Michael (current President of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) for the Alberta North chapter) is another one of those fantastic Canadians tirelessly working against the spec issue.
I came across Michael early this year when researching Canadian spec design contests (suggested by Brenda Sanderson) and came across his post from 2005, the lululemon athletica graphic design b.s. contest which lead me to the UPDATE: lululemon athletica graphic design b.s. contest. Reading their signed letter will give you some tips on who is fighting the good fight in Canada. Further into the letter is a CONTRACT LAW CONTEST, what fun!
From Michael:
One of the reasons why I think the NO!SPEC site is such a big deal is because it is connecting with every conceivable designer background to value the work that they do. The design community is small, so if NO!SPEC can create a venue to share stories about who is exploiting designers and how to educate them, the better the chance there is to eliminate the practice.
EDITED: Michael has stopped updating design*notes. His new home is DesignNotes by Michael Surtees.
Technorati Tags: design, Designers, NO!SPEC, spec
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Thank you for mentioning NO!SPEC. I just got asked to do a spec design and am in the process of writing the reply. And there is all the reasoning I could possibly need right there along with a like minded community. Great resource and great cause.
You are very welcome Michael.
There is a ton of stuff over at the NO!SPEC site. Protest letter downloads, the lot.
http://www.no-spec.com