[26-Feb-2026 00:31:13 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant ABSPATH - assumed 'ABSPATH' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [26-Feb-2026 00:31:13 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: require_once(ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [26-Feb-2026 00:31:13 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required 'ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [01-Mar-2026 07:45:51 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant ABSPATH - assumed 'ABSPATH' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [01-Mar-2026 07:45:51 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: require_once(ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [01-Mar-2026 07:45:51 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required 'ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [01-Mar-2026 18:48:26 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant ABSPATH - assumed 'ABSPATH' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [01-Mar-2026 18:48:26 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: require_once(ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [01-Mar-2026 18:48:26 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required 'ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [06-Mar-2026 13:14:53 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant ABSPATH - assumed 'ABSPATH' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [06-Mar-2026 13:14:53 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: require_once(ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [06-Mar-2026 13:14:53 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required 'ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [08-Mar-2026 11:47:41 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant ABSPATH - assumed 'ABSPATH' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [08-Mar-2026 11:47:41 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: require_once(ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [08-Mar-2026 11:47:41 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required 'ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [20-Mar-2026 17:37:48 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant ABSPATH - assumed 'ABSPATH' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [20-Mar-2026 17:37:48 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: require_once(ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [20-Mar-2026 17:37:48 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required 'ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [20-Mar-2026 17:37:53 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant ABSPATH - assumed 'ABSPATH' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [20-Mar-2026 17:37:53 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: require_once(ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [20-Mar-2026 17:37:53 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required 'ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [27-Mar-2026 14:07:52 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant ABSPATH - assumed 'ABSPATH' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [27-Mar-2026 14:07:52 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: require_once(ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [27-Mar-2026 14:07:52 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required 'ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [29-Mar-2026 10:21:48 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant ABSPATH - assumed 'ABSPATH' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [29-Mar-2026 10:21:48 America/Chicago] PHP Warning: require_once(ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 [29-Mar-2026 10:21:48 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required 'ABSPATHwp-admin/includes/upgrade.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/touchmob/crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/thrive-visual-editor/thrive-dashboard/inc/app-notification/classes/DbMigration.php on line 2 {"id":13126,"date":"2013-02-14T12:24:54","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T10:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crazyleafdesign.com\/blog\/?p=13126"},"modified":"2016-04-08T13:57:59","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T05:57:59","slug":"spec-work-undermines-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crazyleafdesign.com\/blog\/spec-work-undermines-design\/","title":{"rendered":"How Spec Work Undermines the Design Business"},"content":{"rendered":"
What\u2019s Spec Work? In a few words it\u2019s producing work and submitting it to a prospective client without ensuring that you will be paid and your rights will be respected.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take this scenario: you want to work for GreatTelevisions.com, so you design a new logo for them. You submit it in the hope they will like it and they may hire you for work. This may result in them signing a long-term contract with you, which you can use to also factor in the costs of the logo design<\/a>. This is a common practice for some design agencies.<\/p>\n This practice has changed over time however and companies are crowdsourcing more and more work through contests, in the hope of luring many designers to submit drafts to them for free, while only one design will be picked.<\/p>\n So what is wrong with this practice?<\/p>\n First of all not all contests are evil. There are some that are created for fun or to allow designers to actually showcase their work. There are web sites and design forums that will let designers create fictitious designs following a brief, while the designers keep all of the rights on the design. Nobody is going to use those designs aside from the designers themselves who can include them in their portfolio and show how they followed the brief.<\/p>\n Image source : sxc.hu<\/a><\/p>\n Others contests can be quite tricky and will make designers think that they are good for them, while in reality they may get exploited. Let\u2019s have a look at two types of competitions that follow that pattern.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t have to be a logo, it can be anything, although logos are the ones that are most commonly crowdsourced.<\/p>\n Such a contest will have rules similar to these:<\/p>\n Designers are usually lured by point 1 and 2 don\u2019t realise the dangers of the rest of the rules. Furthermore while it\u2019s the designers\u2019 choice to spend time on a design without guaranteed payment, they show companies that their time and work is expendable because they are willing to do it for free.<\/p>\n On top of that if designers lose all the rights to their work, the company can utilise it at a later date without having to pay a penny. Even if they \u2018modify it\u2019 they still used that free resource they got through the design contest.<\/p>\n This is a competition where the company isn\u2019t trying to get a design for a specific campaign. For example, the contest might be about creating T-shirt designs, but the company doesn\u2019t specify if the T-shirts will actually be produced, or they might even say that they won\u2019t.<\/p>\n Nothing wrong there, especially if the company is a big one and you can have your name associated with it if you win, right?<\/p>\n Well, then you read the small print which says, \u2018We own all of the designs you submit.\u2019<\/p>\n Now, that\u2019s smart. Joe decides to submit his design, but he doesn\u2019t win. He doesn\u2019t own it anymore even if he withdrew his design, and his idea might be used in the future by that business and he will not be able to have any claim on that. He\u2019ll find his work on \u2018random\u2019 office supplies and will realize that he\u2019s been exploited. With a contest, a company can rack up hundreds of \u2018great ideas\u2019 for free, which is usually the point of creating these \u2018fun competitions\u2019.<\/p>\n As you build your portfolio, you can start the hunt for prospective clients.<\/p>\n Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What\u2019s Spec Work? In a few words it\u2019s producing work and submitting it to a prospective client without ensuring that you will be paid and your rights will be respected. More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":13131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"adace-sponsor":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-design"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Do Spec Contests Exploit People?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nThe \u2018Company X Wants a New Logo\u2019 Contest<\/h3>\n
\n
The For Fun But-Not-Really Contest<\/h3>\n
So How Do You Create Your Portfolio?<\/h3>\n
\n