I recently submitted my art for a spec work project, Rick Warren’s “The Hope You Need” only to find that it recieved harsh reviews from my peers. Though at this point a winner has not been selected, after being a part of a spec work project, I now understand why spec work is bad.
I knew on the front end that some issues would arise, I knew only the design specs about the book and nothing about the book itself. I didn’t know Rick Warren’s heart on the book and why he wrote what he wrote. Very quickly this became an impersonal project. Next is I realized very quickly this wasn’t a few people submitting, but ended up over 3000 designs were submitted with some people submitting more than 10. A lot spent no time at all on theirs and it was very clear by their submitted piece, others spent a lot of time on their piece again as evidence by their submission.
Bottom line… its a lose lose for everyone. Rick Warren gets a half rate design based on partial information on his book, 2000 some odd people walk away hurt and 1 person based on Rick Warren or his staffs opinion on what art is walks away with $5,000 and a nice piece to add to his portfolio. Regardless of the outcome, I am proud of my design, very pleased with how it came out, hope you enjoy it.
