You have your design skills. You spent your time in the educational trenches having your work dissected, rearranged, put back together in new and inventive ways. Perhaps you’re making your bones as a graphic designer at a firm, or maybe you’ve taken the plunge into self-employment. Either way, you never forget the first lesson that every creative discovers from the moment they meet the first or five hundredth client through the door: almost everybody wants something for free.

We’ve all experienced it. A client arrives, bursting with ideas, dreams, sketches on the back of cocktail napkins, or sometimes only the desire to have ’something’ placed on a billboard, written in an advertisement, engineered into a website. They want a unique logo, a campaign, a catchphrase; and they don’t have a dime in their pocket.

And we’re not talking about the lubricious types of businesses. We’re talking about non-profit organizations who put too little faith (and funding) into the benefits of a well-researched identity. We’re talking about fundraisers that need an identity, or young startups that seek to change the world, but aren’t sure how to make their voices heard above the fray.

When you, the designer, set a price on your time, most of these clients wring their hands in shock. If you’re lucky you end up with responses like “How much, did you say?” or “Well, I can’t cover that.” Other responses are almost to colorful to put on the Web. The problem is, whether they respond with curses or handshakes, they leave your business trying to figure out what to do next.

And then it hits them: Let’s see if we can get something for nothing! Some of the more enterprising will contact a local university of design school and inquire about contracting a student for possible credits. Others hang a shingle on the front door braying “DESIGN OUR LOGO! PAD YOUR PORTFOLIO!” Others will go online and pay between $75-1,000 for a logo that ultimately has nothing to do with their organization. And they will defend their decisions by saying “Creative Firms are overpriced, they’re making a killing on the little guy, and I just need a logo to get started.”

In most industries, the concept of payment for goods and services seems fixed. Doctors do not accept word-of-mouth promotions as remittance. Rarely do you find lawyers drafting up pleas agreements in hopes that clients will choose them. Even children at lemonade stands clearly demand a nickel for that glass of lemonade on a hot summer day.

This isn’t a new series of comparisons, and yet, if you truly look at the state of the creative world, doesn’t it strike you odd to see graphic designers, copywriters, website designers and identity consultants pitching speculative designs over the walls of businesses both new and well-established in some desperate hope of acceptance? Hours of unbilled creative efforts are wasted in vain by designers involved in contests, competitions and various “pad your portfolio” offers.

And yet, if you take a stand and say “no, I will not work without compensation, as I believe it cheapens the industry,” there are a dozen designers standing behind you, willing to pick up the mouse and charge forward in the hope that they’ll be the next new design ‘name.’

On the opposite side of the table we have the clients, who have discovered that speculative work is the corporate version of “American Idol.” Ten thousand applicants, five vaguely talented hopefuls and an endless source of amusement and despair with every design that falls short of expectations. Sure, everybody loves watching American Idol, but it ain’t classy. It’s entertainment, but then again so was bear-baiting.

There has to be a better way, right? There has to be a way to bring talented designers together with desirable clients, to introduce both of them to the business-side of working with each other for the greater good.

Maybe there is. Maybe we’re here now.

And maybe, just maybe, It’s a thing called ‘Working Pro bono’

This series is dedicated to the exploration of pro bono practices: from how to find the non-profit client, understanding the expectations of not-for profit work, setting up contracts to protect both parties and the successful (and not so successful) ways to educate yourself and your client on how creatives can and should work together to the benefit of all involved. Along the way we’ll include international design experts, research and statistics, etiquette and most importantly, how to be part of the solution. Stay tuned and let your voices be heard.

Thomas (Tom) Stephan | Director of Something Clever
BoDo Author | Dyer Straits | Working Pro-bono