There is no such thing as a free lunch – and when all aspects of spec work are considered, we’re inclined to agree.

Work done for free before terms are agreed upon– is still prevalent in the design, advertising, and communication industries. Spec work is a controversial hydra of a concept, appearing with multiple heads that pop up over and over:

– Unpaid work done to prove an agency’s quality to a prospective client

– Competitions wherein one prize is awarded among multiple (read: hundreds) applicants

– Volunteer or pro bono work done for public benefit

– Internships or other educational roles

Now, when we say spec projects, we’re mainly referring to the first point: Unpaid work done in hopes of winning a client over. This is one of its most complex forms and has regrettably been recognized as an acceptable business practice when working with visual communication—got to give those wacky creative types a once over before investing, right?

But are spec projects beneficial to the clients receiving them? Again, we argue no — this is why we don’t do spec work.

Spec Is a Flawed Concept

It sounds great for clients on paper, but it’s an old-fashioned idea that doesn’t hold up to logical scrutiny. Nobody in skilled trades works on spec, so why do we hold our creative professionals to a different standard? 

Spec work is typically sought by clients who think it’s a cost-effective way to receive a variety of creative options, but these benefits aren’t all they’re cracked up to be—if they exist at all.

Where’s the Collaboration?

The creative process takes time, with plenty of back-and-forth between the client and many hours of pre-design research and fine-tuning to produce something that is “on-brand.” 

Speculative work, by its nature, is a one-way, one-time process. As a result, agencies are forced to sweat out their creative talents for free, often with nothing more than a minimal design brief to guide them along the way. 

These ingredients bubble together into the unspectacular smokescreen of spec work, producing a usually substandard product and a poor reflection of the agency’s true talents. As a result, groundbreaking does not happen with spec work, and clients typically hire the best of the worst that engage the spec work RFPs.