Complaints About Flannery Stamp

OK Ikey, I now understand the high regard you hold for designers of your postage stamps. I'm glad you cleared that up. Cheers.

The beast of public opinion and the value of art mix like petroleum sludge and a pristine beach during an oil spill.


Like southpaw, I have also plied the trade of what was once referred to as a "commercial artist". My decades of experience at ad agencies, corporate marketing departments and as a marketing consultant make it very clear that you can't last and flourish unless you develop a thick skin.

If you create graphics, illustrations, corporate logos, websites, or advertising campaigns, EVERYONE has an opinion. If the agency VP of Customer Accounts, thinks the author's self-portrait lacks sex appeal, the designer might be directed to create a "beauty shot".

After 40 years in advertising and marketing, I'd rather collect my stamps than attend another meeting where talentless, often inexperienced clients or junior managers jockey to stamp their egos on the graphics that will drive some communications message.

I must admit to being ignorant about the author's literary output, let alone her most lasting impressions, but as ikeySpikey said, it's a pretty stamp.

Ikey...I agree with southpaw on his stance regarding the unfortunate business of asking...no, EXPECTING...creative professionals to trot out their best solutions to solve advertising, design, and marketing communications problems FREE OF CHARGE.

Law firms, accountants, and doctors all expect payment of their consulting charges for an initial meeting where we might "pick their brains". Despite this business "norm", advertising agencies, graphic designers, and other marketing creatives are frequently expected to create design concepts, TV commercials, artwork, and other commercial images and communications in the hopes of landing the account, or project. This odd dismissal of the importance of creative marketing makes me feel resentful that we are expected to serve up our best in the hopes of being selected for a payday.

Years ago, when I was self-employed I joined the Graphic Artists Guild which was actually a union membership organization in NYC that supported industry standards and fair pay for services. I'm one of American who feels that our nation is not better off with the demise of labor unions.

My cruelty was prompted by the claim that only the International Fraternal Brotherhood of Graphic Artists knows the sharp end of spec work.

Consider equipment demos.

<true_story>

A factory with a malfunctioning piece of mechanical equipment invites a fast camera salesman (in those days, a 1,000 frame/second film camera) for a diagnostic demo.

The salesman packs his car: giant movie-style camera, film cannisters, heavy-duty tripod, lenses, lights.

But the factory wants an end-to-end demo, so he also packs developing tanks, heaters, thermometers, and gallons of chemicals.

After hours of driving, and hours to setup all that gear, the demo is ready, and the factory's engineers file-in.

The lights go on, and one of the boffins says "Oh! I can see what's wrong now!"

The nitwits did not need a coupla-hundred-thousand-dollar camera with appurtenances; they needed a flashlight.

</true_story>

That was work, it was on spec, so that makes it spec work.

The OP introduced us to a controversy about (what seems to have been) a sole-source design.

The new, hip, digital age alternative would be a crowd-sourced design.

But, hey, baby steps: an open stamp design contest might have yielded the same glamour shot, but it might also have yielded designs based on her personal life, her characters, scenes from her books and, maybe, a few quotes of things that she actually wrote or said ( https://goscf.com/t/42899 ).

If the USPS wants to engage with new issues hoarders, it could do worse than to open-up the design process, and let a hundred flowers bloom.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Dan, TFJI (Thanks For Jumping In):

Creative 'professionals' are free to enter stamp design contests, or not.

USPS may be a design customer, but they are not just any design customer, and the method by which they acquire designs is a fair subject for discussion.

If you don't think that farming is spec work, tell that to a farmer who is waiting for the rain, or waiting for the rain to stop.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Ikey - respectfully, NONE of your examples even relates to what is referred to as spec work in the creative industry, let alone your suggestion of a contest in the case of the Flannery stamp.

In the case of your latest, the factory did not contact the company the fast camera salesman was employed by, have them as well as a bevy of competitors develop a fast camera system to their unique specs, then "award" the money to one of those competing firms, and in the end purchase one and only one of the fast camera systems. Since the fast camera system was unique to that company's needs, the "losers" were out all their labor and material costs.

Now that would be analogous.

You just highlighted a salesman trying to make a sale. In other words do his job.

The risks in agriculture are part of the job. Now if a "farmer" is asked to genetically modify a crop to a clients specs, in competition with 10 other "farmers", in such a way that the resulting crop is only able to be sold to the prospective client, and only one "farmer" wins the "contest" and the resulting seed is sterile so subsequent crops are impossible, then your farmer's example would work.

But that's ridiculous and only highlights the depth of your misunderstanding of the situation. Cheers.

Dcaraz - I totally agree with you, and maybe the situation is only able to be seen by those who have experience in the industry. For a BIG job with many parts, I don't mind discussing some sample directions in my proposal, as that's not doing the actual work in toto. The size of the potential job allows some loss leader. Of course a good client will understand that research and exploration are a very important part of a successful outcome, and those very directions in the proposal are subject to change. In my 30 years in the business, very few truly spec jobs are worthwhile. Most of those clients are just exploit designers, and want to get many more concepts than they could otherwise afford. Many are just lazy, and don't want to do the research to find and hire a good designer.

southpaw:

With a camera, the creative product is the film. Shooting the film that somebody wants, at the location they want, at the time they want, of the subject they want, is just as much spec creative work as sketching. You described the salesman as 'employed', an embellishment of your own creation.

You understand your industry; the problem is that you do not understand any/all of the others, including how farmers feel about farming.

The core issue remains unaddressed: what went wrong with this design process, and what might have worked better. Sole sourcing failed. I contend that a stamp design contest - something we have done many times in the past - might have yielded designs based on her personal life, her characters, scenes from her books and, maybe, a few quotes of things that she actually wrote or said ( https://goscf.com/t/42899 ) - and, therefor, a better result.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I'm glad you used the camera as an example because for the most part it's been relegated to the phone. The photo album is your phone too. In my closet sits a Leica M4 and a Nikon F. I think you understand ikey.

You described the person as a "salesman" not me. If you meant he was there to take photos, should he not be called a photographer?

Details aside, did he end up creating images on film? Not according to your account. Was he in competition with other photographers (or "salesman") for their unique product? Not that I can tell.

Even with your explanation your analogy does not hold up.

You argue that a "contest" (in this case spec work), could have yielded a more satisfactory result in your opinion. That result is completely subjective to you. I can't argue with that.

What I can argue with you is that the speculative nature of the "contest" you are in favor of in the case of the Flannery stamp is exploitative. Sounds like you agree with exploiting designer's labor and materials. I do not.

"Results do not justify the means".

sdtom: Aside from the fact that your phone does not substitute for a quarter-million-dollar camera - which, admittedly, today is a digital camera that costs only tens of thousands of dollars - laboratory equipment, medical equipment, microscopes, and many other bits of high-tech gear are demonstrated & sold by independent (non-salaried) distributors who are, necessarily, working on spec. They are subject to exploitation by customers, who take one demo after another from one supplier after another, each time getting useful results.

The world is a bigger, more complex place than southpaw makes it out to be. Lots of people do lots of work on spec. No one is forcing professional creative people to enter stamp design contests; they can do so, or not, of their own free will.

The question remains whether/not this stamp design would have been better if it had not been sole-sourced to a Professional Creative who knew nothing about their subject.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Q/ When a legislative body holds a public hearing, and invites unpaid testimony, are they exploiting the people who testify?

In my opinion, here is where a "contest" in this case could work.

A limited number (because of budget considerations) of illustrators are selected to propose samples for the Flannery illustration. Each illustrator is paid commensurate to getting the ideas to this stage. This is a set "comp" fee. Illustrators are free to put in as much work as necessary to get their ideas across.

Top design (or designs if you set it up with several rounds) is selected and the artist is presented with a contract to finish the design.

This a part of a series of "great novelists" stamps. The "losers" for the Flannery stamp "competition" would be considered for subsequent stamps in the series.

This arrangement takes the "contest" out of the realm of "spec" work for the following reasons:

• All contributors are compensated for their initial designs. They deserve compensation because they have created something of value for the client: alternative designs from which to judge the best solution.

• There is the possibility of future work written into the "contest" rules. This is a carrot to both the "winner" and the "losers".

You're desperately grasping for straws Ikey.