We run up against a lot of speculative design in pitches. There are plenty of reasons why we don’t prepare any, not least is the fact an RFP won’t tell you everything you need to know to solve the problem in a way that would hold up to any real scrutiny. There’s an Aesop’s fable about a peacock that’s nearly made king, but he’s exposed as a showy fraud by an inquisitive magpie. Spec work has a power that’s hard to argue, but in a pitch good questions beat good answers. We’d rather be the magpie than the peacock. Michael Johnson.