Hasta La Ideas

Just a couple of weeks ago, we told you about the quickie “design my book cover” contest famous pastor/author Rick Warren had put together. It was so quick, running over a very, very short couple of days, that it didn’t seem to catch much flak from the no-spec crowd (likely also helped that Warren’s book probably falls outside the norm for spec work). Now, just a few days after the contest closed, and 3,542 entries in its wake, the winner has been chosen: it’s a husband and wife team named Simona Dall’Argine and Simone Salardi. The pair used a transparent copy of a prayer that fills up the whole background, just behind the book’s title. For their work? $5000. What surprised us about all of this is that the two are professional designers who work for “national and international clients.” By default, aren’t most established, regularly employed designers fairly anti-spec? Or, because they’re abroad, is the movement against spec largely just an American phenomenon? All very interesting. Discuss at your leisure.

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