The Cost of Professionalism
I can’t tell you how much I admire designers. Whether the graphic designers who craft gorgeous websites or the industrial designers who meld beauty and function, I am in awe of their skills. I’m the kind of guy who might spend a li’l extra on something just cuz it looks nice. Yes, even in this economy. Man seeks beauty.
And so it was with some trepidation that I outsourced the design of SHIFT’s next iteration of business cards to CrowdSpring. If you upload a creative project to this service, and name a half-way decent price, you can expect to see upwards of 25 awesome designer entries. But, only the winner gets paid.
I know that many professional designers disdain “spec work.” In fact, when I mentioned this CrowdSpring project on Twitter, the first response was from a disgruntled designer-type who asked how I’d feel if PR work was done on spec. I can’t say I blame those who complain: if a prospective client asked me to perform 1000’s of dollars’ worth of work — despite the fact that I have a national reputation for being pretty good at this PR stuff — I’d likely walk away. Yes, even in this economy. Man needs dignity.
Yet… yet…
Water finds its own level. There is clearly a market here. There are both buyers and (critically) SELLERS; crafstpeople willing to provide these “on-spec” services. My delight with the current entries and my respect for these designers is all the greater because they’ve put design within reach. I am humbled! The “losing” entries may not help pay the rent, but we will have honored their effort.
Could this happen to the PR industry? You could argue that it happens all the time, actually. Boutique agencies and sole practitioners will often claim to produce the same level of results that mid-sized and larger agencies do, and they’ll charge 1/2 as much.
But the number of PR pros who operate at this level are few; the number who excel at it are even fewer — and those happy few are generally overloaded with assignments. Meanwhile, to “do it right” in PR requires access to several expensive tools. And, small shops and sole practitioners tend to quickly specialize in certain industries, closing the door to providing “cheap labor” across market segments.
So, no, I don’t see “spec” or low-cost PR work as a threat to industry stalwarts.
There are much more fundamental threats for us to worry about — like the diminishing number of publications; confusion about PR’s role in an increasingly direct-to-consumer communications paradigm; PR spam backlash; etc. These are tough enough challenges to face in this this economy. But, hey, every man needs a quest.
And cool business cards.
Posted on: April 13, 2009 at 9:37 am By Todd Defren
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As a student of journalism who will be graduating within the next year, professionalism is always a topic I find worth discussion. I really like how you used designers as an example. I couldn’t agree more. The way designers work and the thought and time that goes into every little aspect of their design. We you are spending time on a design, it is only a natural desire to produce the best possible outcome. I think this is not only a great example of professionalism but a metaphor for how professionals can approach their work.
I have to agree with Michael Flint in regards to your logo. I think that there is always a lot that can be done to reinvent an image while still maintaining the brand that your consumers love and trust.
Todd – it seems we are at that point in the economic cycle where droves of boutiques and independents are calling on bigger agency clients with promises for ‘same results, reduced cost.’ You know you have achieved the next level of success as an agency if this is happening to you.
I have to giggle a bit, though. Becasue back in 2003, you were the up and comer. Remember how I met you and Parry — you cold called me at Evant, with a promise of a certain leanness and meanness that could outperform and underbudget my AOR, Outcast.
That said, I don’t see low-cost and spec PR work being more than ‘today’s business development annoyance.’
Sure, clients will be lost in the churn as marketing execs focused on cost over quality will cause some turmoil for us who are committed to professionalism. But I predict that the industry stalwarts will experience a net gain of market share during this period.
Todd, I think to some extent this already happens, not only with boutiques and solo practitioners offering lower-cost solutions like you mentioned, but also among larger firms in competition. When PR agencies go in to pitch to a potential client, they’ve usually put a lot of time and work into coming up with ideas, strategies and campaign themes… and they may end up not getting the business. If they don’t, the “losing” firm can still gain value from the process by having developed some new ideas that they may be able to use in a future pitch. But they won’t get paid.
By the same token, these designers who bid on CrowdSpring are getting some good practice doing design work for real clients. Even those that don’t win have something to add to their portfolios and cadre of ideas for the future.
Bill’s comment above about “pay per hit” makes me nervous, because my immediate thought is that if a payment structure like this exists, then so does the incentive to game the system to just get hits and not necessarily deliver value. As he says, there is much more to just getting a hit somewhere. But sometimes, the metric used can dictate the results.
I checked out the site and thought the CrowdSpring design options were great, btw.
@amymengel
Todd,
As a designer – I actually don’t have a problem with you sending a business card out like this. Its in your best interest to get more options to choose from. Your logo is already designed, there’s not a whole lot of marketing message to worry about on your business card. As long as it uses (or reinvents) your branded colors and type, then you still stay on brand.
One danger of outsourcing lies in the process. This could end up disasterous when talking about a larger project like a web site. There are other considerations with larger projects such as – can the designer set up a file to print successfully? Did they work within the right resolution? Was the web site coded with the correct technologies?
As long as you have the time to spend, and especially if you have some sort of design sense, outsourcing smaller projects to potentially inexperienced designers could be a way to get more bang for your buck.
But for larger projects, or times when you need to get a home run right off the bat, you’re much better off working with a trusted designer. Time lost can mean money lost, and even a client lost.
I have lost count of how many designers I have hired in my career. I have several I keep in my roster of most valued professionals and I send business their way.
Now that we have that out of the way, here is why I like getting an intern, a hungry (and cheap) designer, or crowdsourcing place do it:
1. When you run lean organizations, sometimes you need to pilot something and budgets simply don’t allow for a top shelf pro.
2. Sometimes I want a “neurosurgeon” to do my project and sometimes “highschooler” is good enough.
3. Even most creative designers out there have a certain style to them. You hire them enough and you notice this. So sometimes I want bunch of different designs for something. The only way to do it is to crowdsource.
4. Sometimes I don’t know what I want, but I am willing to put bit of money out there to see something that will give me an idea the direction I want to go. Crowdsourcing is perfect for that.
At the end of the day I don’t think “spec work” should cause any heartburn to experienced professional designers. If you are really good, you don’t do it, so we won’t even talk to you about it. But there is a HUGE supply of young and hungry designers looking to build their portfolios. Allow them the choice to say no to “spec work”. It is part of paying the dues. We all do it.
Crowdspring is a fantastic idea. Nurtured by Ross, Mike and Pete it has turned into a great way to open a dialogue between businesses and the design community.
The real key here is the willingness of cS to open up and really discuss the issues with places like AIG and have a “Is Spec Work Evil?” at SXSW. Not a lot of companies are willing to sit down at a table with perceived threats…never mind invite them to conferences. Love to see them get the credit they deserve. Hope the cards rock
.
(Disclosure: Worked for cS as an SM consultant in January)
Hi Todd,
As a professional, I guess I just see the value in hiring professionals to do professional work.
Your firm always struck me as professional and respectable… so it shocked me that you’d let something as important as your identity be outsourced for $350. When its coming from a successful company, that, to me, seems cheap or at the very least misguided.
But the point of the tweet was pretty much exactly this – to get a dialogue going and identify what, when and how spec work is acceptable and can it cross over to other industries. I see it becoming troublesome for many.
For PR (in this case) I can see the model working on a pay-per-hit basis. I’ll pay $X dollars for a hit in a publication or vertical trade site or, what have you.
I am guessing the argument will be met with “well, there’s much more to it than getting a hit somewhere” to which I would say “exactly right!”
Anyway, thanks for keeping the dialogue on this stuff open!
Bill
p.s. In case anyone missed it, I’m the “disgruntled” tweeter referenced above
And for the record, I’m not a designer at all, but a project manager. @yinteractive
Bill, thanks for finding this post and weighing in so quickly.
I want to specifically address this point: “Your firm always struck me as professional and respectable… so it shocked me that you’d let something as important as your identity be outsourced for $350.”
#1 – Well, we *are* professional and respectable and I hope you don’t think that this CrowdSpring experiment changes things! It was, literally, an experiment.
#2 – I didn’t mention this in the post, but we ALREADY paid a professional designer to give this a go, and I deplored the results. Meanwhile,
#3 – I *love* some of the designs at CrowdSpring. Clearly, these are wholly professional and qualified designers — who just happen to work cheap.
I agree that professional design (like PR) is more Art than Science; that there’s a whole lot to it. And I’ll always pay for great results… regardless of the pricepoint, high or low. (“In this economy,” though, I do prefer “low.”)
Thanks again, Bill.