With the boom of social media we now have a greater opportunity to share our ideas, techniques and inspirations. Twitter and Facebook are the two that first spring to mind but for artists there are a few specifically tailored to meet our needs.
Dribbble:
Dribbble is a great site for designers and developers that want to share work in progress (WIP) screenshots of their latest projects.
Anyone can become a member and explore the work of the site but to contribute you have to be ‘drafted’ by existing members. Dribbble states that this is to sharpen the focus on sharing interesting work while enabling the support and scaling of the site.
I can see great potential in Dribbble as most of the people I follow on the site are friends from other networks enabling me to see the kind of work they are currently doing. It’s also an interesting approach to give viewers a screenshot of what’s going on and not the full piece thereby showing off a community at work rather than just showcasing final projects.
Forrst:
Forrst is similar to Dribbble in the way that it’s a community site made up of designers and developers but purely focuses on the discussion of a piece of work.
Users are encouraged to post links, snaps, code or simply ask a question to try and draw comments or critiques from others within the same field.
Joining Forrst is also an invite only process but some work can be viewed by those not registered. I’ve only just started using Forrst but in that short time I’ve really come to appreciate the discussions and ideas bouncing back and forth. You will be surprised at how inspiring discussing yours and others work really is.
Behance:
I think Behance is perhaps the most well-known out of the design/developer networks currently online and it certainly feels like one of the most professional out there.
Essentially it’s an online portfolio for creative professionals across a variety of industries enabling users to showcase their work through other partner sites and industry-specific served sites.
The site is popular within the industry as it is used by creative companies and recruiters to find talent to hire.
To sign up you must request an invitation describing your creative work. Once accepted it’s simply a case of uploading your portfolio, sharing your work and connecting with others within the same field. There’s also a jobs section and a place for recruiters to post job vacancies.
It’s clear social media networks are here to stay as we all need a means to communicate with each other but what we’re seeing are niche groups that enable users to focus their discussion.
There’s a whole host of other networks out there including the big names but I think the important thing to do if you’re a designer or a developer trying to further your knowledge and engage with others is that you get into that discussion. Create work, share with others and discuss and you’ll be surprised about how much you learn and improve.
