economic value of the contribution designers make toward client’s objectives.
•There are legal risks for both parties should aspects of intellectual property, trademark and trade-dress infringements become a factor.
Once this is communicated and understood by the potential client, a follow-up approach is to submit, along with previous client samples, a brief statement on how you would approch their project.
Clearly then, the potential client can then judge the quality of your previous work and way of thinking about their business. Hopefully, you can can then begin to work on their project by designing strategic solutions to their criteria while under contract to you, without having to work on speculation up front.
My experience in this area is: if the potential client does not with to follow this method and move into the Second Step, then it probably was not a good match to begin with!
