Attitude Design Journal
Online graphic design thoughts and latest news

So who’s heard of NO!SPEC? Anyone? Some of you? Ok, well, lets have a little chat about what it stands for. NO!SPEC is an initiative whose “mission is to educate the public about speculative, or ’spec’ work”. What is spec work you ask? Well, “Spec” has become the short form for any work done on a speculative basis. In other words, any requested work for which a fair and reasonable fee has not been agreed upon. In the UK we might say a “pitch” or a “tender” or if we need it spelt out in simple terms it is “doing work that we are not definitely going to be paid for”.

So these guys want to educate us. What – you say – educate me? Why? Because Speculative work is the bane of the design industry. In every pitch you might have, for example, 4 out of 5 companies who do not win that contract. If we take that as an average that means that 4 fifths of the industry do not get paid for spec work. So what? So these people that miss out have wasted there time, their money, and their passion on something that has been a waste of time. Their clients may have suffered and they have a team of demoralized designers. They have given over ideas that have not been completed under contract and could be used or could influence the client without them having to pay a penny and also they have condoned this whole approach by partaking in the first place! Why do we accept this approach ladies and gents? Why do we allow people to make us work for free? Because they can. But why can they? Because WE, members of the design industry let them.

So the time has come to say “NO”. Attitude does not suport this for of business. Only paid work will be worked on for the sake of the design industry and the ultimate good of the client.

If you are a designer why not join the initiative (like we have) and add a logo to your site.