Here are some follow up thoughts to my last post on SPEC WORK. Be smart with spec work. There has to be a reason why you would risk your time. Think about some of these things before getting involved.
1. IF the client sought you out and expressed a deep interest in YOUR work for a project AND that project is highly appealing to you… then you might consider it. An open invite to whoever will bite at some spec work is likely a waste of your time.
2. What are your chances of “winning” this gig? Who are you up against? Decide if your work is a good fit and if you think you can win the project, it might be worth going for it.
3. Have you done work for the industry that is requesting you work on spec? Work within an industry often lands you more work within that same industry. If you’ve been doing work for the music industry, that does not necessarily give you credibility to expect a full rate doing work for the movie industry (at first). Just ask Jeff Finley.
4. Â Is the reward worth it? Only risk spec work for rewards that are worth it. Either the budget is amazing; the amount of exposure will be worth the effort; or you have a personal passion that drives you to want to land this gig.

Spec is a short term plan. You may have to break into an industry or into a job situation that way; but doing spec work will not make for a long term relationship between you and the client. It’s a temporary way for the client to receive options but what happens after that? No one in their right mind would continue a relationship full of spec work. Fool me once, shame on you. Full me twice, shame on me. Any respectable client is eventually going to realize that customer service, dependability, problem solving, consistency and relationships go much further than a random lottery pick of designs. There is so much more to a client/designer relationship than a one-off project.