If designers work for free, companies won’t learn it’s a flawed process

Tim Rich is right about one thing – companies who ask for free work deserve to go bust – but he is wrong when he suggests we should ignore it (Private View, DW 7 April).

Free-pitching is an emotive issue and the more we can stop of it the less of it we will encounter. We have a recent example, when making a credentials pitch to a phone accessory company.

We put a lot of effort into a carefully considered written proposal, only to discover that we were up against others who produced creative work.

We were pissed off to find we were being compared to consultancies C and F – seemingly reputable consultancies – who were “happy to do some ideas”.

Words like little boy, dam and finger come to mind. As long as designers continue to work for free, companies will not learn that it is a flawed process.

To discourage the practice, perhaps they should be “outed”, then we can all mock them, we know who you are… neither of them got the job, which serves them right.

Peter Tennent

Partner

Factory Design

London W6