How do you improve your business? How do you cherry pick the clients you would like to work with? Apart from having a glittering reputation pitching for the work of desirable clients is common practice for those agencies looking to grow. This as ever is a hot topic of debate amongst the web design community; there is a growing voice which suggests we should not be doing speculative work as it is detrimental to both parties. Balanced against this however is the opportunity to win fantastic new clients.

The drawbacks of Speculative work

Firstly let’s discuss the drawbacks of spec work. To address this problem we need to understand the difference between art and design. What differenciates art from design is that design is focused on problem solving and providing a logical solution to that problem, whereas art is very much led by a feeling or a concept and is open to interpretation. The comparison is ummed up perfectly by a recent Web Design Ledger blog post which states:

“Good Art Is Interpreted. Good Design Is Understood.Good Art Sends a Different Message to Everyone. Good Design Sends the Same Message to Everyone.”

Without going off an art vs. design tangent, I would like to add art is a game of opinions where in design although it is subjective it is based upon a set of core principles which are proven to work.
From my experience a pitch is based on creating an initial wow factor, which lies closer to art than the iterative process of design. Briefs for a pitch will often be watered down and there will be no interaction or collaboration with the client which is imperative to the design process. Design is a two way process without industry expertise from the client the designer will fail to truly understand the problem. In most of my design projects the process goes in this way

Design > Review > Improve

These iterations are cogs in the search for the perfect design and collaboration with the client is key to this.

Design is collaborative
This is what differentiates design from art; it isn’t just intuitive, it is often process driven. The debate and struggle with the client will often lead to a better solution. A good designer should encourage the client to make tough choices; in a pitch process this chemistry simply can’t take place. There are so many factors which need to be understood before a viable solution can be conjured:

• Business Objectives
• Brand Usage
• Competition
• Success Criteria

The final result of the pitch will often be decided by whom provided the best all round package and it will often be the case that the winning pitch will then be asked to mimic the best design from the pitch! Even if the final result is decided by the best looking solution again this is not necessarily the design which will work the best and meet business aims.

Let your Portfolio speak for itself…

I recently heard a great solution to this problem voiced by Paul Boag. He suggested that instead of beginning a pitch the clienty should take a look at the agencies portfolio. This is the core purpose of a portfolio; to show samples of the agencies best work which in turn will teach them far more than flashy visuals. If you want to take this process even further you could provide contact details of clients and let them sing your praises (or not!).

Working for pittance or less…

It is a fact of life that there can be only one winner of a pitch. You may be going up against 10 different design agencies, so it won’t be unusual for you to loose a pitch regardless of how good your agency is. This means working for nothing, which is the biggest gripe of the web profession. What other profession would work speculatively…for nothing? I have to agree that it demeans the term professional web designer; professionals should get paid, period.

The Case for:
Regardless of whether we love or hate pitches, they are here to stay and there are those who believe we need to make the best of them. Alongside all the haters there are still a few people who believe in spec work. It can be fun and often entails a different approach to a standard brief; although it may be argued this lack of constraint means the design will lack substance. The other plus is that it gives the designer a voice and a chance to present. You are part of your company and I know for sure that people like to invest in people just as much as the business. If you can sell yourself, you will win more business; these interpersonal skills are massively underrated. Get yourself out there. Attend conferences, actively approach clients and seek feedback…make sure you are remembered and talked about….

Finn Taylor, co-founder of Liquid Light aptly sums up my thoughts:

“Designing on spec is very much hit and miss – they just might not like the colour yellow. Worse still, if they do like the design, then you’re stuck with it, even if it’s wrong. You can’t do the design process and you can’t charge for it. Clients are not buying a design; they are buying a process to get to the right design. It’s the process that gets you something you’re happy with.”

Oh and one more thing if you are going to pitch; pitch on a Tuesday.

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