I'm not a designer, but this doesn't fit what I understand as "spec work". What I think of is "do up a design for us, if we like it, we'll pay". This isn't the

I'm not a designer, but this doesn't fit what I understand as "spec work". What I think of is "do up a design for us, if we like it, we'll pay". This isn't the same as "do some free work that will be great publicity for you". The latter is another kind of thing. He's defending something that's entirely outside what's usually meant by "spec work".