How Occupy Lost It’s Moral Authority

Has Occupy lost it's moral authority?

I’m not the kind of blogger that rants. Really I’m not.

But nothing gets me more annoyed than people not being paid for what they are worth, or not at all.

What does this have to do with the Occupy movement I hear you ask? I’m glad you did.

Occupy by their very nature are against corporate greed. They are all about everyone getting a fair deal, about not being exploited.

But like any movement that has morphed into an organised body it has dramatically highlighted the syndrome that any organised body can fall foul of:

“Do as I say, not as I do”

Occupy just launched what could be the biggest crowd sourced logo design ever on 99designs. Here is a sample of their design brief.

At the time of this posting they just had over 1,500 designer have over 8,500 unpaid logo concept submissions.

Now many of you may be thinking, what’s wrong with that? May the best man/woman win!

But imagine if you got a group of painters to come to your house and told them that you will only pay the person that does the best job. How do you think they would respond?

They’d probably all leave. You see, they all deserve to be paid for the work that they do.

Just because an entrepreneurial web development company like 99designs has systematised the ability to do this it doesn’t make it right.

For the Occupy movement, it has to decide whether it wants to do the right thing and not exploit designers. (Note: I’m also a graphic designer and obviously think free pitching is exploitation)

How about you? Do you think designers should be paid for the work that they do? Or is free pitching a good thing?

 Photo Credit

16 comments

  1. Interesting thoughts mate, and I like that you didn’t take the easy, conservative Christian, right wing position.
    However.
    How is this any different to volunteering for church? An interesting question considering the nature of your and my working relationship. In fact maybe we could bring this in at Crossway, we could have a generous cash prize for the best volunteer at Crossway. Then we could be as generous as the occupy movement. Wouldn’t that be nice.

    1. Hey David, this is totally different to volunteering. They could of just asked people to enter a competition for free.

      You know what you are walking into and why when you volunteer at church.

  2. Hi Foggy,
    You know me well enough to know that I’m a little further right in my politics than the grubby Occupy mob, so I’m not typically one to stand up for them. But I don’t really get your thoughts here. Occupy by definition is a “leaderless social movement.” Wouldn’t that imply that they would appeal to the people for their logo?

    I’m not sure graphic designers are that similar to painters and whilst the Occupy strategy is quite clever, they are not the first organisation to run what is essentially a public competition. The benefits to the winner would be massive recognition and future opportunities to make big bucks from the free publicity. Who knows, the winner might make millions from all the work received from hundeds of medical marijuana clinics, opportunity shops, tattoo parlours, unemployment centres and the Nimbin Council.

    As a social media fanatic, I would have thought you’d embrace the use of this medium for an organisation that has the image of being “of the people, for the people”. (not sure which people, but certainly not mine!!)
    Cheers
    MJ

    1. Hey MJ,

      My point here is that designers like any other business deserve to be be paid for the work that they do. It would be like you turning up for work, and they only pay you IF they like your work the most. You wouldn’t want that would you?

      Occupy isn’t leaderless. The fact that they have a manifesto and want a logo shows that. Someone has led with that decision.

      It’s not a public competition either. 99designs is the scourge of the design industry making people work for nothing like beggars.

  3. Hi Steve
    Spoken like a true designer haha. I’ve been a designer for 30 years and an employer and brand consultant for 25 years. Bottom line on this is simple. If you are good at design and in demand chances are you will have a strong brand. If you have a strong brand then you ‘attract leads’ which in essence is the difference between branding v marketing (marketing seeks out leads to convert)
    99 have a strong brand in a particular space of market (these designers are clearly in that market – they probably have little or weak brands recognition).
    This is not exploitation. These designers are being driven by an emotional benefit that is far more powerful driver than financial incentive.

    1. Hey Ray, spoken like a true successful business owner!

      I agree with your sentiment about quality attracting the right kind of leads. Having been there myself ;-P

      Occupy’s philosophy is not to exploit, yet by getting people to work for naught is just that. Even if the designers aren’t particularly talented. Just because you aren’t as talented and will over reach out of desperation doesn’t make it right.

      1. Hi Steve
        I’m not a fan of these guys however I’m not sure we can use words like ‘right’ just because we don’t like them and what they stand for. Its a process thats made available to anyone and everyone. Participants choose and are not ‘made’ to do anything.
        I’m not sure the participants see themselves as ‘desperate and over reaching’
        This is about percieved value and what people are willing to pay in time, talent and treasure.

        Keep up the the great work Steve we need mavericks like you in our tribe 🙂

        1. I’d agree Ray that the participants don’t see themselves as desperate, but the reality is that they must be to take work on for such low rates.

          I’d also agree that so much of what we are talking about is perceived value. Sites like 99designs are changing the market place for the price points for the lower end of the market.

          OK I’ll be maverick if you will be Goose. 🙂

  4. What an odd move.

    Asking a bunch of people to do work and only paying one of them? So, 100 people do the work and you pay 1 of them? 1% anyone?

    This isn’t close to volunteering. Volunteering would be for them to ask someone who loves the cause if they would donate their time. That person can then decide if that’s how they’d like to support the cause.

    This is asking people to work for free.

    Beyond that, great design involves great relationships. A creative brief is a good start, but you have to dig to find a great logo. But Occupy clearly doesn’t value great design or worse designers.

  5. I actually wrote a post similar to this last week. I think design contests, like what Occupy is setting up, not only hurt designers by getting free work out them, but ultimately, it hurts the business.

    Contestants aren’t thinking what’s best for the brand or usage or longevity of the logo. They are going for the immediate impact. What will wow the judges, even if it doesn’t fit the company or organization’s vision and goals and purpose.

    Free pitching is a lose-lose situation.

      1. I agree with you Steve. It’s usually people just starting out in the graphic design business who try to nab up the free pitch jobs, and it is tough breaking into the business, but that’s even why those contests are never good for a business.

        All that to say, I think it is ridiculous that Occupy is using free labor for their logo when that’s what they are protesting against. Ruins their credibility with people.

  6. I understand your position Steve, but I don’t really think there is anything wrong with someone volunteering their time and talent pro bono for a cause the believe in. In that sense I agree with Ray, there is an emotional, rather than financial incentive/benefit for those that do (much like the the many 100’s of hours that a volunteer may put in at a church, school, community organisation etc.)

    On the other hand, I am also a firm beleiver in “you get what you pay for”. As such I scanned through the top 240 rated designs and I didn’t like any of them.
    In the process of doing so, one thing that struck me was how much “OCCUPY” (in all caps in a nice modern Swiss san serif typeface) was starting to look like CCCP (to me). Coincidence?

    What I really question is, is it appropiate and is it counter to the Occupy manifesto to attempt to brand what is (essentially) an anarchist movement?

    On a lighter note, if I were to enter the competition my concept would be a tent-monster dancing with a police officer.
    http://youtu.be/mGBTes_VHAk

  7. Hmmm. Maybe I should openly disclose that I have a lot of respect for the Occupy movement. I think people getting actively engaged with something that they believe is for the good of the world is okay by me.
    I’m still not convinced about this exploitation idea. If this is something that the designers believe in (and if they didn’t why not submit their work elsewhere?), it makes perfect sense to put your work up for the offering. I do quite a bit of work gratis for causes I believe in.
    In addition, from a creative perspective, how is this any different to putting you musical work up on “taxi”, to see if anyone will pick it up (in fact one pays a subscription just to have their work on display there), or an artist hanging their work in a gallery hoping that theirs will be the piece that someone will buy.
    In a free market economy (ironic isn’t it), we either set our sails and steer our ship at what we believe in, or we get blown around by the forces of the world.

  8. I know this topic is over a month old, but I had to put in my two cents.
    The statement was made that maybe the designer of this logo would get massive publicity. That’s just b.s.
    Seen the winning logo, haven’t seen any publicity for the designer. Anyone know his or her name?
    To me, this isn’t any different than those stupid bid sites.
    “Hi, I need a logo. My budget is $50.”
    Over the years I have had associations, organizations and cities want free design work with the carrot that it would lead to future work.
    Guess how many times it actually leads to future work?
    These people know exactly what they are doing. Getting something for nothing and not thinking twice about it.
    As long as THEY get what THEY want.
    Screw the guy/girl who has to make a living at it.

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