[rejoice]

hahaha... some cool 'spec' posters

[flnazrael]

Devil's advocate - From the perspective of someone who used to outsource to all sorts of people until I finally found a quality team I work with consistently...

On freelance sites, spec work is often justifiable. I've had so many bad experiences with fake portfolios and people who just can't deliver the quality they promise. I have asked for "tests" in the past just so I know that a designer is capable of the same quality their portfolio says they are. Sometimes, it's saved me the frustration and wasted money of a designer who clearly can't produce quality when money has changed hands.

Also, I've seen some nice work on 99designs.com. Probably almost if not as good as my current designer's (who I don't send any spec work to, since we have an established relationship).

The thing is, logo/branding is something like Search Engine Optimization - many people don't understand the value of it, so they balk at the thought of paying $500 for all the bells and whistles (vector, commercial fonts, hand illustration, marketing expertise, etc.), when they could go to SuperCheapLogos.com (not sure if that's a real site, likely is) and get something whipped up in a day or two for $49.

I don't agree with this philosophy, just like I don't agree with the people who are too cheap to pay for a search engine site audit and some link building that will probably have an astronomical ROI... but it's the way of the world.