'Work for nothing, make tea, carry bags' - D&AD chairman Dick Powell sparks fury among designers over alleged internship quotes
The chairman of design charity D&AD has become embroiled in a row with a design magazine which reported him making controversial comments appearing to advocate unpaid internships.
Dick Powell was quoted by Dezeen as saying graduates should “work for nothing” and that doing an unpaid internship is “the easiest way to get a job” in the design industry.
He is claimed to have said: "Offer anything, do anything, call in every contact you have, get on LinkedIn and let it take you everywhere, work for nothing, make tea, carry bags, and learn, learn, learn."
The remarks, allegedly made during and after Powell’s speech to graduates at the New Designers exhibition this month, sparked an angry backlash from designers on Twitter last night and prompted D&AD to say that its chairman’s “recent comments were not representative” of its stance on interns.
But Powell’s design studio Seymourpowell also took to Twitter to defend its boss and claimed that Dezeen’s story had “misrepresented” his views.
In response to a steady stream of tweets deriding Powell’s alleged comments, @seymourpowell described the article as “misguided” and said that the quotes had been “bluntly plucked completely out of context”.
The agency said Powell himself would be making a full statement this morning to “set the record straight”.
For its part, Dezeen is insisting its story was an accurate representation of Powell’s comments made during a speech and later to one of the magazine’s reporters.
Editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs told The Drum: “We're absolutely standing by the story.
"Dick made the comments in a speech at an event attended by hundreds of people and immediately afterwards he gave the transcript to our reporter, who then conducted a brief interview with him, which was recorded on our reporter's iPhone. We've quoted him verbatim and published the full speech too, so people can see the context of his remarks.
"I've never known such a strong and immediate response to a story in terms of reader comments and social media. Our readers are genuinely shocked by the comments from such a high-profile figure in the industry. We've run a few stories recently about this issue but none have exploded quite like this one has."
The Drum is expecting Powell’s reponse soon and will bring you it as soon as we have it.
Unpaid internships have become a hugely controversial issue in the creative industries in recent times and D&AD itself lobbies for interns to be paid “at least minimum wage” in its ten commandments for great placements.
"It's astonishing how attitudes to unpaid work in the creative industries have hardened in recent months," Fairs said. "Dick was probably unaware of how strong feelings are among young people today about this issue and in particular the issue of unpaid internships, which are increasingly seen as unfair and unethical."
Update: Dick Powell has said the Dezeen piece 'does not reflect my views, nor those of D&AD'. You can see his statement below, as issued to both Dezeen and The Drum.
"I was shocked and rather saddened to read [Dezeen's] article yesterday headlined 'Graduates should "work for nothing" says D&AD Chairman' in relation to my recent speech at the opening of NewDesigners Part Two on 3 July.
"The article does not reflect my views, nor those of D&AD and I'd like to put the record straight, so I'm grateful for this opportunity to clarify a number of points which have understandably caused a great deal of concern and anger.
"Sadly, these days, it is harder than ever for graduates to find work; the jobs don't come to them - many don't realise that their graduation is the start of a lengthy, often soul destroying process that is as much work as work itself. The message of my five minute speech, which [Dezeen] didn't initially report on, was intended to fire up and inspire them to that process... a process during which the learning doesn't stop. And the hardest part of that process is to stand out from the crowd and get yourself in front of the right people.
"It was certainly not my to intention to infer working for free, more an attempt to impress upon them that they should stop at nothing to 'crack open the door' (buried among a longer list of wilder ideas to emphasise the message). As I wrote these words, and afterwards in conversation with Dezeen, I should have made it clear that I was referring to student internships and NOT graduates. And to be quite clear on this, by interns I mean students still within education and not graduates.
"The question of internships is, rightly, a matter of hot debate. To my mind, a student internship is part of a student's education and, just as important, it's one of the best ways to get yourself in front of the right people and crack open the door to a future job (several of Seymourpowell's younger designers first came to us as student interns). Internships are a quid pro quo arrangement - agencies get to meet and experience talent, and maybe short circuit the employment process, while students build valuable experience, continue to learn and can showcase their talent... but being part of a student's education is no excuse for not paying interns. Indeed, at Seymourpowell we pay all our student interns. But unconscionably, not every agency or design company concurs with this moral position.
"In my view, and in D&AD's view, there are no circumstances where working unpaid in any capacity is acceptable on any level! I apologise to readers who may wrongly have a different impression as a result of [Dezeen's] article.
"Thank you for the opportunity to make this clear."