Because, by forcing your designer to design for his competition, you are creating a hostile work environment. It's why you lost your last employee, and why everyone will cringe at such a display of crude business ethics.
There's nothing wrong with keeping a project open, but having your designer post his drafts in here literally serves no purpose but to put pressure on him.
The people who would provide feedback in this thread, are people that you have passed down. Designers who regularly compete for work. And mostly people who have 0 incentive to care about your project.
Please keep the designing process between yourself and designer. Perhaps after you'd like to show everyone what you decided on, that's perfectly fine. But don't have your designer post his work just so he can have his work flamed.
Oh, what a shame that anyone would look at it like that. I just left a thread in which the contractor announced that he was doing logos and banners at an attractive rate, in the 4+ page thread clients introduced themselves, told of their needs, he then did his best to produce what they wanted then, upon satisfaction they closed the deal with payment and feedback. Over and over again he was able to showcase his talents and skills.
Use of trigger words like: "forcing", "hostile work environment", "employee", "cringe", "crude", "pressure", and "flamed" without knowing the intent of the employer is prejudicial at best but nevertheless I asked for the candor.
Here's my position, unless the project is confidential the employer should favor the project on display, contractors who are ready, willing, and able to perform as quoted should favor the opportunity to show off their good work. In fact, I'm often surprised when a contractor bid on work without providing an example of what they can do. At every opportunity a contractor should always be promoting.
As for "competition" the only true competition is in getting the job, the competition ends when the job is awarded, as such the contractor should rest assured that they are not 'designing for his competition' when they are doing a project for me.
I pride myself on doing win-win deals, which basically means I don't mind being on either side of the deal. When I put out a bid I indicate what I want, I listen to what is out there, when it come to price I rarely negotiate I simply say yes or no, and I almost never have deadlines -- I don't rush excellence, however I do expect regular progress reports. I expect people to do as they promise re: product, price, and date. I get disappointed when someone breaks a promise.
True professionalism and ethics are not about protocols but rather
being reasonable with expectations,
doing as you promise, and
performing with integrity regardless which side of the contract you are on.
thanks
I'm terribly sorry. I used these "Trigger words" because that is exactly what happened in your previous thread. Where you had contracted someone to work on your project, and had him post "Progress reports" in your thread. Where his work was
bashed by other designers who bid on the same position but did not get it.
If you think anything constructive can come out of that, you are wrong. And while a good designer tries his best to make a composition based on the various elements that makes 'good' design, biased feedback is not only is
useless, but it also makes for a
hostile work environment. Your previous contractor,
admitted that it was a hostile work environment. Anyone who saw that post, could tell it was a hostile work environment.
And while the way you procure contractors to work on your projects is quite reasonable, the fact that you would make a call like that, not only once, but twice shows that you have a crude sense of morals (For subjugating your employee to that) and poor understanding of what constructive criticism
is (openly Accepting biased Criticism).
Let me remind you, you had about 3-4 designers bidding for the position, and shortly after,
accusations and flaming broke out. So you want to take the work of the Designer who got the position, and let the people who were competing for that same position (Accusing and flaming in some cases) to give you feedback on the project that you will be marketing?
I understand you're only defending yourself, but can you really not see that this is a bad idea? It's unlikely anyone passes a design job in this forum, unless the working conditions are inhospitable. And that's exactly what happened before.
You don't understand, "Designing for Competition" is a rough and short explanation of what your previous contractor did. Where you based how good his draft was from feedback from his competition. And while plenty of clients seek feedback, who lack the understanding of what makes a good design, the feedback that you were relying on, was feedback from people who were biased.
Do you understand what I'm getting at?
I respect the fact that you look for ethical deals, but however, that has nothing to do with what I'm speaking about.
And I agree, promises are very important, Honesty is very important. But I have a sense that you're implying that your previous contractor "Broke his promise". Yes, he walked away, but again, he walked away because of the
hostile working conditions you expected him to deal with. That's not his fault.
And if you're implying that him walking away was wrong, you're basically implying; that all designers are just stepping stones, and that they should just deal with all unfair working conditions, and if they walk away from that, then they're in the wrong.
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