Hi Boss Hog,
Thanks for your reply. I agree with the sentiment, just not the manner in which the issue was dealt with. Free work/free pitching is an important issue to address and is a hot topic in our industry. The recent London brand pitch highlighted the need for intelligent discussion on the subject and good points were made both for and against such practice.
My issue with the responses to this post was that they were, in the main, very unhelpful in educating a potential client in why asking for free work is not the norm. Not only that, in the context of this particular request, it was obvious Elaine has little or no experience with dealing with designers. The feedback she got would probably put her off our industry for life and any future dealings she might have will be biased against giving designers a chance based on the personal attacks she received.
Had people responded in a more helpful way, or even if you had a ready made response to such requests that articulates the reason why such requests are not accepted, it would have been more beneficial than the comments she received. After all, one of the most frustrating aspects of design is being given feedback along the lines of 'I don't like that' with nothing constructive added.
I have followed this forum and others for a while, and in the main I think they are great for the industry, I just get very frustrated when designers alienate the people they should be helping.