The Great Design Myth – Exposure

Posted 26 Aug 2010 - 12 Gratefully received comments

Just you wait kid. I’m gonna make you a star!
I wonder how many bright eyed young starlets were lured into the clutches of an unscrupulous agent with those very words?
I also wonder how many young designers have undertaken unpaid work with the promise of that great design myth ‘exposure?’

The idea of exposure is the design equivalent of a unicorn.
To assume that you will do some work for a company free of charge, and it will be so well received that you are bound to get more work from it is fanciful, and not based in reality.

Having said this you will still get people say that’s it’s happened to them. Perhaps it has? In fact I’m sure there are cases where free work has resulted in a wider audience or new custom, but that just goes to prove the unicorn analogy.
Even the best of us can be fooled by a horse, a horn and a crafty bloke with animal friendly glue.

If unicorns existed, everyone would have seen one! If the exposure promise worked, we would all have benefited from it.

The reality is this…

Companies approach groups of designers. Sometimes it’s online on forums & websites, occasionally it’s even at college or university. They set a brief or run a competition. Sometimes they offer some good prizes sometimes they don’t. One thing they are guaranteed to offer is good exposure for you and your skills.

Did I just see a unicorn trot by?

Unless you are obsessed by design, like most designers and others that work within the creative industry, you do not walk around looking at all of the great design that surrounds you and wonder who created it.

When was the last time you looked at a great advert, t-shirt or business card and made the effort to find out who designed it?

If the answer is a long time, perhaps never, consider the minuscule chances that someone who might pay you for your services would make those sort of inquiries?

There’s that unicorn again!

There is a small chance I’m being overly cynical (A chance I rarely take, I know!) but I’m beginning to tire of the empty promises that are made to the design community that result from a lack of respect in what we do.
I wonder if the same people ask their local plumber if they would come and unblock their drains for free so their neighbours can get a good look at his van, obviously, resulting in more work?

Exposure isn’t a good enough promise. The only realistic way you can get more work from a job well done is if the client passes on your details to others. Referrals & recommendations are the best sort of promotion, and the only way that you can get those is to do a great job for a client that appreciates the value of what you have done for them. In other words a paying client.
What is the point in someone who has got free work out of you referring you to others? Any further clients resulting from a freebie will expect the same rates.

There is a place for free work in the design industry and that’s at the beginning of a career. When you are still learning your trade and feel you cannot rightfully charge someone for what you do, these kind of competitions and offers are perfect to use as learning projects. They are equally useful as portfolio builders.

Who knows? I might be wrong, perhaps you’ll rope that unicorn and ride it all the way to the top of the design world?

I want to hear what you think. Do you still do free work? Have you ever benefited from an ‘exposure’ project? What are the most bizarre promises you’ve been made in an effort to get freebies?

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12 Comments

  • Mark S says:
    August 26, 2010 at 8:41 am

    I posted something similar over at design forums http://www.designforums.co.uk/competitions/5835-poster-competition-call-entries.html#post68776 after being told the people who made a poster would get exposure.

    After an event over at Carsonified I have learnt that exposure is a great thing. However, these competitions aren’t the exposure that people need. The exposure people need is for creating a good company, or a great product, or through completing real work, not through a spec competition.

    [Reply]

  • Ken Reynolds says:
    August 26, 2010 at 9:22 am

    Hi Mark, That particular thread on DF did get me thinking about the subject and was in fact the starting point for this article. It made me remember a few of the promises people had made in exchange for free work in the past.

    I guess it comes down to picking your battles. Some kinds of exposure are worth your time to give it a go.

    The companies & individuals that try to get free work when they should know better is verging on exploitation. Unfortunately there are enough designers out there willing to give up their time for a small chance of success.

    [Reply]

  • Claire Connelly says:
    August 27, 2010 at 1:41 am

    Hi Mark, this battle is a never ending one for the design industry. I will not ‘free pitch’ and if all designers would unite on this then we will win the battle. Please see my blog where ironically Unions ACT requested a free pitch after we were shortlisted for a branding job.
    http://graphicdesigncanberra.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/the-irony-of-unions-act-requesting-graphic-design-firms-to-work-for-free/

    Love your blog,
    Claire

    [Reply]

    Ken Reynolds Reply:
    August 27th, 2010 at 7:30 am

    Hi Claire, thanks for commenting.

    The article you linked to is an interesting read. It shows how the ‘free work’ practice goes beyond big companies preying on individuals or small companies.
    The bigger an organisation is the stranger the practice becomes!

    Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your circumstances) the design industry is largely unregulated, relying on each individuals moral and business principles to guide them, so the prospect of the industry uniting against this practice seems rather slim.
    There will always be people willing to work for free in the belief that they will benefit from it in some way.

    Personally I’ve got to the point where I believe my services are worth more than that now. If a client doesn’t understand that, I’m guessing the project wouldn’t be successful anyway.

    If people want to do free work (to learn and refine their skills or build a portfolio) I suggest doing some pro bono projects for local charities and good causes.

    [Reply]

  • Laura says:
    August 27, 2010 at 8:40 am

    Hi Ken,

    Wow its like your reading my mind (or stalking me or something)! I’ve been having issues trying to get potential clients to understand that I charge for the work I do because it has a value attached to it. Like you said, there are plenty of people out there who are willing to work for peanuts – but like everything in life, you get what you pay for (such as a well or ill-fitted toilet!). And personally myself, there is a certain point I’m not willing to go below because I feel it sends across the wrong message – it devalues my work and myself as a professional, or implies to the people who do know better that my work is below par.

    Interestingly enough, I personally would be more willing to work for free than to get paid half the amount, as completely illogical as that may seem. Simply, if I’m getting paid half the amount then I feel like I should only put in half the effort. However doing work for free removes the constraints of financial reward and therefore I am more likely to do the job properly and to the best of my ability… But as you mentioned, this should only be for good causes and charities.

    Am I the only crazy who thinks this way? =D

    [Reply]

    Ken Reynolds Reply:
    August 27th, 2010 at 9:31 am

    My stalking days are well behind me! (Actually following at a discrete distance trying not to be noticed, but anyway!)

    I think it’s quite a prevalent subject at the moment, what with the economic situation, I think, people are beginning to question their stance in the pursuit of making a bit of money.

    I understand where you are coming from on the ‘free work’ issue, but you’ve made a clear distinction between doing free work for a good cause and doing free work because a client has asked for it because they don’t value the service you can provide.

    If you don’t value the service you are trying to sell, why should a prospective client?

    [Reply]

  • Dave Williams says:
    August 27, 2010 at 9:39 am

    Great article Ken. Its such a battle with clients to get them to understand why designers won’t work for free. Ive actually just blogged about it myself in a much more simple fashion in an effort to educate younger designers about the dangers of spec work and crowd sourcing websites.

    http://davewilliamsdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/08/theres-no-free-in-freelance.html

    Its a topic that I cant ever see going away, but I think it goes much deeper than a simple request for spec work. Why do clients think its ok? How come society has got to the stage where its almost acceptable to ask a highly skilled individual to produce something for nothing? It doesnt happen in other industries so why does it happen in the design industry?

    [Reply]

    Laura Reply:
    August 27th, 2010 at 12:46 pm

    I agree with every word you said Dave. I suppose as Ken highlighted, the design industry is unregulated (or self-regulated to be more exact?). And unfortunately a lot of young or inexperienced designers don’t feel they can charge for the work they produce, and don’t realise that this has a knock-on effect to how clients treat other designers – the one’s with experience and even a livelihood at stake.

    I think another point is that clients don’t realise that having something poorly designed can do damage to their business and reputation, while other things are more obvious, such as not paying for your business electricity.

    I agree with you point that with the unfortunate rise in spec-work, and perhaps the recession too, that this issue seems to be occurring more and more.

    [Reply]

    Ken Reynolds Reply:
    September 2nd, 2010 at 7:48 am

    I think it’s easy for a client to assume that bad design can’t damage them if they have got to a certain level of business without considering design.
    I guess it’s easy to assume that if you are trading well without really bothering to invest in design you can do without it.

    It all comes down to the client believing in what they are paying for. If a client wants to take shortcuts or get design on the cheap, I would guess they don’t fully understand what they want out of it.

    [Reply]

  • Dave Williams says:
    August 27, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    Yes Laura, it does seem to be something that is becoming more common, and crowd sourcing sites seem to be popping up all over the place. In business terms it must sound great as a client as they can make a small outlay for a large number of returns, but like you say, the quality is often poor and the end result will no doubt damage their business and reputation. This is a very difficult idea to get cross though isnt it when money is tight and people love getting things for free/cheap.

    [Reply]

  • Stephan says:
    August 30, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    I can perfectly understand you and absolutely agree with your article. Just earlier today I read a good article about spec work, so this indeed seems to be a prevalent topic at the moment.

    Dave Williams wrote in his comment that it only seems to happen in the design industry. Well, originally coming from another background (tourism) I can assure you that this isn’t limited to design, it just happens in a slightly different form: internships and practical experience …

    The design industry is prone to freelancers because the creative mind has a certain tendency to work as a one-man-show (argue about that as much as you like ;-) . So spec work and “for-free-live-from-the-exposure” are simply the most effective way to get creative juice for free.

    If you’re after other qualities than creative juice employment for free might just be more effective. Yet the result is all the same: The promise of a unicorn you are very unlikely to ever see.

    [Reply]

    Ken Reynolds Reply:
    September 2nd, 2010 at 7:50 am

    Thanks for your thoughts Stephan.
    I might well discuss your idea about creative people being single minded in an article one day!

    [Reply]

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Who's Ken?

Picture of Ken I'm a freelance graphic designer living and working in Suffolk. I've been using Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign & Quark Xpress since 1999 but I've been using pens, pencils, paper and most importantly my imagination for a lot longer. I'm always looking for new clients to work with and interesting projects to work on.

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