One of the greatest benefits of the Internet, for graphic designers, is the opportunity to submit our work for evaluation by the community and other design professionals. A good designer understands the importance of learning from others and the value of honest feedback toward the improvement of their skills. Fortunately there are a number of fantastic websites available for a designer to submit their work and possibly gain some insight.
The Background:
For this week's project you will find a website that offers designers / artists the opportunity to upload and submit their work for public appraisal. There are many sites to choose from but you may want to start with sites like Deviant Art, a website with a long-standing history of providing artists, from a variety of disciplines, the tools necessary for sharing art, design and insight from a vast community of art lovers.
It is perfectly acceptable if you want to submit your work to a site like Facebook but consider your audience. When posting design for analysis you will usually gain more insight from other designers over the opinions of the community at large. There are web sites available that are more focused towards the artist and design professional, so although the choice is yours where you decide to post your work, for this assignment you need to call upon a website designed specifically for design.
Remember, do not indulge in validation but rather seek out valuable insight that may lead to improvements in your craft.
What to Submit to the Website
Because your portfolio should demonstrate learning through gained experience, it is good practice to return to a design you know could benefit from change. Look through your current portfolio and choose a sample of design that could use more attention. Your challenge this week is to redesign that particular project into a piece you are more excited about. Once you complete your redesign you will then submit that design, along with the original, for appraisal by the public on a social network site of your choosing