Obama for America recently asked designers to submit poster designs to a contest, to support the American Jobs Act. Among the posters submitted, twelve will become finalists, with three posters emerging the victors. View the contest here.
The winning posters will be printed and sold, with proceeds benefitting the 2012 Obama campaign. The winning designers will receive their poster framed and signed by the President.
This is spec work. Read up at no-spec.com if you’re unfamiliar with the practice and why it’s wrong. In designers’ eyes, it’s an incredibly unpopular and unfair way for a business or organization to get design work. I’m often very vocal against it, like many designers online. I’m proud of the small army we’ve become in educating/attacking those who take our profession for granted.
And I don’t see a problem with this Obama contest.
Why? I feel it’s a very special case. Some designers are insulted by the irony of the campaign asking for free work to support a jobs bill, and I understand the point, but I don’t think it’s being evaluated in the right context. This is work for a political campaign. Campaigns are fueled by donors, and volunteerism, and making people feel like they’re a part of the cause. Campaign jobs are often done for pay that is far lower than a comparable job in the private sector, if they’re paid at all — a sacrifice made for something you believe in.
The Obama 2008 campaign was built on the back of the supporters, and good design. Thousands of people gave up money, time, effort, sweat and tears to fight for a candidate they believed in. I don’t see how this is really all that different than asking for monetary donations. By entering, you’re donating your time to the campaign. If you win, you’re donating the sales/rights of your poster to the campaign.
If Obama were say, Moleskine — a private company — looking for freebie work instead of paying a designer (which is currently happening and is receiving far less outrage) then I feel the outrage would be appropriate.
Sure, Obama could easily ask three designers to donate time, but this contest will make all designers who participate feel like they’ve contributed something to a cause they care about. Many of the posters will hit the internet, and act as a viral campaign both for the Jobs Act and the campaign. A few lucky designers will be able to claim the winning poster as their design, and know they’ve helped put a few thousand bucks in the coffers for the 2012 run. They most likely wouldn’t have been able to donate that kind of cash otherwise.
When it comes to speaking out against spec work, I’ll meet you at the front of the line and be as loud as anyone. I think it’s a terrible practice 99% of the time. Many in the design community have spoken out about this, and I understand and respect the many designers who’ve offered their voice. I just feel that since the proceeds are going to a political campaign, it’s not deserving of the outrage it has received. To me, this is the 1% of the time where it’s not a terrible thing.
What are your thoughts on the contest?
The official Objectified poster
Andy Gonsalves
Waxin’ & Milkin’
Printed Matter – Evelin Kasikov
I’m not a designer, but I’ve been quick to hop on the bandwagon and support my friends who are. I don’t feel I’m qualified to disagree with people who are offended by this, so I’ll happily join them in their outrage.
But you make a good point and argue it well here. I certainly see the somewhat cruel irony in asking people to create something on spec to support a jobs bill, but I hadn’t necessarily considered the political angle you mentioned. Kudos, Ricky — good thoughts.
I guess in this case, for once, we can get behind the 1%.
11:20 am
Thanks for this write-up Ricky. I totally agree with you on all accounts. You summed it up perfectly.
12:29 pm
I always felt that Obama’s unique presentation (read: good design) went a long way towards showing his supporters and skeptics that he actually represented change in politics.
While it’s important to maintain the integrity of our work – It’s equally important to contribute to a cause that allows us to flourish. So many designers work as their own small business – a sector that Obama is actively trying to assist.
Everyone’s got bills to pay – but it’s pretty clear that just voting isn’t enough anymore. We’ve got to do more!
1:10 pm
This is EXACTLY how I feel about the contest, which is why I’ve decided to enter it. I’m usually just as anti-spec as the next designer, but I see the same exception that you do. Thank’s for spelling it out clearly.
2:07 pm
I don’t support this project, not because it’s pro-bono, but because the Jobs Bill is bad policy. It’s essentially stimulus 2.0. If you’ll recall stimulus 1.0, the government spent almost a trillion dollars, and the economy got worse. Unemployment went from 8% to over 9%, with real unemployment around 19%. Now they’re saying, ‘Let us borrow and spend a half trillion dollars more, and everything will get better’. No it won’t. Because politicians don’t create jobs, entrepreneurs do. And I, for one, won’t be a party to passing legislation that spends money we don’t have on policies that don’t work. Sorry to rain on the Hope and Change parade.
1:10 pm
That’s fair.
I didn’t give any regard to the policies behind it because I didn’t want the policy to skew the argument of the principle that this is a 1% case where spec work is fine, in my opinion.
It would have to either be OK or not OK whether it was a democrat or republican
4:30 pm
I understand your argument that this is a special case… that campaigns are built on volunteerism. I still think this is a horrible precedent to set. Obama is a big name… and there are plenty of left-leaning designers out there who he could invite to design for him at reduced price or pro-bono. That would still be respectful to the designers and the design community.
However, to ‘spec out’ a job like this is guaranteeing to waste several thousand potentially billable hours of designers. Considering that the vast majority of their work will never be seen or appreciated… what message is being sent to our industry?
4:27 pm
This isn’t for a campaign though. This is for a jobs bill that was put forth by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.
5:56 pm
Hey Mark — It’s being run by Obama for America, the 2012 campaign, so it is for a political campaign. The subject of the posters is the jobs bill, but the work/proceeds go to the campaign.
And at this point of the election cycle, it’s tough to argue what is / isn’t for the campaign. Everything is calculated on how to get re-elected, haha.
6:00 pm
That sounds even more contemptible. Using the volunteer spirit of the campaign to get free work in order to help push through a Presidential agenda. All the while insisting this isn’t a re-election ploy.
C’mon, really?
6:14 pm
I can see the logic in the campaign support angle but Obama has a team that works for him to produce the design work for campaign. Why not use them?
I can’t help but agree with the people against the contest. Even the contest website sports a “Paid for by Obama for America” stamp on the bottom of the site. If your goal is to put Americans to work, you must start by paying Americans to work.
I think this is an earnest attempt to capture the spirit of the poster work, created by people to show support, around the first campaign. However, as a professional that believes designers should be paid for their work, I can’t support this.
7:07 pm
It’s interesting to me that the Obama team posted job openings for web designers on the very same site that they describe the free contest. Doesn’t it often seem that the more creative the project, the more often the client wants it to be for free?
In any case, I believe there is another element to the reason this particular contest is volunteer based. The administration is struggling for broad support of the Jobs Bill, and also struggling to drum up the kind of volunteer spirit they had in ’08. If they get volunteers to create posters that inspires others to volunteer, they have ‘killed two birds with a proverbial stone’ as it were. If they hire designers to create anything that could be seen as marketing materials supporting the current president’s agenda, they look desperate. The Republicans would jump on that — quickly. So although there is an element of ‘ickiness’ about the project being tied to the campaign, I don’t think the federal government can be seen as paying to market their own agenda — so hiring a designer for this particular purpose would be suicidal to the bill itself.
7:17 pm
The administration has $60,000,000 + of campaign money.
They could toss some change to a person that puts time and energy into the creation of a poster for a jobs program.
I agree Ezekiel…If the goal is to put Americans to work, you must start by paying Americans for the work they do.
Otherwise it is all a farce.
7:33 pm
question: are the campaigns to be yelled at for not hiring professional call centers but instead using phone banking? perhaps street teams should protest because of the volunteer door knocking?
this is a campaign. not a for-profit business. spec contests like these and other non-for-profit are perfectly fine in my eyes. for us to say there is no appropriate setting where contest work can be suitable is naive and closed minded. Not to mention, that campaign not only hires tons of artists, but its past campaign was probably the most creative and supportive of artists in modern history if not ever… cut them some slack. geez.
9:21 pm
I entered this contest and think that contests of this sort are fine. You can choose to enter or not enter. The one thing that I wish they would change, however, is that if your poster design is the one or one of the finalists selected, THEN there should be some prize money offered and also to the winner. President Obama’s campaign has millions in his election coffers (for election materials); I, however, am trying to figure out whether to pay the cable bill or the phone bill or school tuition for next semester. I don’t think the tv stations give away air time. Artist are always asked to provide free art for very worthy fundraisers. I am worthy, too.
3:35 pm