I recently encountered the "no spec" campaign, which argues against doing preliminary design as a proposal before getting paid. More here: http://www.no-spec.c

I recently encountered the "no spec" campaign, which argues against doing preliminary design as a proposal before getting paid. More here: http://www.no-spec.com/ http://www.no-spec.com/ Your example illustrates why I find their position unreasonable. Designers can get away with refusing to do spec work when their portfolio speaks for itself and they want to keep doing the same kind of things they've done before. But encouraging less experienced designers to refuse spec work is holding them back.