Plenty of people who are smarter than me have written about the damaging effects of spec work and crowdsourcing on the design industry, so I won’t go into that topic in any depth here. Suffice it to say that I believe designers generally should be paid for their work — the way that you pay a roofing contractor, dentist or accountant.
Design can be a hard sell in this economic climate, but I believe it’s a necessary component for most businesses, especially those that want to drive traffic to their storefronts or websites in order to turn a profit. Good design strengthens your message, lends professionalism to your operation and makes your business memorable. Design creates an experience that customers will want to return to — again and again.
All of that aside, there are a few instances in which I think it’s OK for designers work for free, but only when the designer feels called to do so.
For a nonprofit
There are many fabulous nonprofits out there that could use a helping hand. I often do pro bono work for my spiritual center and animal-related nonprofits. How do you decide for whom to work for free? And what are the ground rules? Michelle Goodman offers some good tips about pro bono work on the American Express Open Forum.
For your man
November is National Novel Writing Month, and my husband, Brad, is plugging away at his first novel. If you know Brad, you know that he’s an amazing writer. He puts my blog to shame. When he’s finished writing and editing his book, I plan to help him promote the hell out of it for free. (And then I plan to retire on his seven-figure book advance.)
For Mom & Dad
Sometimes I give my friends and family members a reduced rate, but the only family members aside from Brad who get my services for free are Mom and Dad. My parents are avid (read: obsessive) golfers, and they’re always making new friends at tournaments. So when my dad said that he wanted business cards, I made them for him for no charge. They put me through college. It’s on the house.
When should you NOT work for free?
The rest of the time.
If you do good work and charge a fair price based on your experience and expertise, you will always have more than enough work. Don’t be lured by promises of future opportunity, “portfolio builders” or shady contests for which you do all the work up front. Trust me: As someone who never went to art school and will probably never win an AIGA design contest, there is a place for you in the industry.
You don’t have to sell your soul, and you don’t have to work for free.
Free work should be a gift you give freely, or a demonstration of gratitude for something special you received. Either way, you’re the one in control. Any other arrangement should be cause for concern.
I like your recommendation of only doing free work for your Mom & Dad out of your immediate family. I constantly make the mistake of doing hundreds of dollars of free computer work for my sister who not only doesn’t thank me, she often breaks it later and then complains about it to me, claiming that I didn’t do what she wanted.
When you are truly good at what you do, many people seem to think that you consider it fun. Work is still work, and even if you enjoy it, you’d probably prefer to be doing something else.