On the one side, a majority of designers argue that spec work devalues the service of design – that crowdsourcing websites encourage clients to view design as something that is easy and cheap. Absolutely.

On the other side, crowdsourcing websites and users argue that the crowdsourcing development is democratizing design – that it’s allowing small, startup companies to gain a service on a low budget and amateur or entry-level designers to gain needed experience. Absolutely.

The question a lot of designers ask, and that was asked on DCTH last week, spurred from Chris Brogan’s 99designs experiment, was “What can we do to educate about no spec?” To elaborate: how do designers, as professionals, communicate and educate to the community and clients that spec work is bad.

Harlan Ellison’s commentary on spec was mentioned during this discussion topic, and it really illustrates how designers and creative professionals feel about spec.

But here’s the thing: whether spec is good or bad is moot.

These negative feelings we all have about where the design community is going, how we’re going to pay our bills, how our work is being devalued – it doesn’t matter. The creative business landscape, and even the traditional business model, is changing and will continue to change. It’s why the freemium model is working so well.

I did a quick search for spec on YouTube after watching Mr. Ellison’s impassioned speech, and found this gem. It’s a great panel, but skip to 2:15 when Jeremiah Owyang gives his answer. The impact of his statement really hits me as I think about spec: “Spec work is here to stay. You cannot stop it.”

Instead of fighting an uphill battle, the question we need to ask is “what now?”

Since spec is here to stay, how do we, as creative professionals, leverage our skills? How do we innovate what it is that we do instead of using a 20-year-old business model that is quickly losing its efficacy? How do we look at the innovative successes of other fields and businesses and apply those models to how we do business?

Adding a no!spec badge on your website solves nothing. Preaching to the choir solves nothing. We know spec is here to stay.

How are we going to innovatively work in this new landscape and continue to do what we love while paying the bills?

Well?

Here are the 7 roles, summarized:

• Organize others’ work
• Continually search for information
• Coordinate different activities and make sure everyone has a job
• Carry out team decisions
• Make sure everyone feels good on the team
• Use force to push the team forward
• Create ideas

One of the questions asked was why knowing these roles are important. My answer was that it helps things get done on time, on budget, correctly and thoroughly with everyone happy at the end. My biggest realization with this answer is how similar the roles are to the DISC Assessment. The DISC Assessment categorizes people by their strengths: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness.

If you put two or three people on a team who are high Cs (conscientiousness) you’ll end up with a project that is done perfectly and is really well organized, but comes in past deadline because it had to be done perfectly and be really well organized – or it never gets done.

If you put two or three people on a team who are high Ds (dominance) you’ll end up with a project that is done before deadline, but it’s done wrong because the Ds pushed to get it done before deadline – and they argued about it the whole way.

The best teams not only have a balance of people with different strengths, but also people who have been tasked in the area of their strengths. Putting a D on research is an awful idea, but putting a D as the team lead will help the team the most.

I was able to categorize the 7 roles into the DISC:

Dominance – relating to control, power and assertiveness

• Use force to push the team forward
• Create ideas

Influence – relating to social situations and communication

• Make sure everyone feels good on the team

Steadiness – relating to patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness

• Coordinate different activities and make sure everyone has a job
• Carry out team decisions

Conscientiousness – relating to structure and organization

• Organize others’ work
• Continually search for information

The DISC really helped me understand people’s work style and how to work with different types of personalities when I took it years ago. If you ever get a chance to take the assessment, it’s very worth it.

The Good.

“Paula Scher studied at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and began her graphic design career as a record cover art director at both Atlantic and CBS Records in the 1970s. In 1984 she co-founded Koppel & Scher, and in 1991 she joined Pentagram as a partner.” She is both a renowned artist and graphic designer.

She also parodied Herbert Matter’s 1934 Swiss tourist poster (left) in a 1985 Swatch poster (right). The poster is still controversial in the design community years after its inception. It is also taught in design school today as an example of retro design and borrowing from the past.

The Fad (or movement, rather)

Piet Mondrian is known as the father of geometric abstraction.

Theo van Doesburg is known as the founder of De Stijl, an art movement in the early 1900s.

Mondrian helped found De Stijl with van Doesburg in 1917. The style is so specific that almost everything from the movement could have been created by one artist.

The Ugly.

If you’ve been involved in the design community online in the last few months, you probably remember the name Jon Engle. To sum it up, Engle took art work from StockArt.com, incorporated it into various logos he “designed”, was sued by StockArt.com, then drummed up outrage in the design community claiming StockArt.com artists had stolen the work from him. A good summary can be found at The Logo Factory. It was an obvious copyright violation.

Design inspiration vs. copyright infringement

There is a hard line between inspired design (the good, the fad) and copyright infringement (the ugly).

If a creative creates his or her own work based on someone else’s work and puts his or her own spin on it, this is not copyright infringement – despite how blatant an inspiration it may be.

If a creative takes someone else’s work and claims it as his or her own, this is copyright infringement.

Is (blatant) inspired design ethical?

It depends who you ask. It depends on the situation. Pablo Picasso said “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” Paul Rand said “Don’t try to be original; just try to be good.” Jim Jarmusch said “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.”

Finally, to steal a quote from another blog post, “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.”
—T.S. Eliot

So…steal?

In Annelys de Vet’s The Right to Copy, Alice Lo summarizes in an epilogue, “the only difference between an amateur and a professional is the thinking and the knowledge of the context.”

The point is that designers and artists can take a rough idea and make it better, make it powerful, or give it a new meaning. Theft is theft, and copyright infringement is nothing to trifle with. The challenge with inspired design – blatant or otherwise – is only to start with the initial idea, but turn it into something new and different.

“Make sure your work will be copied. Stimulate your own imitators. Copy. Appropriate. Imitate. Assemble. Mimic. Use. Fuse. Misuse. Don’t be shy about it.”
—Annelys de Vet

Just don’t be ugly about it.

The thing about providing a service or starting a business is that it doesn’t mean that you’re a CEO…or even very innovative. Innovation is as innovation does. At my previous job, when I read CEO or Principal on a designer’s resume, I tried to be objective and not balk immediately—not until I looked at the designer’s website or interviewed them. If you’re going to announce that you’ve had a high level executive position, you’d better be able to back it up. I’ll be completely honest and say that I would not be able to back up a CEO title. I’m a Principal.

So as not to be a complete stick in the mud, I will say that starting a small business and providing jobs in a down economy when you can’t find a job yourself is great. However, I think there are probably an overabundance of “CEOs” and “entrepreneurs” in America right now. Which is understandable—because one can only post job applications and search for job openings for so long. But is the next step really starting a business? Yes!

In The Entrepreneurial Spirit, the “entrepreneur” being interviewed says, “If you want to make something of yourself in this day and age, you have to hustle.” I first heard the word hustle being used in this context by Gary Vaynerchuck. Yes, we do have to hustle. But we also need a strategy; we need to research; we need to think. Or we could just sit on the couch and play Xbox all day.

Becoming a CEO is more than just calling yourself one. Being entrepreneurial does involve actualizing innovative ideas. Calling yourself a CEO and working hard and hustling to fill time is just as worthless as doing nothing. I vote for doing nothing. At least you’ll get somewhere with Xbox.

“Well, this one posts only once or twice a week. That doesn’t seem like enough. Is this a bad posting frequency?”

“No, it’s a wonderful posting frequency…”

“I see. And what about this one? This blogger posts multiple times per day. That seems like way too much. Is this a bad posting frequency?”

“No, it’s a wonderful posting frequency…”

However, back in 2006 Seth Godin posted that RSS fatigue was already setting in.

While multiple posts get you more traffic, they also make it easy to lose loyal readers.

I can attest to RSS fatigue personally as, after several months following, I’ve unsubscribed from blogs that posted 20+ times a day.

With so many social media sites out there right now (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), posting dozens of times a day risks losing your loyal readers to RSS fatigue. Posting once every few months assures that no one will read your blog.

Like Zen, there must be a balance.

Most designers learn about influential leaders and design pieces across the design community throughout their education and career.

One of the most interesting architectural structures that I always remember learning about in college and had the privilege to visit was the Grand Louvre pyramids by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

(I.M. Pei as the lead). Something about the juxtaposition of modern design and architecture as an introduction to historical art and architecture was appealing to me and always stuck out in my mind.

So it was with great excitement that four years ago, while working for a real estate firm, I became the lead graphic designer on the marketing material for a planned development designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, called SkySong, in Scottsdale, Arizona. The development was centered around an awesome, modern shade structure.

Now, I need to go back to the history of the land SkySong is on before I go any further.

In 1969 Los Arcos Mall was built on the land now occupied by SkySong. The mall was one of the most modern malls in the valley for its first decade. It began declining in 1979 when Fiesta Mall in Mesa opened and further declined through the 80s and 90s with the openings of other valley malls. The structure was closed in 1999 and finally demolished in 2000. (Los Arcos Mall, Wikipedia)

Between 2000 and 2005 several proposals for the land were introduced, with many Scottsdale community members, retailers and leaders trying to gain approval for a hockey arena, a Walmart and even a jail at one point (I won’t even try to explain Arizona’s crazy Sheriff).

When the SkySong development was decided on by the city council in 2005, many community members were angry because they didn’t see SkySong as a viable plan.

At the same time, Tempe Marketplace, an outdoor mega-mall less than 5 miles away, had just begun construction. This lead to even less support in the community for SkySong.

What Scottsdale residents didn’t and still don’t completely realize, however, is that

SkySong isn’t another retail development that is going to die out in 10 or 20 years. The development was built as a sustainable idea,

a plan that included retail, residential (condos) and innovative businesses. When completed, it will be a self-sustaining community that will house hundreds of companies with long-term jobs. It’s been referred to as leading Scottsdale towards a future Silicon Valley in Arizona – more than a simple retail development.

Let me get back to the point. As a designer, looking beyond all of this – the long-term viability, jobs and innovation the development will bring to Scottsdale – SkySong is just really cool. Now that the shade structure is up,

it is a gorgeous piece of modern architecture, in line with the striking beauty of the Louvre’s pyramids.

The structure was designed by one of the most influential architectural firms and one of the most influential architects of our time (Henry Cobb as the lead).

Maybe I’m bias, being a designer and now working at SkySong (since last year). But did anyone ever think they’d have a reason to tie Scottsdale, Arizona, with Paris, France – to one of the most influential design firms of the 20th century – or to something other than blonds, snobs and retirees?

This exclusive, sophisticated tie should appeal to members of the Scottsdale community.

It is Scottsdale after all.

Curly quote: ’ (used in speech)
Apostrophe: ‘ (used to show possession)
Prime mark: ′ (used to show feet, a double prime shows inches)
Acute accent mark: ´ (used in modern languages)

Hyphen: – (used in compound words)
En dash: – (used to replace “to” or an em dash)
Em dash: — (used to replace parentheses)
Ellipsis: … (written with <option> colon on the Mac or Alt-0133 on the PC – NOT written using three periods)

Hanging indents: Use them.

For designers, this hits even harder because there is a stigma to graphic design that it is superfluous – it’s just art, anyone can be a graphic designer, it doesn’t take skill, etc. One thing I’ve noticed in my years working as a designer is that when a company starts losing money, the creative department is the first to go. Design isn’t seen as a commodity, even less so when money is tight

I entered the design field because I love visual communication, but it’s hard to stay motivated when design isn’t really about visual communication. It’s not about expressing an idea; it’s not about critically thinking about the best solution and implementing it; it’s not even about design any more. I just read the best summary of this yesterday:

Design is 70% dealing with people, 3% the idea, 2% selling the idea, 2% the brief, 2% being pig headed, 1% printing, 3% eye for detail, .6% invoices, 2% coffee, .7% tracking, .1% warm glow, .6% panic, 1% 4am, .6% staring, .2% checking, 1% letting go, .8% keeping hold, .7% estimates, .3% checking, .4% proofs, .1% colour, .9% understanding, .4% marketing, 1% checking, .8% beach ball, .5% mice, .3% keynotes, .4% persuasion, .2% bragging, .5% smiling, 2% knowing when to stop. Duane King (via swissmiss)

So how do creatives stay motivated when they’re not able to utilize their strengths – especially when the bad economy can be such a de-motivator? Below is a list of motivational media that I’ve found in the last few months that’s helped me stay motivated and positive.

Stephanie Orma has some great tips for creatives in The slow economy survival guide for graphic designers, copywriters, and creative types, including Embrace web 2.0 marketing by starting a blog, joining twitter and getting your name out there. (Can I get a what what?)

Mark McGuinness offers the free e-book How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself). Mark identifies 4 types of motivation: Intrinsic (the attraction of the work), Extrinsic (rewards), Personal, and Interpersonal (social influences). My favorite suggestion for creatives is to simply do something inspiring (or facilitate it).

Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the most inspirational speakers I’ve ever watched because he is so passionate. In his Building Personal Brand speech at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York, Gary talks about achieving your goals and monetizing them.

You need to build brand equity in yourself. If you have brand equity, you will be fine. There is never a bad time when you believe, when you work hard, and when you know what you’re doing, but you have to do what you love.