Free pitching is an expensive process for smaller groups

In your article ‘Seeing off the bigger pitch’ (DW 9 June), Jim Booth, head of promotions at RTE Television, states that ‘the free pitch is the design industry’s raison d’être’. This puzzles me.

It’s funny, I thought our professional raison d’être was to devise creative solutions to design issues.

Would Mr Booth like to work for several days or weeks for not a penny and with a fair bit of expenditure on materials and external costs? Small design groups don’t stand a chance – we just can’t afford to invest time and resources for no recompense.

How can free work be valued by a client, or give any satisfaction to a professional, self-respecting designer?

Judy Hungerford, Founder, Hungerford Design, Bath