Hear hear! Way to go NO!SPEC campaign people!
NO!SPEC is a campaign against speculative work, which is the practice of companies asking creative professionals, mostly designers, to produce work without getting paid and “pitch” for it, competition style, for a chance to get the project (or, sometimes, just to get paid if their work is used).
Traditionally, Ad agencies happily participate in the “pitch” practice, because their business structure allows them to subsidise concept creation and then make their big money off the full campaigns that they win and/or media commissions.
For designers, whether independent or small-mid-size agencies, this is just not sustainable.
I totally agree with the campaign’s claim: Spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.
From a strategic angle, an example that comes to mind is FMCG package design, an area of design where this practice is extremely common in the UK.
