Whilst going through some old emails, I found this article that I wrote back in 2007!

Online Uprising : Online design communities

Traditionally artists and designers have always strived to change the social landscape which they live in – communities of people that share the same ideals and values have shaped our modern world.
Artists’ movements have always been in the undercurrent of society, fringing the commercial world – so how does this differ when the landscape we are trying to change is a digital world?

Online design communities have changed that way that we interact with each other. Free sites such as Computerlove (www.cpluv.com) and Humble Voice (www.humblevoice.com), offer designers the opportunity to upload their own galleries and portfolios, chat and email each other, write blogs, comment on work or ask questions, even earn points to trade in for merchandise (slight capitalist infiltration).
Artists; and by ‘artists’ I mean all forms of creative outputs – from design to written word, illustration to music, photography to animation and everything in between, are being given a whole new world to shape.

The traditional forms that were once elitist, such as universities and art galleries, are being side-stepped by peer-to-peer interaction online, with the leaders in the design field sharing their knowledge directly with newcomers, free online gallery spaces that can be shared with the world, not just with private view lushes stroking their ego.

This peer-to-peer interaction also means that students can get advice or collaborate with people anywhere around the world, as the physical side to work boundaries have been broken down with the invention of this new digital medium.
Design forums, such as www.designateonline.com, are a useful filter, uploading your latest work can be a great taste-test for how your audience might view your work, and then using it as a marketing tool is easy, spreading the word on good design, can seed as quickly as the most strategically planned campaign.

Everyone needs a job to support their revolution, so what used to take time and dedicated persistence to get your work under the right noses, can now be as simple as firing off a quick email with a link to your online portfolio (hosted of course by your friendly design community site. Even the laziest Creative Director will move their finger a few millimetres to click on a link.

For the more bourgeoisie out there, there are plenty of sites out there that will strip out the cream of the design crop and hand it to you on a silver platter, www.pixelsurgeon.com , www.thefwa.com , www.ibelieveinadv.com , so you can join the revolution in your pyjamas.

The MySpace Generation is dead, long live the internet.

(Dated July 19, 2007)