Your New Design Ally, the Competition
Listening to a technology podcast the other day I learned of Facebook, Twitter, and digg working together to solve a certain problem facing their various industries. The more I thought about it the more I realized there has been a shift in how business is being done. Newer businesses and individuals seem to be much more open about working together. Yes, they are still competing with one another, but they see the value of coming together in certain areas that can prove mutually beneficial.
I, of course, started to apply this to the current state of the design profession. When I decided to begin my own website/blog on logo design I thought I would be going up against every other logo design site trying to get hits. And while this may be true to some extent, there is a camaraderie among my fellow designers that benefits both me and my readers. Designers are promoting one another and sharing the knowledge they have discovered through Twitter, Facebook, or their own blogs. Creativity is coursing through the veins of the web and it is benefiting anyone willing to search it out. Waning are the days of Mad Men, where everything was under lock and key to keep it from making it to the ears of the competition.
Social networks are taking this to the next level by giving us an easy means to discover a plethora of information on any number of topics. I, myself, am just starting to discover the value of Twitter as I have started using it to research and find information on specific areas of design.
Below are some of the websites of my fellow brand and logo designers that have provided me invaluable design knowledge this last year. Of course, these are but a few of the great designers out there right now. I would love to hear where you go to be inspired and find knowledge in the area of design. Do you find them through Twitter? Has Facebook offered you good design connections? Maybe there is a new website or service that has made all the difference to you.
Logo Design Love – David Airey
Just Creative Design – Jacob Cass
Dache – David Dache
Hey Jeremy, it’s great you’ve found use from Logo Design Love. Good of you to visit. As for my own use of social networking websites, I find Twitter to be the only one I spend a fair amount of time on. I see Facebook as being used for photos and catching up with old friends, and don’t have much time to use LinkedIn. Some people I know rate the latter highly, though, so perhaps I’ll make more use of the forums / groups in future.
David, thanks for providing such a great website and congratulations on the book deal by the way, I am really excited for it to come out.
I think I am a late bloomer when it comes to Twitter, I have had an account for awhile but never knew how to get anything useful out of it until recently. By following designers like yourself and different design agencies across the world I have found some great information being shared. It is an awesome community.
Facebook seems to be a better way to promote a dialogue with myself and my readers and share information I find interesting, though both Twitter and Facebook seem to overlap with a lot of their functionality.
And LinkedIn seems powerful, but like you I have only started making connections and haven’t tapped its full potential.
I can’t remember coming across Just Creative Design but I’m glad I did. I never thought of creating a blog website to get my name out there as well as educating visitors on graphic design. It’s really inspired me to get off my butt and do something…