Adam Howell dot org

A follow-up on Pixish

Well, Gruber, now you’ve gone and done it.

I’ll start by saying that after the way Derek’s handled the slight blowback he’s gotten about Pixish being spec-ish from me and others it makes me respect him even more. His emails to me and his posts and comments on the issue show that he really believes in Pixish and where he sees it going in the future.

I still don’t, but he certainly does.

One thing he wanted to clarify was that calling Pixish a bunch of design contests isn’t quite fair because Pixish:

[I]s not really for design (as in a complete combination of elements) as it is about individual imagery (photos or illustrations) to be used in design.

So, say someone saw an assignment for “a picture of a girl and an orangutan” on the site and just happened to have one on their hard drive. They could quickly post it to Pixish and maybe make a few bucks or win a wristband or something. Not so bad, right?

Unfortunately, already that original utopian vision isn’t being followed. If I look at the assignments as they stand right now — of the 20 on the page, 2 are for blog headers and 5 are for logos (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). 3 more are for t-shirt designs, but it’s somewhat arguable whether that stands on its own as a combination of design elements (though there are certainly plenty of people who accuse Threadless of profiting handsomely from their community’s spec work).

So already 7 — and arguably 10 — out of the 20 new assignments on Pixish are for complete designs like blog headers and logos, not just elements of design like pictures of orangutans. Without strict moderation by the folks at Pixish, logos and site headers and blog designs will continue to pop up as assignments. The only way to stop people and companies from posting stuff like this is for people to not participate in it at all. Derek says so himself in his email:

[I]t’s all opt-in, right? Publishers get no rights to anything you upload unless you submit it to the assignment. And my hope is that, if publishers don’t offer enough of a reason for people to submit, the artists won’t do it and the publisher will be forced to raise their pay - just like in the real world.

Spec work is opt-in in the real world, too. But in the real world one of the biggest arguments against spec work is that it drives down prices and occupational respect because clients see that by using it they get far more for far less. Even designers who don’t do spec work are hurt financially and professionally by the sheer presence of it and the willingness of others, maybe amateurs maybe not, to participate. It’s bad all around and you can’t make it better by hoping people are smart enough to maximize their earnings potential by only participating in the “good deals” — and even then, again, one winner and a bunch of losers — and that people and companies looking for work to be done are good natured enough to pay what good design and imagery are worth.

Lastly, Derek mentioned future plans to foster private assignments and make the site into more of a marketplace. That’s certainly an improvement, but the site can’t currently be judged by what it will be in the future, so once again — just like the assignments for full logos and header designs — it’s a case of the site as it is today not living up to its founder’s excitement and optimism of what it could eventually become.

Pixish can and is being used right now for full-fledged spec work and design contests — and that’s a problem. Is it a problem Derek and team can fix? I honestly do hope so. But I do know it won’t get fixed by just saying the site’s not meant for complete designs when it already is being used that way. Or by hoping people are smart enough to force companies to drive up their prices by only participating in the “good deals”.

Stock photo sites are one thing. Pixish is something completely different. And sorry but until I, and I’m sure several others, see otherwise, I won’t be convinced of anything else.

Update: Shortly after this post was published Derek announced he was taking down all the logo, header design and template assignments, many of which I had mentioned in this post, and would only be accepting pictures and illustrations on Pixish from now on.

The Pixish logo belongs next to “spec work” on dictionary.com

Derek Powazek seems like a cool guy. He got screwed when he was ousted from his old startup, JPG Magazine, and has done a great job of keeping himself busy with his personal blog, other blog Magazineer and, now, his newest startup Pixish.

Unfortunately, Pixish is not cool. At all. It’s the defintion of spec work.

“Spec work” is when a buyer/client gets several designers’ unpaid work upfront and only pays for the work they deem best. One winner, a bunch of losers. Almost all designers are unabashedly against it. There’s No!Spec, Zeldman’s Don’t Design on Spec and the AIGA’s stance that “doing speculative work seriously compromises the quality of work that clients are entitled to and also violates a tacit, long-standing ethical standard in the communication design profession worldwide”.

The classic argument against spec work, and its wicked step-sister “design contests”, is that it’s like asking a bunch of architects to design the blueprints for your new house and only paying the one you like the best. Or, in the case of contests like the ones Pixish will be holding, you don’t even have to pay them, just give them a prize or something. “Ooh, an iPod shuffle! You mean I can keep it?!”

Derek and the folks at Pixish know this. They even added a response to it on their About page. Saying, basically, “if you don’t like the idea don’t participate” and, “pros like you are lucky, we’re giving talented amateurs a chance to make a name for themselves”. Oh, for crying in a bucket, here we go.

If the architects example is the classic argument against spec work and design contests, “giving amateurs a chance to make a name for themselves” is the classic argument for them. And 50 years ago it might have even made sense. Then there really was lots of talent and only a few ways to showcase it. Television, radio, movies. “You’re up against 300 other plate spinners. Good luck to you, little lady.”

But now we all know this is no longer the case. We’ve got, you know, the web. Blogs. Youtube. digg/reddit/lots of other lowercase social sites. There are no longer just three ways to showcase your talent — there are three bajillion. And if you aren’t getting noticed, sorry, you either aren’t trying hard enough or you suck.

Pixish isn’t going to make any pros out of amateurs. I don’t imagine it’s going to do much of anything for anybody. “I saw your work on Pixish and wanted to offer you this highly lucrative job!” “Oh really?! Thanks Pixish!”

I respect Derek and I certainly respect how hard it is to come up with a great idea and execute on it. I’ve had a lot more failures than I’ve had successes trying to do that exact thing.

But, plain and simple, Pixish is trying to capitalize on spec work on a massive scale. Spec work is bad. Therefore, Pixish is massively bad. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a backlash against companies that use Pixish. Emails to CEOs, petitions, etc. And even if there’s no real retaliation against the companies that use it, I know I for one will never participate. And I really hope no one else does either.

Update: Here’s the follow-up post with comments from Derek.