Disclaimer
What the pieces are
Everything on no-spec.com is editorial: argument, analysis and practical guidance for working designers, written from the designer's side of the table by the people described on the about page. The site takes positions. It argues that unpaid pitches are a bad deal, that a generated mockup is still a pitch, and that discovery and thinking should be billed. Read the pieces as the case for those positions, sourced where we can source them, and weigh them against your own situation.
Not legal, financial or professional advice
The contract clauses, the reply scripts, the rate ranges and the discussion of copyright and trademark are general information. They are not legal advice, they do not account for the law where you live or the terms you have already signed, and they are no substitute for a lawyer or an accountant who knows your business. Rates in particular vary by city, discipline, seniority and year; a range on this site is a benchmark to start a conversation, not a figure to put in a quote unexamined.
About the AI and provenance guidance
The Proof of Work pillar explains how designers can record and demonstrate that a design is their own: process files, version history, Content Credentials, disclosure clauses. That guidance exists so that honest work can be shown to be honest. It is not a method for passing off generated work as hand-made, and it is not a guarantee that any client, platform or court will accept a given record. Provenance tools have limits, and the pieces say what those limits are. If a passage reads to you as advice on concealing how work was made, tell us and we will rewrite it.
Named companies and platforms
When a piece discusses a contest platform, a marketplace, a software vendor or a client practice, it discusses the practice as it was documented at the time of writing, citing the platform's own published terms where possible. Terms change. If you represent a company named on the site and believe a description is out of date or wrong, write to editors@no-spec.com with the current source and we will update the piece and note the change.
Copyright and takedown
Pieces quote from public documents, association statements and published articles under fair use, with attribution and a link. If you believe a quotation exceeds fair use, or that text or an image on this site was taken from your work without credit, write to editors@no-spec.com with the URL of the page, the material in question and where it was first published. We will respond within five working days, and we will remove or properly attribute the material promptly if the claim is sound.
Errors
We check dates, figures and positions before publishing and correct them when a reader shows us we are wrong; corrections are noted on the page. The site is offered without warranty of completeness or accuracy, and the editors are not liable for any loss arising from reliance on it.
Related policies
Read this with the terms of use, which set out how the articles may be quoted, and the privacy policy, which covers what the free tools do with submitted text. The clause and provenance guidance this disclaimer refers to lives in Proof of Work.