Derek Powazek addresses the worries about spec work in his latest post on the Pixish site. Honestly I don’t think that these issues have really been addressed. Powazek mentions in his post that Pixish has just entered a public bet and that more is to come.
I have worked for magazines and publishers as a journalist and a photographer before, and there is nothing more frustrating than when your work gets pushed aside.
It’s one thing to connect artists and publishers, it’s another thing to ask visual artists to compete with each other to win the payment for their task. While one artist will receive compensation, others will have worked for nothing. The visual art field is already competitive enough without introducing even further elements. I went through the Pixish site and decided that it wasn’t for me. I’m not going to complete an assignment without knowing that I will get paid for it, who would?
Usually, anything that I do for others in a professional context involves an exchange of some sort. Freebies are fine, but in the end, something needs to pay the bills. That’s just my opinion. I’d be wary of any site asking me to do stuff for free.
Saying no to spec work is a choice that every artist has to make. However contributing from time to time to find new clients is always feasible.
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