In the advertising and architecture worlds it’s common to see projects awarded after competitions have been conducted or pitches completed. Typically, the client issues a brief with guidelines and either puts out an open call for anyone to respond or invites selected candidates to respond. Participants spend time at their own expense to develop creative ideas and present them with no compensation- simply the hope of being awarded the project. This approach is called doing work “on spec” because it’s speculative in nature.





