A few months ago I played a game of pool with my brother.  The bet: I lost, I had to visit him when he went to school in Italy.  He lost, he had to come back home for Christmas.  I lost.  I went and saw him for 2 full days and 2 half days.  It was a quick trip and we had a ton of fun.

We talked a lot about what he wants to do with his life.  He is having a bit of a hard time finding his passion.  (Though I think he’s closer now.)

At one point he asked me what my passion was.  And it was actually kind of hard to answer.  I’ve always considered myself passionate about what I do but I never thought in depth about what it is I’m so passionate about.  Because it’s not t-shirts.  And it’s not the internet.  (Though I love being involved in both.)  When it comes down to it, my passion is creating things.  I think that is every entrepreneur’s passion – to create something.  It’s so simple.

Do you have a passion for making things? If so you’ve found your passion.  Now you just need to find something you’re interested in and use your passion to build something around it.

I was thinking about this in the bathtub this morning. (I try to take at least 2 baths a day, where I think and read.)  Some background: Spec work is basically any work done on a speculative basis. That is, work done for which a fair & reasonable fee has not been agreed upon beforehand.  Some say designing tees for Threadless is spec work.  I think otherwise for a few reasons.

1. The art is reusable, “generic” & owned by the artist.  We are looking for cool art on a tee.  No logos, no rules, no specifications – just art.  Should an artist not create a painting because they don’t have a buyer?  Should a photographer not take a picture because someone isn’t set up to pay for it yet?  We also let the artist keep the copyright, even if their design is chosen for print – they just give us the right to create apparel from it.  So basically, the ‘work’ isn’t done just for Threadless.
2. Threadless is very open and it is ongoing. There is no theme.  It’s simply about submitting a design that would look good on a tee.  Each design has it’s own start/end date for being scored. Each design is judged on its own, not in comparison with other designs. The general concept is “Is this design awesome enough to print?” rather than “Is this the best design?”
3. We pay. A lot! We pay $2,500 to each designer who has their tee printed – 5 times the market rate for a tee design.  Plus we pay $500 more each time it’s reprinted or the design is licensed elsewhere, $2,500 more for Bestee of the Month and $20,000 more for Bestee of the Year!  And that’s just for apparel rights. The designer can monetize their work on other mediums if they please.

But anyway.  When I was thinking in the tub, I got to think about what inspires an artist to create a painting from nothing vs a designer creating a logo for a project.  I’m more of a designer than an artist and have trouble creating something from nothing.  But I do enjoy solving problems with a design.  So much so that sometimes I like to do it in my free time.  In fact, the t-shirt contest I won that inspired me to create Threadless had a very defined project specification.  It was for a specific event and had to have specific information displayed on it.  And that’s when it hit me.

I feel that what makes spec work OK for me sometimes isn’t so much about the specific terms and pay and design requirements involved.  It’s about why you are doing it.  Is it for a friend? Is it for charity? Is it an exciting, fun project? Do you get enjoyment out of working on it? Do you need to find a creative release?

Much as an artist doesn’t typically treat a personal painting they are creating as a job or something they need only do if they are making money from it, a designer can get that same sort of creative problem solving pleasure out of a real project with a specific purpose and beneficiary.

Just a little stream-of-consciousness from the tub.