It’s one thing for a professional to make a decision to do speculative work. I may disagree with that choice — but it isn’t mine to make and I’m not going to say that it isn’t a choice.

To me, like Michael points out, the problem is when this becomes the norm. What it ends up doing is commoditizing something that, in my mind, shouldn’t be a commodity. Design is a profession. That isn’t to say everyone who calls himself or herself a designer is a professional, but it is a profession.

My biggest problem with many spec programs is that the designer is asked to produce the full deliverable. It’s not merely showing a portfolio or a sampling of work — it’s the final product. For something like a logo or identity piece, this is really troubling.

I also agree with Michael about the importance of education. It would be one thing if everyone understood the trade-offs, risks and downsides of partaking in spec work. Everyone doesn’t know that.

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Enjoyable discussion and even if we disagree, I respect your point of view. I do agree with you that ultimately, it is the artists choice. I just think it’s important to educate young designers about their options and to also educate would-be clients about what they are really going to get out of these spec services.

If I’m WPP or CP+B and I’m pitching Microsoft, yes, I’m likely going to have to do some work on spec. The difference with what you see with things like 99designs and Crowdspring and other spec sites are that:

* The competition pool for these BIG clients (and that’s something I should have stressed, in the agency world/model it’s basically only spec when you’re talking about major, major clients) is MUCH smaller. That’s a big difference than the “everyone and their mother send in an answer to the brief.”

* It’s a pitch, not a full set of deliverables. My biggest problem with most spec sites is that designers are asked to basically provide a finished product or logo. That’s not the same as a campaign pitch, which would be for a theme of a campaign and a direction, but not final deliverables. Agencies would never, for example, create a logo on spec.

* It isn’t uncommon for companies to pay an agency to pitch. This is the model that is often used in architecture: X people are chosen to submit a draft/pitch. Everyone is paid fro their time, whether they are chosen or not. That’s part of the due diligence on the part of the client.

This architectural model is actually something that Behance and The IdeaLists are using. Both companies have a unique (and I think designer friendly) approach to highlighting unknown/unrecognized designers and giving them a shot at landing real, paying clients.

I wrote this up about Behance’s competition approach (http://mashable.com/2010/10/15/behance-competitions/) and I’ve spoken with the founder of The IdeaLists at length and have a profile of them coming up.

In other words, I think there are viable models out there that can utilize the best of what is promised by companies like 99designs and Crowdspring — helping connect clients with designers — without relying on speculative work.

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I should also note that an area I fundamentally think that spec work is bad — especially with some of the more popular sites — is that designers risk losing their IP simply by entering a contest. This is something David has covered at length (I believe — sorry if I’m mis-attributing David) and it’s something that is detrimental to the profession if it becomes a standard business practice.

The main issue for me with spec work is that a lot of young people who are new to the industry are being sucked into a style of working and doing business that is bad for them and exploits their ignorance.

If you know the risks, you know what spec work is, and you still choose to do it, then fine.

The issue is that a lot of the people doing it are not aware of what they’re doing, why it’s bad, and why they should at the very least consider not doing it.

If new designers are growing up with this notion that spec work is “how it’s done” then that can only be damaging to the industry as a whole. We need to make sure that everybody who comes in to the industry is educated and knows the choices they’re making.

But I do agree that compared to agencies, freelance designers are probably the ones with the most to lose from taking on spec work.