Spec Work debate from SXSW

Here’s the YouTube of the debate we discussed intensely at our last DIALOGUE event last Friday night here in Las Vegas. People are passionate about this, and I’m no exception. Spec sites like crowdSpring take food out of my family’s refrigerator by dropping the perceived value of design. My comments are under the video below. Watch it first! Watch it 17 times like I did. Then, watch it again.

Play it back and listen to David Carson from 4:37 - 5:42. He’s absolutely brilliant, albeit coming off a bit snobbish to the non-believers, without a doubt. I don’t care, though. I think the AIGA’s willingness to listen to the spec sites and potentially reverse their anti-spec policy is insane. Lydia Mann’s comments at the end were equally brilliant to Carson’s. They go something like this:

“Spec is design in a vacuum. Actual design emerges when a designer … has a unique ability to understand the client’s specific needs, goals and challenges. [A good designer is] … able to then extend from the consulting and problem solving processes, [and] extend a solution that addresses that [ability]. Posting a project without that kind of give-and-take precludes that relationship. Money or compensation is the representation of the client’s commitment to that relationship.”

Awesome!

I’d like to make a prediction. I don’t feel that spec sites are democratizing anything. They’re creating a very wide gap between cheap, quickie designs and quality designs. It’s unfortunate that clients will have to find out the hard way what the difference is.

EDIT:  This conversation heats up over at the forum on Design Democracy. Join in!