Today a short article appeared on Creative Freelancer Blog that posed the question “Should freelancers work for free?” — and then proceeded to completely bun

gle the answer. This is my response to that article, written by Blake Poutra of You Design It, as a freelancer myself.

The article starts out well enough, acknowledging that “[d]esign work is time consuming, labor intensive, and requires creativity and originality, all of which definitely deserve fair compensation.” Poutra then states

I’m sure all of our inboxes are flooded with requests to do free design work in exchange for publicity or exposure….and in most cases it’s coming from someone who can’t provide either. This is the opposite of what I am referring to when I say work for free. The only thing free about that situation is the freeloaders who are trying to steal your work or devalue it.

What he really doesn’t get, and doesn’t prove with his hackneyed reasoning, is that there are very, very few situations in which working for free is beneficial to both the client and the designer. 99.99999% of the time, the client makes out like a bandit, and the designer gets screwed. So, let’s take a look at the reasons Poutra gives to consider working for free.

The first point Poutra makes is that working for free supposedly increases your exposure. This is true, but only to a certain extent. And if the client chooses not to use the fruits of your (slave) labor, which they have not paid for, then what exposure do you really think you’re getting? Do you really think that client will call you back later if they liked your style and offer to pay you to work on something else? Doubtful. And if they do use your free work and then refer someone else to you, you’ve already set your rate: $0. It’s like your mother always told you: once you give it up, people come to expect that from you. (Yes, yes, outdated cliché, but it fits.)

Doing work for free is not a “loss leader;” it’s simply a loss. No, clients don’t usually give (well-)paying jobs to newbies — that’s why you start small and work your way up! Or start with pro bono work (jump down a few paragraphs for that).

Poutra next claims that working for free is “great for validation” and helps rookie designers get over their fear of creating. My darlings, let me tell you, there is no room for fear and uncertainty in this business. If you can’t shove that fear into a hypothetical hole and bury it using just your willpower, then you’re sunk. Confidence is key, even if you have to fake it. Learn that first, and then go out and get paid work.

A few sentences later, Poutra asks how a designer can “get honest, thorough validation of their work.” He suggests two ways: doing personal work and posting it online for your design friends to coo over, and entering design contests online. I won’t even get into the second one — that’s spec work plain and simple, and it’s been covered ad infinitum already. (Just google it and you’ll see.) As for the first recommendation, that’s a load of hooey. When you post work, of course your friends are going to compliment you. They’re your friends! It’s doubtful they’ll be honest with you if they think your kerning sucks or your choice of colors is barfy.

If you want true validation of your work, by all means invest some time in personal projects. But treat them like real-life, client-requested projects. Be able to explain your design choices and defend them. Understand your audience. Then, when (you think) you’re finished, ask trusted colleagues to review it, and make them be honest. Don’t have trusted colleagues? Then you have some networking to do. Start with your local AIGA chapter. Ours, for example, has a weekend breakfast and critique session every other month. You could also find yourself a mentor, but that’s another post altogether.

Poutra goes on to say that working for free is good for portfolio building and practice. Taken by itself, that statement is actually true. However — and this is a huge caveat — doing the wrong kind of work for free will hurt you in the long run.

Suppose you create a website for a client for free, but the client decides not to use your final product. No loss to them — they didn’t pay for anything, after all. But you do lose out on this one. You can’t track analytics on the site because it’s not actually being used for business. You can’t create a case study around it because you have no results. It becomes just a pretty portfolio piece that you could’ve gotten paid for if you just had the balls to insist on it. Plus, there are myriad issues to consider, such as copyrights to the work, intellectual property rights, usability rights… you did have a contract in place even though you weren’t getting paid… right??

As for practice, well, there are about a million ways to practice without doing work for free for someone else. Those are the key words, my friends: for someone else. You’re creative: come up with a project that means something to you and tackle it as if a client gave it to you. Go through the entire creative process, documenting as you go. (This is great for learning more about how you, personally, work through a project.) In the end, you’ll have a top-to-bottom project to show potential clients when you boldly ask them to hire you.

One of the only acceptable ways to gain practice by doing unpaid work for someone else is to find pro bono work. In case you aren’t aware, pro bono doesn’t just mean “free work.” It’s the shortened form of the Latin phrase pro bono publico, which means “for the public good.” In other words, don’t feel bad doing unpaid work as long as it’s a public service. This usually means doing work free of charge for a worthy non-profit. But don’t just agree to work for free solely because an organization is a non-profit. Often, non-profits have a sizable operating budget, especially larger organizations, and can afford to pay for your services.

Finally, Poutra’s last point about “open source for design” really makes no sense, and I’m not going to address it here for fear of my head exploding. Take from it what you will, but for the love of all that is sacred don’t use it to justify giving your work away. It’s great to “give back to the design community” as he states, but there are other, better ways to do it. Write tutorials. Be an active AIGA member. Be a sounding board for a younger, less experienced designer. I could go on, but it would be an endless list.

I have to throw out at this point that well-known (and, I might add, highly regarded) lettering/graphic designer Jessica Hische has created what is probably the ultimate flow chart for deciding whether you should work for free. Use it. Love it. Abide by it. Ignore this Poutra fellow completely.

Now that I’ve addressed all of Poutra’s points, I want to know one thing: what the hell is Creative Freelancer Blog doing posting an entry about freelance design by a guy who works at a tee shirt company? He’s not even a designer! Instead, Poutra is billed as “an operations guy.” Which means he doesn’t know dick about what it’s like to be a freelance designer or to work in this cutthroat industry. He just “admires” freelancers. Well, great. I admire astronauts, but I don’t write articles telling them how to do their jobs.

I’m sure Poutra’s a nice guy and great at what he does, but he has absolutely no business sticking his nose in our business. And I’m floored that CFB would feature his post. It seems out of character for them when the vast majority of their content is helpful to freelancers. This is potentially damaging, and they should know better.

Bottom line, folks: working for free is, in most instances, a very bad idea. You’ll devalue yourself and your work, which will make it even more difficult to get paid work in the future. Be bold, be strong, and have faith. Find clients that understand the value of design and are willing to pay for it. Trust me, they’re out there.Rich Text AreaToolbarBold (Ctrl + B)Italic (Ctrl + I)Strikethrough (Alt + Shift + D)Unordered list (Alt + Shift + U)Ordered list (Alt + Shift + O)Blockquote (Alt + Shift + Q)Align Left (Alt + Shift + L)Align Center (Alt + Shift + C)Align Right (Alt + Shift + R)Insert/edit link (Alt + Shift + A)Unlink (Alt + Shift + S)Insert More Tag (Alt + Shift + T)Toggle spellchecker (Alt + Shift + N)▼
Toggle fullscreen mode (Alt + Shift + G)Show/Hide Kitchen Sink (Alt + Shift + Z)
FormatFormat▼
UnderlineAlign Full (Alt + Shift + J)Select text color▼
Paste as Plain TextPaste from WordRemove formattingInsert custom characterOutdentIndentUndo (Ctrl + Z)Redo (Ctrl + Y)Help (Alt + Shift + H)

Today a short article appeared on Creative Freelancer Blog that posed the question “Should freelancers work for free?” — and then proceeded to completely bungle the answer. This is my response to that article, written by Blake Poutra of You Design It, as a freelancer myself.
The article starts out well enough, acknowledging that “[d]esign work is time consuming, labor intensive, and requires creativity and originality, all of which definitely deserve fair compensation.” Poutra then states
I’m sure all of our inboxes are flooded with requests to do free design work in exchange for publicity or exposure….and in most cases it’s coming from someone who can’t provide either. This is the opposite of what I am referring to when I say work for free. The only thing free about that situation is the freeloaders who are trying to steal your work or devalue it.
What he really doesn’t get, and doesn’t prove with his hackneyed reasoning, is that there are very, very few situations in which working for free is beneficial to both the client and the designer. 99.99999% of the time, the client makes out like a bandit, and the designer gets screwed. So, let’s take a look at the reasons Poutra gives to consider working for free.
The first point Poutra makes is that working for free supposedly increases your exposure. This is true, but only to a certain extent. And if the client chooses not to use the fruits of your (slave) labor, which they have not paid for, then what exposure do you really think you’re getting? Do you really think that client will call you back later if they liked your style and offer to pay you to work on something else? Doubtful. And if they do use your free work and then refer someone else to you, you’ve already set your rate: $0. It’s like your mother always told you: once you give it up, people come to expect that from you. (Yes, yes, outdated cliché, but it fits.)
Doing work for free is not a “loss leader;” it’s simply a loss. No, clients don’t usually give (well-)paying jobs to newbies — that’s why you start small and work your way up! Or start with pro bono work (jump down a few paragraphs for that).
Poutra next claims that working for free is “great for validation” and helps rookie designers get over their fear of creating. My darlings, let me tell you, there is no room for fear and uncertainty in this business. If you can’t shove that fear into a hypothetical hole and bury it using just your willpower, then you’re sunk. Confidence is key, even if you have to fake it. Learn that first, and then go out and get paid work.
A few sentences later, Poutra asks how a designer can “get honest, thorough validation of their work.” He suggests two ways: doing personal work and posting it online for your design friends to coo over, and entering design contests online. I won’t even get into the second one — that’s spec work plain and simple, and it’s been covered ad infinitum already. (Just google it and you’ll see.) As for the first recommendation, that’s a load of hooey. When you post work, of course your friends are going to compliment you. They’re your friends! It’s doubtful they’ll be honest with you if they think your kerning sucks or your choice of colors is barfy.
If you want true validation of your work, by all means invest some time in personal projects. But treat them like real-life, client-requested projects. Be able to explain your design choices and defend them. Understand your audience. Then, when (you think) you’re finished, ask trusted colleagues to review it, and make them be honest. Don’t have trusted colleagues? Then you have some networking to do. Start with your local AIGA chapter. Ours, for example, has a weekend breakfast and critique session every other month. You could also find yourself a mentor, but that’s another post altogether.
Poutra goes on to say that working for free is good for portfolio building and practice. Taken by itself, that statement is actually true. However — and this is a huge caveat — doing the wrong kind of work for free will hurt you in the long run.
Suppose you create a website for a client for free, but the client decides not to use your final product. No loss to them — they didn’t pay for anything, after all. But you do lose out on this one. You can’t track analytics on the site because it’s not actually being used for business. You can’t create a case study around it because you have no results. It becomes just a pretty portfolio piece that you could’ve gotten paid for if you just had the balls to insist on it. Plus, there are myriad issues to consider, such as copyrights to the work, intellectual property rights, usability rights… you did have a contract in place even though you weren’t getting paid… right??
As for practice, well, there are about a million ways to practice without doing work for free for someone else. Those are the key words, my friends: for someone else. You’re creative: come up with a project that means something to you and tackle it as if a client gave it to you. Go through the entire creative process, documenting as you go. (This is great for learning more about how you, personally, work through a project.) In the end, you’ll have a top-to-bottom project to show potential clients when you boldly ask them to hire you.
One of the only acceptable ways to gain practice by doing unpaid work for someone else is to find pro bono work. In case you aren’t aware, pro bono doesn’t just mean “free work.” It’s the shortened form of the Latin phrase pro bono publico, which means “for the public good.” In other words, don’t feel bad doing unpaid work as long as it’s a public service. This usually means doing work free of charge for a worthy non-profit. But don’t just agree to work for free solely because an organization is a non-profit. Often, non-profits have a sizable operating budget, especially larger organizations, and can afford to pay for your services.
Finally, Poutra’s last point about “open source for design” really makes no sense, and I’m not going to address it here for fear of my head exploding. Take from it what you will, but for the love of all that is sacred don’t use it to justify giving your work away. It’s great to “give back to the design community” as he states, but there are other, better ways to do it. Write tutorials. Be an active AIGA member. Be a sounding board for a younger, less experienced designer. I could go on, but it would be an endless list.
I have to throw out at this point that well-known (and, I might add, highly regarded) lettering/graphic designer Jessica Hische has created what is probably the ultimate flow chart for deciding whether you should work for free. Use it. Love it. Abide by it. Ignore this Poutra fellow completely.
Now that I’ve addressed all of Poutra’s points, I want to know one thing: what the hell is Creative Freelancer Blog doing posting an entry about freelance design by a guy who works at a tee shirt company? He’s not even a designer! Instead, Poutra is billed as “an operations guy.” Which means he doesn’t know dick about what it’s like to be a freelance designer or to work in this cutthroat industry. He just “admires” freelancers. Well, great. I admire astronauts, but I don’t write articles telling them how to do their jobs.
I’m sure Poutra’s a nice guy and great at what he does, but he has absolutely no business sticking his nose in our business. And I’m floored that CFB would feature his post. It seems out of character for them when the vast majority of their content is helpful to freelancers. This is potentially damaging, and they should know better.
Bottom line, folks: working for free is, in most instances, a very bad idea. You’ll devalue yourself and your work, which will make it even more difficult to get paid work in the future. Be bold, be strong, and have faith. Find clients that understand the value of design and are willing to pay for it. Trust me, they’re out there.
Path: