The ever lasting debate:

To Free Pitch or not to Free Pitch?

For the designer of the modern age, as a new comer, finding work can be very difficult. Many options are open and one of them that has much controversy is the idea of free pitching. Free pitching for the client has many advantages. This includes, they are able to view many options for their needs, they aren’t stuck with the designer pushing for the same idea, whether good or bad, also it is a much cheaper option chosen by businesses.

Now with the great idea of free pitching comes many controversial ideas attached. The idea of free pitching is a great way to get into the business, but how easy is it finding work? What you are looking at is devoting your time on a project, that can cost money, competing for a prize that has a lot of competition. While spending time on this project you could be potentially loosing work from other avenues. This method seems to be a very one-sided favour. Though considering you win the design job, the business has the option of paying for your design and that’s all there is, though to be considered also is the possibility of possibly gaining a relationship for future work. But then you must think whether the business will just go for other free pitchers.

Also by possibly winning the design, the business has the design to use any were they want as many times as they want, and instead of royalties for the designer, you walk away with minimal money, while the business walks with a symbol that can potentially propel their business to make them millions. Another aspect comes into play, is the idea of ethics. You may design the logo face of a well known brand, and that brand then could be known for the destruction of baby animals. Now who would want to be the designing face for that business?
This debate swings both ways. Basically free pitching can be an advantage and a disadvantage to the designer. You could potentially win the design that starts your career as a designer, or land you with some petty cash from a major business. Free pitching should be seen as fun, not as a constant income. Thank you, Jamie.

Tracy: Free Pitching profession or industry

The concept of  "free pitching" is an ambiguous one on first consideration. The idea of undercutting the competition in order to gain a project-in cases where designers offer freebies, is easy to categorize as "free pitching". 

The instances in which it starts getting a bit murky are those in which organised competitions are involved as opposed to competing in the mainstream marketplace. Some competitions are acceptable to professional bodies, whilst others aren't. The Design Institute of Australia states that: 'In general a professional designer should avoid providing their skills for free, except in genuine cases of charity or in competitions where there is no intent to avoid the purchase of professional services'. (www.dia.org.au, 2008)

The DIA seems to be concerned for the welfare of young designers and is trying to guide them toward consistent outcomes. when viewing sites like '99 Designs' it is clear that the designers are being taken advantage of. Its a demeaning process, putting your skills and ideas up to be scrutinised by people who just want a cheap job done.

One could argue that the competitors make a choice when entering "pitching" competitions, though this does not consider how the credibility of the "profession" is being undermined. I suppose what it comes down to is that when you make a decision to pitch-you are to some extent deciding the future of the profession.

 

JADE: Pitching

The topic of design competitions in the design community is an extremely controversial one. Some people believe that solving a design problem by holding a contest not only exploits designers but also devalues and damages the professional industry of design.

Organisations such as NO!SPEC advocates that designers should boycott contests. AGDA Association suggests that “spec work” is an unprofessional practice for both clients and designers to engage in.

I agree that these contests are unprofessional in alot of ways, but I think there is room for it in the industry. I think it provides alot of opportunities and contacts for unqualified designers and students, adn brings out alot of new talent. I dont think these contests are only suitable for unqualified designers though, I think it would be a good experience for any one who wants to improve their design skills and have a chance at winning, which can lead to recognition of your work and talent, which can then lead to contacts and professional work. Going in these competitions mean you have a lot of flexibility, you dont have to answer to a boss, it’s an exciting challenge and its also flexible in the way that you only have to enter into competitions that hold your interests.

Crowd sourcing sites with large communtites of designers are becoming increasingly abundant on the web, with competitions becoming more and more popular. But as I said before, there is room in the industry for these competitions, I dont think pitching and design contests will ever “take over” the professional design industry, I think there will always be too many people who are against them, or are just not interested in getting involved. And there will always be the need for the big, traditional companies. with alot of design problems, there just isnt time to have free pitching. And design competitions don’t provide the same one on one interaction of the designer and client.

PAOLO- FREE PITCHING

I ‘ve  just had a horrible flash forward guys. The free  pitching  had expanded all over in the design industry, I saw bloody big companies full of money stilling  our energy for their own purposes,  all our ideas, talent, creativity,  brilliant concepts……they were  simply gone. I think this matter needs to be considered seriously, we  must open our eyes and stop feeding this kind of business, it is not worth it because this is not about design business, this is just about companies  business and their strategies to make money by exploiting people for free . Why multimillionaire Chanel (for example) should pay 10 employees 1000 $ a month (= 10000$ ) to get  only 10 ideas when it could have 50 ideas (maybe even 50 final renderings) and paying just one person(for ex.) 2000 $? There are a lot of ways to be noticed out there without to be used as a puppet of a nonsense destiny.  Creating  a nice web site to  be able to show our portfolio and skills would  be better than competing for something that might be totally vain as a competition  with unsure profit and many expectations . I ‘m just trying to say that we should, in this matter, separate  pitching competitions or competitions in general from work . If you want to prove yourself that you are good at design is plenty of competitions out there that you can enroll in, but if you’re talking about work  what  you want to   have is the certainty  that you `ll  be payed for what you do. Besides, If you do free pitching  who guarantee  that you `ll be noticed? Will they contact you again?. I think that  we  need to be protected  otherwise  there will be no good perspectives for the design business………………….Don’t feed the monster,  BOICOT IT.

 

Abby - Free Pitching

Pros
• Winning feels good.
• $$.
• Possible follow up work.
• More contacts.
• Self employment (no boss).
• Competition is fun and addictive.
• Competition inspires some people to get better.
• Improve skills by learning from other designers.
• Gain experience.
• Cheaper and more affordable for small business and Charities.
• Get feedback on your work.
• Add to your portfolio.
• Work as an inexperienced designer.
• Freedom and opportunity.

Cons
• Not winning feels bad.
• No $$ and lots of work.
• Comp. can intimidate and discourage some people.
• Risk of stealing idea.
• Competitions sometimes cancelled and there is no winner.
• Less money for the profession.
• Unprofessional design briefs and not very good for in experienced designers to learn from.
• Clients are not designers so they pick the design they like but this not always the best one.
• Inexperienced and unqualified designers make a lower standard of designer work.
• Power imbalance between employers and designers.
• No job security and no guarantee of money.

Competition is a good idea for inexperienced designers to try. It’s good for their future portfolio and to get a job.
Designers can get good money if they win. People who are not graphic designers could win the competitions with poor designers. This lowers the value of design. Free pitching can be good because graphic designers can share their ideas with each other and this helps improve the skills of inexperienced designers. It does not provide job security and is not a guaranteed way to get money.

JOSH - Stephan Sagmeister

The interviews with Stephan Sagmeister are really interesting.
Opened my insight into graphic design a lot. The theme that I got out of the interviews were we all live a life. Everybody learns and teachers through there lifetime. And it is up to us whether we remember and grow. Sagmeister really interested me when he talked about the journal writing. I my self have wanted to start getting into it but never started.
Now I am keen.

On my search for the image I came across the book ‘the things I have learned so far’.
I thought this tied in very nicely with the information I got out of the interviews.

So I chose this image.


What really made this image relate was when i found this image from a private source.
This is a perfect example of how we learn. These people took one idea from Sagmeister and an experience that we all experience and merged the two.
Somehting that Sagmeister talks about althrough the interviews

FREE PITCHING - WIFE OR DEATH

Free pitching – or supplying design services without a fee - has both positive and negative impacts on the design community. The idea of holding a competition to find the best design for a particular product/company at first seems an awesome idea but after further investigation I see it as a bride wielding a double edged sword.

By entering a competition – such as the type held on website www.99designs.com you subject yourself to x amount of hours working on a project with absolutely no guarantee you will win and get paid. You don’t know what the skill levels of your competitors are and as such would be hard to judge the amount of time and effort to inject. You could even be (un)lucky enough come head to head with competition ‘super designer’ Richard Scott who loves the thrill of entering and winning competitions. In an interview for Desktop Magazine (#240) he muses, “After I won a few contests early on, I realised there was some money to be made – possibly enough to base a business on”. Although this sounds easy enough it is a very idealistic view and to me isn’t the most realistic option for many a young fledgling designer.

I do believe that if these competitions become commonplace for the industry they could unintentionally and inevitably lower the quality of work and bring down the standard rate of fees that designers can charge. Having said that, I’m still drawn to these competitions and will most likely have a dig at one sooner rather than later.