I’ve been meaning to publish a post like this for a while. The irony of that combined with the topic is not lost on me and I find quite priceless. Have a look+listen and let me know what you think in the comments below.

Do you publish? or Do you wait?

Click here to view the embedded video.

I had a client of mine—one of my first when I struck out on my own—email me about a conversation we had a while back. The conversation was about some new ideas regarding a website. It was a great talk and the brainstorming was fun. We left the conversation open-ended and, from my perspective, we would pick it up again. That day just came.

Updated 8/14/2009

Well I emailed him the other day and we picked the conversation back up. The email exchange quickly came to the talk of speculative work. In fact I emailed him back just this morning after revisiting the No Spec! website which clearly reminded me the many reasons why performing speculative work is harmful not only to you as a professional, but to all those that are within your industry by cheapening the value you provide to people with your two most important assets: your ideas and your time.

Another way to look at it

I found an article that gave a great comparison with other industries to help illustrate what I am speaking about. Here is an excerpt:

It’s common for business owners to make unrealistic requests of design firms. Probably the most common is when they contact several design firms and ask them all to design something for them, whether it’s a logo, brochure or some other piece, with the intent that they will choose one of the designs if they like it. While it may seem like there is nothing wrong with this request, in reality, there is. Think about how this request would be taken in any other industry.

Potential home buyer: I want you to build me a house and I’m going to have three other builders do the same thing. After these homes are completed, if I like one I’ll purchase it.
Home builder: Uhhh…No.

Potential car buyer: I’m thinking about buying a car from either you or another car dealer with in a seventy mile radius. I’d like you to drop off one of each model of car that you have (the other car dealers will be doing the same) and after I’ve had a chance to drive all of them for a while I’ll decide if I want to buy one.
Car dealer: Uhhh…No.

Restaurant visitor: I don’t know what I want to eat, but I’ll know what I like when I taste it. I want you to make everything from your menu deliver it to my house. Keep in mind that the Chinese, Italian and Mexican restaurants will be delivering their food as well. After tasting everything, if I’m still hungry, I will choose a meal from one restaurant.
Restaurant owner: Uhhh…No.

The bottom line is that design is a business. You wouldn’t run your business by handing out your product or service for free in hopes that someone might feel like paying for it and you shouldn’t expect a design firm or designer to do so.

I think this fairly illustrates my point and like I said I want to work with people but they have to be willing work with me and value what I bring to the table just as I value what they bring to me.

How I work

I always define potential projects and their goals then develop estimates to produce that specific work. If the estimates are out of clients budget ranges I typically work with them to bring the estimate in line with their budget while simultaneously reducing the tasks and features to the most important and essential elements. This has worked well for me AND for my clients.

What do you think about spec work?

The things I buy typically have too much packaging. I am usually aware of this and when dealing with one or two items purchased at the store it is not too big a deal. There is a moment that the thought goes through my head…

“Man, this is WAY too much packaging for just this one small item.”

Sometimes I need sharp scissors or pliers to get something open, and then I return to my life and the goings on.

This past Tuesday on Christmas the above thought kept happening over, and over again. I have 3 small children who are very lucky to have grandparents that like to dote on them by purchasing gifts. Granted the amount of gifts this year were more than needed but what really opened my eyes was the amount of packaging waste each and every gift produced. There was ‘tons’ of plastic and paper used on every gift–this does not even include the wrapping paper to hide the gifts. The best though is all the wire twists (like the ones you use to close your trash bags) I had to unwravel so that my kids could get at the toys. When I was a kid ( I sound like someones grandfather talking about walking barefoot to school uphill both ways ) we never had this much packaging and tethers to opening gifts. Hell this year I actually had to get out a screwdriver to remove screws from the feet of one toy to release it from its packaging.

We did produce a fair amount of refuse. Good thing is that we can recycle most of the plastic and paper that the gifts came in. It makes me shiver to think how much energy and resources went into creating the packaging alone. It can make ones mind go numb to think about the waste they produce either singularly or as a family and then take that across the United States. That is a lot of packaging waste. The fact that within the United States its people are not considered ‘citizens’ but rather ‘consumers’ should make you stop and think about whether you really NEED that new widget, or your WANT that new widget… (OK I will get off the soapbox now).

Overall I wonder, does ones good fortune during the holiday season increase their carbon footprint? If so, how many more credits does one need to buy? Or could it all be a scheme?

2 things.

12.99 for 2 Corona’s at the Mark Taper Forum. That’s without a tip.

3.35 a gallon for regular unleaded.

Ouch!

Initially when I started writing to this blog, my intention was to avoid ranting.

However, today I experienced something while filling out a form online that is a common experience for me. I was on some website filling out a form where they ask you a variety of questions about your occupation, how big is your company, what is your company’s total gross sales, etc.

Now here is where the rant comes in, there is typically a pull down menu titled “What is your industry?”

Inevitably this list of industries that shows up in the pull-down has to be at standard form element somewhere and everyone is using the same damn thing. Seriously, can the world be whittled down to a mere 15 to 20 industries?
What really perturbs me is that the field of design is never available. This could be industrial design, graphic design, information design, landscape design, any number of a variety of design fields. What irks me is that design is not listed as an industry. Advertising/marketing is always listed, but really this is not my specific industry. I don’t produce advertisements and I’m not a marketer in the true sense of the word. Perhaps what I really am is a mash-up artist. Taking disparate elements of computer code and pixels, mashing them all together to create something of value for businesses. I don’t know, sometimes a little thing like that pull-down menu can really set me off.

Okay, I feel much better now and I have a new category called “rant.”