Take a Stand Against Free Work

by

Armand Cabrera

I participate in a number of groups on linked-in for professional artists and illustrators. I am a freelance artist now and online groups and forums are where I get most of my work. I also participate in sites like Conceptart and other art hosting sites. All these sites constantly talk about not working for free and having a professional attitude when it comes to work, yet not a week goes by that someone doesn't ask for and get positive responses to free work. It can be in the form of crowd sourcing or competitions to win job positions or unpaid internships which are illegal in most states, but there they are.

 This is especially true in the video game groups on Linked-in. I'd like to see professional forums ban all crowd sourcing requests. Let them beg for free work over at Craigslist, Elance or Odesk where the pool of untalented masses gather and keep them off of professional sites like Linked-in Groups or Concept art and CGHub.

 If professionals are serious about not working for free they have to be more proactive in my opinion. Banning crowd sourcing is a start and assures that jobs that show up in these groups or sites are professional work offers only.

When Conceptart was posting free work requests with paid job offers I complained and they created a separate category for free work but I don’t think that went far enough. If the people who start these professional affiliations really care about artists in any professional capacity they need to protect the industry by not participating in its dismantling. The way to start is by taking a hard stand and demanding only paying job offers are acceptable on these sites.

If we want change then we should be the ones to start it. I am going to write to all the groups I'm with on Linked-in and ask them to implement a ban on free work of any kind including free internships which are illegal most of the time. I am also going to flag any post asking for free work in any of the sites I participate in.I am going to do this on Craigslist, Elance and Odesk too, I hope other like minded professionals will join me in this and maybe we can start to change the culture and save our industries.