There has been some hubub recently about spec work and it’s detriment to the design community. I would say this can apply to many vocations, but a good quick overview of the concern can be seen in the following article, or in more detail from it’s host site. It is definitely a subject to consider seriously.
Spec work is defined as producing a piece for a potential client with no guarantee that your work will be chosen and/or paid for.
When put that way, spec work just doesn’t make sense. I mean, doing the work in the hopes of maybe getting paid for it? Who does that? No one outside of the creative community, that’s for sure. Yet this is becoming a common practice throughout the design industry, and companies are just preying upon the young and inexperienced.
Played Portal? Enjoyed it so much you still sing the song to yourself sometimes? Well there could possibly be more to the whole thing than you may have thought. I know the take from this blog was deeper than I had ever really intended to think. I mean, geez, it’s just a game right? Right?
Ok, so it’s rare for me to play games. When I do, they generally must be free, or extremely recommended. (Like portal) but this one, JohnnyTwoShoes is really really cool. I’m taken back by how cool it really is.
ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, ORACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON?
I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.
I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.
Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I’m bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.
I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don’t perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.
I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.
I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.
In the year 1959, Mercury records released a comedy LP by Del Close titled “How To Speak Hip”. And to day, by the joys of the internet, I proudly present to you, the full record in digital format.
Cool stuff man, I really dig it. You can dig it to, just get hung up here.
