Spec is initiated by another party. Meanwhile, it takes advantage of people who have little other choice, and often leaves them with little to show for having done so.
The "taking advantage of people" thing is a canard. Designers are in business like everybody else. There's no reason they need to be protected from the market any more than a carpenter or an architect.
[%] I don't know if Ferriss demanded a contract before accepting a submission or not, but I do know that the anti-spec brigade would have a problem with the contest either way.
Not true at all. To get a top job in most professions you need a four year degree from a 40k-a-year school. If you want to be a designer who charges 30k per website, all you need is a portfolio proving you can deliver on your promises.
Doing three websites for free or cheap over a 40 year career hardly strikes me as exploitative. Especially since the winner of this contest is going to get tens of thousands of dollars worth of free publicity.
And while spec is initiated by another party, doesn't that imply that there's at least some demand?
Let's take another approach: what's a better solution? If you have an aspiring designer with no portfolio or references, how should they get started? I hire designers, and I'd be reluctant to hire someone with no track record...what if I hate what they produce?
It's all about restricting demand to improve the outcomes of industry insiders at the expense of industry outsiders.
A lot of people go to art or design school. Which is to say: They pay money to someone to supervise them as they produce a portfolio full of work for which they will not be paid.
But once they graduate they get the Art School Seal of Approval, which is what they are paying for.
Yes, the difference here is that if you write a novel, create a painting, make a sculpture etc, and your target client doesn't buy, you can shop around for another buyer.
I'm not really sure there's a market out there for "book cover for a Tim Ferriss book" other than Tim Ferriss himself. This is the problem with spec work of this variety - you have one winner, and a bajillion losers who will now see absolutely nothing for all the work done.
> how should they get started?
At a shop, working under someone more reputed than they are, until they have a large enough portfolio of their own to show potential clients. That's the ideal scenario anyways...
You can apply the same thing to programmers, though. Say you have an aspiring hacker with no references or previous code to show you - how should they get started?
This type of contest really is just the same for designers: If you don't need practice, don't participate. If you do, it's a great way to hone your talent, and possibly win something (although that's really just a bonus).
When you're getting started in any profession, there's a certain amount of pro bono work performed to gain experience and build your resume/portfolio -- how is this any different?