Let’s not pretend for a second that spec contests are good for designers.
Spec contests have worked out pretty well for transatlantic flight and mapping the human genome, but are more or less a poison for emerging designers. Those businesses who source their design work to internet-based spec contests are promoting a cynical race to the bottom and need to cut it out.
But just as the Bubonic Plague produced some neat triptychs and World War I some readable classic novels, there was once a spec contest that produced an icon of great design, and created the curious case of Gary Anderson. But the takeaway isn’t as simple as it may seem.
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