I should have titled this post “it’s all in a title” or some such, but we’re earnestly looking for the author of this craigslist piece.
I’m not sure for how long, but there’s a wonderfully written article repeatedly being posted on craigslist. At the bottom of the article is “Please copy and repost daily so that our profession may be respected.” So someone posts it, it gets taken off, then reposted again.
On one of the up moments, Calvin Lee grabbed it. After trying to discover who wrote the piece (by contacting one of those reposting), Cal shared it on the HOWmag forum with the title Craigslist: Love This Guy!
Steph Doyle posted it on his blog with I Wish I Had Written This! Well, I couldn’t think of a better way to say it (and I’m always rushed), so I used Steph’s when posting on NO!SPEC.
Jeff Andrews picked it up for one of his blogs, Adventures in Blogging, and gave it the title Free Graphic Design, which means that ORblogs also picked it up.
position : relative posted with Craig’s Pissed.
Cal then alerted mediabistro.com when the article was reposted on craigslist. Mediabistro.com chose the title Wanted: You To Feel Really Dumb About Doing Spec Work.
Sooner or later, hopefully, we’ll discover who the writer is.
Below is the piece in full. If you are the author, please contact NO!SPEC. We’d love to talk.
Edit: The author is Dave D’Esposito of ArtMonkey Studios, Inc.
Craigslist: Love This Guy! I Wish I Had Written This! Free Graphic Design. Craig’s Pissed. Wanted: You To Feel Really Dumb About Doing Spec Work.
Every day, there are more and more CL posts seeking ‘artists’ for everything from auto graphics to comic books to corporate logo designs. More people are finding themselves in need of some form of illustrative service.
But what they’re NOT doing, unfortunately, is realizing how rare someone with these particular talents can be.
To those who are ’seeking artists’, let me ask you; How many people do you know, personally, with the talent and skill to perform the services you need? A dozen? Five? One? None?
More than likely, you don’t know any. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be posting on craigslist to find them.
And this is not really a surprise.
In this country, there are almost twice as many neurosurgeons as there are professional illustrators. There are eleven times as many certified mechanics. There are SEVENTY times as many people in the IT field.
So, given that they are less rare, and therefore less in demand, would it make sense to ask your mechanic to work on your car for free? Would you look him in the eye, with a straight face, and tell him that his compensation would be the ability to have his work shown to others as you drive down the street?
Would you offer a neurosurgeon the ‘opportunity’ to add your name to his resume as payment for removing that pesky tumor? (Maybe you could offer him ‘a few bucks’ for ‘materials’. What a deal!)
Would you be able to seriously even CONSIDER offering your web hosting service the chance to have people see their work, by viewing your website, as their payment for hosting you?
If you answered ‘yes’ to ANY of the above, you’re obviously insane. If you answered ‘no’, then kudos to you for living in the real world.
But then tell me, why would you think it is okay to live out the same, delusional, ridiculous fantasy when seeking someone whose abilities are even less in supply than these folks?
Graphic artists, illustrators, painters, etc., are skilled tradesmen. As such, to consider them as, or deal with them as, anything less than professionals fully deserving of your respect is both insulting and a bad reflection on you as a sane, reasonable person. In short, it makes you look like a twit.
A few things you need to know;
1. It is not a ‘great opportunity’ for an artist to have his work seen on your car/’zine/website/bedroom wall, etc. It IS a ‘great opportunity’ for YOU to have their work there.
2. It is not clever to seek a ’student’ or ‘beginner’ in an attempt to get work for free. It’s ignorant and insulting. They may be ’students’, but that does not mean they don’t deserve to be paid for their hard work. You were a ’student’ once, too. Would you have taken that job at McDonalds with no pay, because you were learning essential job skills for the real world? Yes, your proposition it JUST as stupid.
3. The chance to have their name on something that is going to be seen by other people, whether it’s one or one million, is NOT a valid enticement. Neither is the right to add that work to their ‘portfolio’. They get to do those things ANYWAY, after being paid as they should. It’s not compensation. It’s their right, and it’s a given.
4. Stop thinking that you’re giving them some great chance to work. Once they skip over your silly ad, as they should, the next ad is usually for someone who lives in the real world, and as such, will pay them. There are far more jobs needing these skills than there are people who possess these skills.
5. Students DO need ‘experience’. But they do NOT need to get it by giving their work away. In fact, this does not even offer them the experience they need. Anyone who will not/can not pay them is obviously the type of person or business they should be ashamed to have on their resume anyway. Do you think professional contractors list the ‘experience’ they got while nailing down a loose step at their grandmother’s house when they were seventeen?
If you your company or gig was worth listing as desired experience, it would be able to pay for the services it received. The only experience they will get doing free work for you is a lesson learned in what kinds of scrubs they should not lower themselves to deal with.
6. (This one is FOR the artists out there, please pay attention.) Some will ask you to ’submit work for consideration’. They may even be posing as some sort of ‘contest’. These are almost always scams. They will take the work submitted by many artists seeking to win the ‘contest’, or be ‘chosen’ for the gig, and find what they like most. They will then usually have someone who works for them, or someone who works incredibly cheap because they have no originality or talent of their own, reproduce that same work, or even just make slight modifications to it, and claim it as their own. You will NOT be paid, you will NOT win the contest. The only people who win, here, are the underhanded folks who run these ads. This is speculative, or ’spec’, work. It’s risky at best, and a complete scam at worst. I urge you to avoid it, completely. For more information on this subject, please visit www.no-spec.com.
So to artists/designers/illustrators looking for work, do everyone a favor, ESPECIALLY yourselves, and avoid people who do not intend to pay you. Whether they are ’spec’ gigs, or just some guy who wants a free mural on his living room walls. They need you. You do NOT need them.
And for those who are looking for someone to do work for free, please wake up and join the real world. The only thing you’re accomplishing is to insult those with the skills you need. Get a clue.
Technorati Tags: craigslist author, design, I Wish I Had Written This, NO!SPEC, spec, working
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January 27th, 2007 at 7:33 am
I see this on the copywriting creative side, too. I had one copywriting student do a spec assignment for a well-known alternative health ecommerce site. The project was a 5-7 screen promo for enamel cookware. There was hours of research involved, lots of requirements. (I always advise my students NOT to do spec work, but we treated it as a student project.) After several more hours writing and revising, she turned it in. They liked it, wanted a few revisions. Payment offered? $250. (I get more for writing a single postcard promotion.) She decided NOT to sell the work to them. (As my grandmother used to say, “Better I should set it on fire than let them use it for that stingy price.) With your permission, here’s a post I did on the subject months ago for No-Spec, http://copywritingmaven.typepad.com/the_copywriting_maven/2006/06/why_i_dont_work.html
January 28th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Great Post. So true.
January 31st, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Roberta, I remember when you posted that article. A good one.
I’m surprised when people don’t get it.
cat
January 31st, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Excellent post. Craigslist is a typical place where morons and scumbags are looking for suckers to do often sophisticated and complex work for peanuts or some kind of future compensation.
If I were the prime minister (I’m in Canada), I would declare permanent hunting season on the idiots with these lunatic demands. At least we would make the world a better place. Paraphrasing the Men in Black movie’s slogan, “Protecting professionals from the business scum of the universe”
The other things is when they say they want to see a portfolio. if they’re not designers (that’s why they need one) how can they judge something they know nothing about? As you’ve said, it’s a kind of rip-off.
Roberta, I love your grandma’s advice.
February 1st, 2007 at 1:21 am
It’s a bit of a catch 22 for the graphic artist.
This article does ask “how many people do you know” and in that case, I too could reply that within my social circle, the answer is zero.
But the graphic artist is a business owner… selling their services. Their service certainly should be respected and their talents appropriately rewarded.
BUT!
Even though I don’t know a “personal friend of mine” with graphic design talents (actually I do know one, but that’s not the point), I would still have the research abilities to seek out thousands online (such as the various graphic artist freelance networks).
That there becomes the obstacle for the graphic artist: global competition.
Someone in India or Malaysia may be a lot more inclined to do a typical $200-$300 quick art design (in terms of North American standards) but do it for $20-$30.
Those who are looking for free work or using the “you’ll gain exposure” hook should indeed be slapped. But I think such service professionals (graphic designers) have to realize that they are competing in a global market.
If I post a job for a graphic artist and have a reply from Jimmy American and he says he’ll do it for $300 and provides samples of his work but I get someone with an equally high quality portfolio, somewhere in a distant land, willing to do it for $40… who would I give the assignment to? Who would YOU give the assignment to?
February 1st, 2007 at 6:58 am
Rob,
I’ve gone that route (going on price) and it was a nightmare. There really is more to choosing a designer than price alone.
Are they timely at getting back to you? Do they have the same work ethics? Are you going to find your design copied on something they do for their next client? Do they make sure photos, etc, have the proper copyrights?
Is there a language problem? - Because if there’s even slight one you’ve got a problem. A big one at times.
Are there cultural differences? Because what one cultural calls business, fun, light, may mean something totally different. Some cultures cannot take the same pressure and will just disappear on you, not answering your calls.
Distant lands may be cheaper, but in reality, it could cost more down the road. It did for my client (they choose, not me). By the time the project was final, at twice the estimate time and cost, they could have gone with the more expensive choice.
February 3rd, 2007 at 7:32 am
As annoying as it is to find those ads on Craigslist, it’s important to remember that we designers/illustrators are often complicit in our own abuse - if only in agreeing to spec work or underpricing a project out of desperation. Soem of us suffer from a simple lack of understanding how our work actually increases our clients’ profits. I started out designing logotypes for $300; now I wouldn’t consider doing one for less than $3,000. And guess what? Fewer clients balk at my prices now then they did when I was dirt cheap. The “Rolex’ factor can actually convince clients that the more expensive designer is better - and hence worth the extra money!