Are imaginary rebrands a waste of time?

Context - I recently graduated from the Communication Design program at UNT and am looking to make it on my own as a freelance designer.

I also have a growing list of brands, sports teams and local businesses that I love but are in dire need of branding help. On one hand, I have seen a few student/pro-bono rebrand projects that went viral and brought work/publicity to the designer responsible. On the other hand, I have also read a lot of angry articles and comments by designers online saying that spec work kills our industry.

So - Are imaginary rebrands a waste of my time? Would it be a wiser to shop my portfolio around to local businesses trying to sell my services? Or, if isn't such a stupid idea, what are some good case studies and resources on how to market & publish these projects with the goal of garnering attention online? Thanks in advance!

Further context: My Portfolio

Great design resource

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) Submitted May 16, 2016 at 04:56AM by brethawkins http://ift.tt/1Tg5Vdm