The Dribbble Experiment
Anyone who knows me knows that I love @dribbble. It’s really grown into an incredible community of designers and creative professionals. I was really excited for the small Salem, MA based team when they recently announced “Pro” memberships. I won’t go into all of the details (you can learn more about Pro accounts here), but I think Dribbble Pro has the potential to be the place to showcase work online. With the ability to give shots context and/or supplementary assets via attachments, or grouping various shots together as “Projects”, I’m finding more and more that the best representation of my work, process, and style is through my Dribbble account. I’ve tried for years to do this with various iterations of a portfolio site, but something has always had to give. If the work was thoroughly showcased, it inevitably became stagnate as updates where always at the last thing on my todo list. Or, if the work was up-to-date, it was often thrown up haphazardly. Dribbble has already found it’s niche as a place to see what designers are “up to” currently, but it’s quickly growing as a tool for finding work, meeting other’s in your field, and now, showcasing you work in a less superficial way.
With all of this in mind, I’ve recently simplified things a bit. Moving forward, my site will exist primary as place for me to share thoughts, media, etc. (a.k.a a blog) as well as serve as a portal to the various places I “live” online. That’s it. No more long-winded “About” page. You can learn a lot more about me by following me on Twitter, Rdio, or Gowalla than in a few short paragraphs. I’m also trying something a bit more risky. No more dedicated portfolio. If you’re interested in my work, follow me on Dribbble, or check out some of my projects there.
While I understand that convention tells me to hand all this to my visitors in some neat package (particularly one that makes me look good), I genuinely don’t believe that is the best way to get to know me, my work, or my abilities. As someone who gets a lot of work through my site, I admit I’m curious to see how this will affect me professionally. Admittedly, it’s a bit of an experiment, but one I’m hopeful will create a more organic relationship between me, my clients, and visitors in general.
