Spec Work: What Would Jesus Do?

June 21, 2009 in Articles with Comments Off

What does Jesus think about Spec Work? or “Spec Work: What Would Jesus Do?”

I am not a professional-grade graphic designer, by any means, but I think I can hold my own in certain design-related situations and projects. My primary skills (and therefore “what I do”) are more related to the idea, the layout, and actually developing (telling the computer what to do) the ‘product’ or ‘web-app’, or what have you.

All that to say that the subject of “Spec Work” (working “on speculation”, with no promise or guarantee of payment) doesn’t really hit close to home for me, so perhaps I’m not an expert opinion on the subject.

Today, I stumbled on a Wired.com article that mentions that Twitter may have paid less than $10 for some of the graphic design on their website. Reading this led, of course, to a related article titled “Is Crowdsourcing Evil?“.

If you’re not following the terms, here’s a quote from that last article that should do a decent job explaining what “spec” work is, and why it’s so controversial:

Customers post creative briefs directly to the community, which then competes to create a design that best fits the clients’ needs. A typical “assignment” will draw dozens of submissions. The winner receives a nominal fee (as little as $200), and the client receives a logo or website design at a fraction of what a professional agency might charge. The losers get zip, which goes a long way to explaining why working on spec (“on speculation,” or without guarantee of payment) has always been considered the work of last resort for writers, designers and other creative professionals.

As you might be able to imagine, many professional graphic designers believe that “Spec Work” devalues graphic design – to the extent that there is an actual campaign against such work. It’s called NO!SPEC, and here’s what they say about themselves:

The NO!SPEC campaign: Serves as a vehicle to unite those who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.

Taking all of this in, somehow Jesus jumped on the bandwagon and I was reminded about the “Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard” (found in Matthew, Chapter 20) and I began to wonder if it could be related or applied in any way to the argument of rather or not “Spec Work” is “evil”, or even inherently bad.

Here’s just a snippet of the related scripture, that stands out most to me:

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

“The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want
with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

Now, for certain, I may be taking this way out of context. And perhaps this mostly just applies to the consumer, and what exactly “fair” might be. Perhaps there are much greater examples to draw from, but this one came to mind and stuck in my brain long enough for me to post about it.

I’m opening up the comments on this post, and I encourage anyone to post their thoughts on how they think this, or any other scripture applies to “spec work”, and what Jesus might think about it. Feel free to post from either perspective, as I hope I came across as neutral as possible.

(Please don’t comment on “spec work” in general, as that has already been argued about everywhere else on the web. Stay on subject.)

I will come back with an update soon to give some of my official opinion on “spec work” and what I personally think about it.

Here’s some related links and sources:

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