This sparked quite a bit of discussion within the CUDO board, and today we’d like to give you the board’s take on pro bono work, and explain why we feel strongly that pro-bono postings should stay. First though, we’d like to say how much we appreciate the feedback. We feel privileged that people are passionate enough about design and CUDO to get involved—even when that means offering respectful criticism.

For your reference, the comments themselves*:

On March 2, James said:

Respectfully,

This is the second ad requesting designers to work for free. I’m very disappointed that an organization that claims to promote quality design in Champaign-Urbana would perpetuate the idea that design is so worthless as to not require compensation.

While I recognize that both ads were for non-profit organizations, even these organizations have budgets. Do non-profits get free rent? Are their phone bills comped? Does no one receive a salary? Are their legal papers prepared pro-bono? Does the News-Gazette print ads for them without any compensation? Would a printer donate their time, paper, ink, and staff to a non-profit? Any of these service-providers might offer a lower rate for a non-profit, but I doubt any would work for free just because the job is for a non-profit.

Moreover, by posting these ads requesting free work The CUDO encourages others to expect work for free (or extremely cheep) as well. I thought The CUDO was an organization to help designers, not hinder them. I am very disappointed and would like to see these ads removed unless they are amended to offer a fair compensation.

March 4, Mo responded, saying:

Bravo, James. Took the words right out of my mouth.

First off, let’s define pro bono (from Wikipedia):

[Pro Bono] is generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms. Pro bono service, unlike traditional volunteerism, uses the specific skills of professionals to provide services to those who are unable to afford them.

Lawyers in the United States are recommended under American Bar Association (ABA) ethical rules to contribute at least fifty hours of pro bono service per year.

CUDO is still very young and there are some complex issues that our Board has been discussing for quite some time. One of these issues is the idea of uncompensated design work, especially as it pertains to “spec work”. It’s a tricky subject that we’re trying to navigate, but have come to no final decision on CUDO’s official statement. (Even AIGA recognizes the difficulty of the issue and recently spent time re-investigating their stance: ref. www.aiga.org/content.cfm/news-090527)

What we can say for certain is that CUDO firmly supports philanthropy. That’s why last summer we hosted “CUDO Gives“, for which twenty CUDO members gave up their Saturday to create an identity, brochures, and a website for the local Wesley Evening Food Pantry. As designers we were in the unique position to volunteer a specialized service to a worthy cause. Two local printers (OSP and Weiskamp Screen Printing) donated 100% of the printing for the materials we designed. Unfortunately it just isn’t true that all non-profits have the budget for proper design work.

Take CUDO, for example. We’re essentially a non-profit. We’re not legally recognized as one at the moment because we haven’t had the budget to file for the status. Every cent we earn from memberships and fundraisers goes right back into the organization. None of us running CUDO get paid for what we do, and we all have full-time day jobs in addition to being involved. The only reason we exist, at the moment, is because of the donations of time, skills, services, and funds of those who deem our organization a worthwhile cause. In other words, people working pro bono.

As the job board goes, we’re still trying to navigate what is and isn’t appropriate to post. While we want to filter out jobs that are clearly low-balling designers and devaluing the community, we also want to provide as much opportunity for our members as possible.

That said, we’d like to open this topic up to discussion! We really appreciate your input, and we will use it as CUDO grows and we define and refine our position on these issues.

– The CUDO Board

* These comments were originally added directly to a job board post. The fact that we had comments enabled on the job board was an oversight on our part, as it was part of the default Wordpress template we use. We’ve since closed comments on the job board, but still encourage you to contact us is you have any comments or concerns about what we post.

Founded in 1985, Horizon Hobby, Inc., www.horizonhobby.com, www.horizonhobbycorp.com, is an international developer, distributor and marketer of radio control (RC) cars, trucks, boats, planes, radios and helicopters; model railroad; plastic and die-cast models; and other general hobby products. We are also one of the leading developers of many of the biggest names in the industry, such as Hangar 9 and ParkZone airplanes, E-flite helicopters, Spektrum radios, HobbyZone entry level RC sports and Losi cars and trucks.

Horizon Hobby is an employee owned company that is known throughout the hobby industry for its exceptional attention to customers’ needs, outstanding product expertise and, most importantly, integrity.

JOB SUMMARY
Horizon Hobby is looking for a motivated Graphic Designer who will bring excellent concept, design, layout and typographic skills to our Marketing teams and help create innovative catalogs, packaging, Web design, ads and a wide variety of other marketing projects.  You will work collaboratively with our brand teams to design and create a range of innovative design solutions.

JOB REQUIREMENTS
Candidates should have a min of 2-4 years experience, and a demonstrated proficiency in current multimedia applications such as Dreamweaver and Flash, along with basic graphic design applications such as Adobe Creative Suite. HTML knowledge a plus.

Please email Bob Strauss at bstrauss@horizonhobby.com for more information or to apply for this position.

Julian Dibbell, author/contributing editor of Wired:
The LOLcat, the/b/tard, and the Well-wrought Urn:
Internet memes as distributed design
Tuesday, March 9 at 5:30pm
Siebel Center Auditorium, Room 1404
Siebel Center, 201 N. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana

From Rickroll to Fail blog to Numa Numa guy, the ephemeral bits of textual and visual culture known as Internet memes have taken up residence in the margins of our online lives
and will not go away. This talk attempts to understand why, outlining the rudiments of a basic memetic literacy and exploring the social and aesthetic practices that bring memes into existence, keep them in circulation, and make them so improbably compelling.

Julian Dibbell is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and technology journalist who specializes in information technology. He is a contributing editor for Wired magazine. His
writing has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Le Monde, TIME, Harper’s, Rolling Stone, Details, The Nation, and many other publications. His 1993 article for the Village
Voice, “A Rape in Cyberspace,” is the most cited, reprinted, and assigned essay ever written on identity and the Internet. In 2004, he co-founded the game research collective Terra Nova.

All designmatters3 events are free and open to the public.

For more information contact Traci Pines at tpines@illinois.edu

Designmatters3 is a lecture series to promote design thinking that integrates design, business and technology in the creation of innovative products, services and experiences. Organized by the School of Art + Design, sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Colleges of Engineering and Fine and Applied Arts; School of Art + Design, Technology Entrepreneur Center; College of Business, Department of Human Factors, Autodesk. and the MS in Technology Management Program. Jullian Dibbell is a George A. Miller Visiting Professor of Media.

Jon Kolko of frog design: How to graduate from college and get a sweet job making boatloads of money
 and building really cool products
Monday, March 1 at 5:30pm
Krannert Art Museum Auditorium, 
Room 62
500 East Peabody Drive, Champaign

It has never been a better time to be a designer, and even in the present economic state of the world,
it’s a wonderful time to be joining the design workforce. Jon Kolko will discuss the state of design 
and HCI talent in the United States, and will describe the specific methods, capabilities, 
and portfolio materials necessary to secure a high paying job at a leading product design consultancy.

Jon Kolko is an Associate Creative Director at frog design in Austin, developing interaction design 
solutions ranging from consumer products to design management strategies. He has worked for 
AT&T, HP, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ford, IBM, Palm, and other Fortune 500 clients.
His current research investigates the process of design synthesis and the creation of meaning.

All designmatters3 events are free and open to the public.

For more information contact Traci Pines at tpines@illinois.edu

Designmatters3 is a lecture series to promote design thinking that integrates design, business and technology in the creation of innovative products, services and experiences. Organized by the School of Art + Design, sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Colleges of Engineering and Fine and Applied Arts; School of Art + Design, Technology Entrepreneur Center; College of Business, Department of Human Factors, Autodesk. and the MS in Technology Management Program.

Family Service of Champaign County, a 100-year-old, non-profit social service agency needs an experienced graphic designer – or one who would like to gain experience – to develop a cohesive corporate identity that can be applied to their letterhead, business cards, envelopes, newsletters, Help Book, Support Group Directory and special event materials.

Deliverables include:

• Print-ready digital files for letterhead, envelopes, and business cards for “parent” organization, Family Service of Champaign County, plus departments and programs including:
  • Self-Help Center
  • Senior Resource Center
  • Children First
  • Retired Senior Volunteer Program
• Graphic Standards Guide outlining proper, consistent use of the following:
  • Logo (image provided) usage
  • Font(s)
  • Paper
  • Ink Colors

Design points:

• There is an existing graphic; but the organization is open to suggestions for adapting, modifying or updating the graphic.
• The audience for most of these materials is 50 and older so all materials must be high-contrast, larger than 11 point, and aesthetically pleasing to a mature audience
• Maximum two-color
• The organization has a common tagline, “Enriching Lives Across the Generations” which may or may not be incorporated into the corporate identity materials.
• Each piece for departments and programs of the “parent” organization, Family Service of Champaign County, must be identified as such.
• There is an opportunity to create some “branding” materials for the organization’s 100th anniversary which they will celebrate in 2011

For more information, please contact Development Director, Terry Goode, Family Service of Champaign County, www.famservcc.org, Phone: (217) 352-0099, tgoode@familyservicecc.org.

The knowledge gained from this study will enable the research team to understand how to build an effective interactive repository for storing, accessing, and sharing ideas for design activity. The study is being conducted by Prof. Brian Bailey and Moushumi Sharmin from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois-Urbana.

The study will consist of an online survey and an informal design session. If you are interested in participating, please complete this survey to provide us with a better understanding of your design background and idea management practices. If you are interested in being considered for the design session, please also provide your contact information. Participants in the design session will receive $30. The information collected in this survey is confidential and will only be used for research purposes.

The survey can be found at:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/242205/idea-management-design-study

For more information, contact:
Moushumi Sharmin
PhD Candidate
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

While the work would have to be pro bono since we’re a bunch of cashstrapped students, IEN works with a growing number of different student startup companies that look to hire graphic designers and there may be possible benefits through referrals and advertising that we could offer. Please contact Roshan Choxi at rchoxi2@illinois.edu to discuss more.

Vote once a day through February: http://www.refresheverything.com/renourish

A bit about Re-nourish.com
Re-nourish.com, founded by Eric Benson, a UIUC design professor, helps to facilitate the adoption of sustainable graphic design practices by providing the industry with practical and reliable tools and resources. The site is the graphic design industry’s only comprehensive resource on sustainable graphic design theory and practice. Re-nourish.com features searchable greener printer and paper databases, informational guides to greener print design, packaging design, and digital design, a Sustainable Graphic Design Roadmap of best practices, case studies, an interactive Project Calculator to help designers realize cost and materials savings during the course of any given project, and a benchmark system for certifying greener designers and their work. Re-nourish.com intends to help make sustainable design what design is, not merely what it “could be.”

The Pepsi grant would allow the team to completely overhaul and expand the site, making it way more user-friendly, adding more tools, improving the current ones. It’ll also allow them to launch an industry-wide, consensus-based sustainable design standards initiative, and to expand their reach throughout the field, helping to get sustainable design resources into the hands of working designers everywhere.

Pepsi is giving away millions in grants each month to fund ideas that will have a positive impact. Re-nourish is eligible under the Planet category for a $50,000 grant if they finish in the top ten at the end of the month. Visitors can vote once a day everyday during the month of February to help Re-nourish empower the next generation of sustainable designers around the globe! You can vote for Re-nourish here: http://www.refresheverything.com/renourish

Lupton’s talk is part of UIUC’s DesignMatters Lecture Series.

Thursday, Feb 18, 2010
5:15pm
Plym Auditorium 134 Temple Hoyne Buell,
611 Lorado Taft Dr., Champaign, IL

Ellen Lupton is a designer, writer, and curator. She will talk about different models of authorship and what they mean for designers working today. What does it mean to be an author? Do authors originate content, or do they create distinctive formal languages? Lupton will talk about different paradigms of authorship in relation to her own work. Along the way, you’ll learn about crimes against typography, the D.I.Y. revolution, how to publish your own book, how to make your bed, and whether your bra fits properly.

Ellen Lupton is curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore (MICA). She has produced numerous books and exhibitions, including  Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office (1993), Graphic Design: The New Basics, and Skin: Surface, Substance + Design (2002). Her book Thinking with Type (2004) is a basic guide to typography directed at everyone who works with words.

A frequent lecturer around the U.S. and the world, Lupton will speak about design to anyone who will listen.

Criteria for making a nomination can be found here. The nomination process is open to all Champaign County residents.

The final deadline for nomination is February 15, 2010.

This year’s celebration will be held:
February 25, 2010
5:30-7pm
iHotel & Conference Center

Thank you to our sponsors: The Champaign County EDC, The University of Illinois Office of Technology Management, Corporate Relations, The Research Park and Enterprise Works.