Posts Tagged ‘spec work’
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The Reflex Blue Show, Season 4, Episode 12: Is AIGA Wrong About Spec Work?
October 27th, 2011 |Posted In: The Reflex Blue Show
Spending almost an hour being made to feel like a Fox News flame-war anchor, I admit, may have gotten me into a feisty mood when it came to naming today’s show (the graphic, though, is just me being a dick because Donovan left me off the last podcast’s artwork).
The breakdown:
Barack Obama‘s campaign holds a poster contest that doesn’t maybe crosses a the line from grassroots community builder into KILL-IT-WITH-FIRE Spec Work. AIGA overreacts and/or overcompensates writes a letter. Nate and Drew who may be thankful his name actually didn’t make the show title? spar while Donovan tries to make Nate feel like an idiot for even bringing it up tries to make Nate feel like an idiot for even bringing it up.
THE FINAL VERDICT MAY SHOCK YOUno it won’t.
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iStock seems hell-bent on their quest to become the Wal-Mart of the graphic design industry, by offering the cheapest quality at the cheapest price. They have recently turned their hungry, hungry eyes on logo design, and are seeking clientless, meaningless logo art to stock the shelves of their store in hell before launching it to an unsuspecting public. For your trouble, you will be paid $5.
Five. Dollars.
Last week I got bent all out of wack over two kids charging $200 for a logo, so I’m sure you know how I feel about this. Design, and the good that comes from it, is not a commodity. That is why Wal-Mart is not Target, why Microsoft and IBM are not Apple. You cannot prepackage design. Even in this uncertain economy, even with a crunched and desolate job market, $5 for a logo is beyond the pale. Even Hobos have standards.
Spec. It’s one of those topics that those outside of the design industry, people may not think twice about. The idea of having a competition for design services seams to make a lot of sense. You offer a prize, hundreds of designs come in, and you just select the best one.
I hear that it’s fairly common in Art. Maybe it’s not even frowned upon (chime in to let me know the official Art world stance if you know it). That would sort of makes sense as artists may already have work in their sketchbook that would look good for your mural. But your logo? No designer I know has one ready for you.
Nate wrote a post about the wrongs of spec last month, we even spoke for a half-hour about it on a podcast with Drew Davies, and AIGA has an official stance against it. But we have found a solution to all of the wrongs that doesn’t involve sabotage. So if anyone asks us – we’re in!
And it finally comes to an end! In the only way any spec project ever comes to an end. Other endings you will never see, in the vein of Lando dying at the end of Jedi:
- A week-long sitting-and-waiting marathon, wherein the Newton, Marie, and Conrad find out Steve got the job in the very last panel of the last day.
- A week-to-two-week-long kung fu battle to decide the winner after Sunrise Ultra Mega Corp melds their three ideas into one and pays out to none of them.
- A bag of walnuts.
Whenever I meet people who visit 36 Point, I ask if they enjoy the strip. I’m sure this comes across as fishing for compliments, but when I’m targeting such a specific niche I really need to hear about what’s working and what’s not. It’s always fascinating to listen to which strips in particular people get a kick out of. For instance, not one of my local friends understood this strip when it first came out, but I just met two designers who told me not only did they get it right away, but that it was one of their favorites. Impossible!
On a side note, I’d like to say that I’m finally honing in on a working hairstyle for Marie. It’s been different just about every time I’ve drawn it, to a degree, but something about the way it turned out in Monday’s strip really clicked for me. For reference, it originally started off based on a student designer I met in Colorado (from Chicago — you know who you are), morphed into a quasi-final-fantasy-hero-do, and then finally hit on some cross between the original and yet another student designer I know. Small things, I know, but you wouldn’t believe how much drawing that hair has perplexed me.
–nv–
Donovan and I just spend a great weekend in Fort Smith, AR, with some of the most hospitable people we’ve yet to come across. Spent a day, honestly, is more like it, as the drive took the better part of our Friday and Sunday. Those Twitterific among you may have followed our progress as we went. Suffice it to say the experience of judging our first ADDYS was fun, educational, and inspiring. I returned to work today fresh and recharged, ready to take on a world’s worth of new ideas (though I promise they won’t be stolen from our friends to the South).
We’ll have a better recap of the trip soon, complete with moving pictures and sound, just as soon as we can get around to it. Stay tuned for other, more different huge announcements soon!
–nv out–
Nate Voss is a designer, illustrator, talkshow host and design journalist. Working in Omaha since 2001, Nate served four years on the Board of Directors for 
Donovan oversees all creative development at