I commend consultancies that refuse to free-pitch

I admire people who write to Design Week who maintain their lofty ideals, in refusing every unpaid pitch. As much as we try to not get into free-pitch situations, sometimes we get dragged into them and are faced with having to balance our personal dislike with pragmatic business decisions.

Also, clients tend to deliberately cloud the issue. On a recent pitch negotiation I was blithely informed by a certain Government agency that Trotman Communications had been shortlisted. I then decided to commission creative work as requested by it.

The day before presenting we found out by chance that the shortlist was, in fact, a two-day affair for the Government agency to see 12 agencies and their work. We felt misled, angry and would have made a different decision had we known in advance.

Well done Pentagram and others which consistently refuse: they are obviously braver and more steadfast than some of us.

Jonathan Steel

Business development director

Trotman Communications

Surrey TW19 1PL