A lot of the issues that people are raising about spec work have nothing to do with spec work as a business model, but rather how that business model is being abused by its users.

For example: arguments claiming that spec work is wrong because people are plagiarizing logos, because of the existence of logo mills, or because no thought/effort is put into any of the logos being created are all invalid. They don’t actually address the spec work model or, as NO!SPEC (http://www.no-spec.com/about/) defines it: “any kind of creative work rendered and submitted, either partial or completed, by a designer to a prospective client/employer before taking steps to secure both their work and an equitable fee.”

Of course that’s not to say that these arguments have no value. But instead of a NO!SPEC initiative (as NO!SPEC actually uses a lot of the above arguments), shouldn’t it be REFORM!SPEC?

All I’m saying is that we need to actually step back and take a look at what exactly we are arguing about. Is spec work a bad thing if a jobless college grad, eager to build a portfolio with real-world examples, submits a design to a company that really doesn’t care all that much about its brand / doesn’t have the budget to afford a professional designer? Isn’t it worse for professional designers to think that every business should care as much about design/branding as they do or chastise a young designer for for working for free (when all they really care about is building a portfolio).

Obviously the system doesn’t work that way all the time. But if we can’t find anything wrong with the above scenario, shouldn’t we be looking to reform spec work instead of eliminate it altogether.

Finally, I’m tired of the analogies that people keep using to knock spec work. Sorry, NO!SPEC, but defending someone in the court of law is not analogous to designing a logo. There’s no market for lawyer spec work because almost everyone sees the need for a good lawyer, or a good mechanic or even a good DJ (http://www.davidairey.com/spec-work-request/). Design spec exists because a smaller percentage of people see good design as an absolute necessity.

But if you still want to use the argument from analogy, you also have to consider this: we might laugh a person who uses a cheap auto mechanic when their car breaks down, but that doesn’t mean that they were wrong to choose the cheap auto mechanic in the first place, nor is the auto mechanic wrong for offering their services at the cheap.

“But what if people start creating contests for the opportunity to fix their car and all these unskilled, auto-novices jump in with shoddy service and taint the whole auto-mechanic industry and take legitimate business away from the real mechanics???”

Again, this is why the analogy doesn’t work. There’s no market for auto mechanic spec work. Everyone wants their car to be fixed…not everyone wants a banging logo.

At the end of the day, it’s all business. Adapt or become obsolete.