An open letter to Mr Gerry Dee
I refer to your tweets on Twitter:
“Mr. D” logo contest. Will send you $500 if we use it. Send your PDF logo to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). The show is about teachers. Due Aug 22.
sweat equity is the key to success. Doing a logo for a CBC show could lead to tonnes of business.
The problem
What you are engaging in is called spec work. Please visit the home page and hit the ‘READ MORE’ button to learn more.
You requested of your 21,000 Twitter followers that they submit a logo for your upcoming television show on CBC TV. The ‘prize’ is $500 to the winner if you actually deem there is a winner.
Television is a business and one that makes lucrative profits. The sensible route for any high profile business is to hire the services of a professional designer/agency. What isn’t acceptable is to ask for hundreds, if not thousands of free design hours. It’s lazy, cheap and exploits mostly young inexperienced designers.
Presumably you personally want to make good money from this show. That’s great and I wish you all the very best but please do the right thing and ask just ONE designer to create your new logo.
AntiSpec isn’t just about educating designers. Educating clients is just as important. Your professional TV identity is best placed with a professional identity designer.
I’d love to turn this into a positive client story for AntiSpec. If you have any questions then please comment below or email hq[at]antispec.com.
Mark Collins
The AntiSpec Campaign
Thanks to Katie Tower for the alert.
Update
Gerry Dee emailed me to let me know he has withdrawn the logo contest. He also tweeted:
“logo contest idea came from me. Not CBC. I had no idea obviously about #antispec but will happily pull my contest idea to support it.”
This campaign lasted 50 minutes from launch to Gerry Dee’s above tweet.
Update: Gerry Dee emailed me to let me know he has withdrawn the logo contest. He also tweeted:
“logo contest idea came from me. Not CBC. I had no idea obviously about #antispec but will happily pull my contest idea to support it.”
This campaign lasted 50 minutes from launch to Gerry Dee’s above tweet.
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Comments
if you pay them peanutsch, you get monkeys
Posted by Jooop Ridder on 17 August 2011
Please read what about what Spec work is, and avoid giving yourself a bad name. Hire one designer and get a quality design.
Posted by Michele Melcher Illustration on 17 August 2011
no comment other than do not support spec work.
Posted by Erin Potter on 17 August 2011
Spec work is a dead-end street for clients and designers. Please re-think your strategy and look at some portfolios and then choose the right designer for the project.
Posted by Kyle T. Webster on 17 August 2011
Totally against spec work! Work for free it is just bad business. Doing free work does not produce tonnes of paying work. It just attracts more people wanting free work. Who works for free!
Step One: Look at portfolio’s of great creative designers!
Step Two: Provide a criteria for the design of your logo to your short listed creative candidates.
Step Three: Examine their portfolios, performance, the synergy you have with the designer and their written proposal.
Step Four: Hire the best creative designer or team for your logo.
Unless you are a registered charity, you should be paying for great creative, like many smart, savvy businesses owners do. Free work is bad for anyone’s business. Think about!
Posted by Jennifer R. Cook on 17 August 2011
so basically you want to be a lazy client, not sit down with a designer and tell them what you want. You just want a bunch of ideas thrown at a wall and whichever sticks… you like. Yeah. sounds like a great brand identity plan.
Posted by mike on 17 August 2011
This type of engagement with design professionals is not deemed to be best practice, does not produce the best results and will not provide you with a design strategy that will contribute to your enterprise.
Posted by Nicholas Cloake on 17 August 2011
CBC TV?... incredible…!!! Totally unprofessional… and CBC do this with my taxes.
Posted by Denis Collette on 17 August 2011
Even if you are a registered charity, you should not expect work for free. That’s irresponsible. Having design work donated can be a great way to get great value, but recognize the significance of that donation! If you are going to run a “design competition” that prize better be really amazing, better than standard industry wage and or extreme prestige! Not $500.
Posted by Mike on 17 August 2011
Apparently he has agreed to pull the contest! Please forgive me, I don’t have a Twitter and I don’t Tweet so I have no idea what the proper protocol is for sharing the tweets but here it is:
Gerry Dee
@gerrydee Gerry Dee
logo contest idea came from me. Not CBC. I had no idea obviously about #antispec but will happily pull my contest idea to support it.
Another win for ANTISPEC! Yay us!
Posted by Sheana Firth on 17 August 2011
Whenever a company recants, particularly if they are media-related, Antispec should offer to cooperate with the media outlet on a story which highlights spec-work, the misconceptions the media outlet had, and then *congratulates* them for choosing otherwise. It’s a win-win for the media outlet who looks like a good guy in the end, and Antispec, which gets its cause known.
There should also be a hall of fame for groups that recant, which you can point future companies to, to help motivate them to do the right thing. Maybe a pledge, too?
Positive reinforcement. Make this ultimately less a threatening club (like lulzsec and other hacking groups have become) and more a means for positive change and encouragement towards better practices.
Posted by R.Gallegos on 17 August 2011
I see he has pulled his contest out, from his tweets.
Go Antispec !!!
:D
Posted by Crazyhunk on 17 August 2011
Well done Mark!
Posted by Jeff Couturier on 17 August 2011
I have over 20 years experience in the corporate world, and 10 years experience as a graphic designer. I have 6 years of university education. I am a licensed graphic designer, through the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (www.gdc.net), who do not allow its licensed members to work on spec. When work is promoted as an “opportunity,” there are young eager designers who will do it for nothing, or to have in his or her portfolio, but it takes work away from those of us professionals who are qualified, educated, experienced, and worthy. You wouldn’t offer to a bunch of doctors the opportunity to do your heart surgery for free, and although graphic design isn’t saving lives, it involves the livelihoods of both the recipient as it will affect how well his business does, and the graphic designer.
People also need to realize that the “designers” who work for free will not likely be around in a few months or a year. They move away, go back to school, or find other professions. The person who contracted them to do the design work won’t be able to find them when changes are needed to the logo, website, or whatever work was created, the original artwork will be nowhere to be found, costing them more money and headaches in the end as they’ll have to start all over. I’ve done a lot of work for people in these situations (lost original artwork, etc.) who are paying way more in the end than they would have had they hired a pro in the first place. Hire the right person(s) in the first place, and recognize experienced graphic designers as the professionals they are and avoid these problems. This is serious business; we’re not just a bunch of kooks playing around with paper and markers! Think of the best logos and ad campaigns you’ve ever seen. Think these were done on spec?
Posted by Mona McClintock on 17 August 2011
Nice job of educating Gerry Dee!
Posted by Eileen MacAvery Kane on 17 August 2011
Good job, Mark. 50 minutes, wow!
Posted by Grace Oris on 17 August 2011
This site is a great idea. Many thanks for calling out bad client behavior. And while Mr. Dee gets a wag of the finger for doing it to begin with, you gotta appreciate the fact he stopped within minutes of starting.
Posted by Steve Congdon on 19 August 2011
Congratulations on such a brisk success on this one. Your well written pleas and letters to the offenders are respectful and informative and seem to be doing the job with the sort of reasoned tone I thought was long gone. Keep up the great work.
Posted by Patrick King on 22 August 2011
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