Publicity, compliments and money are among life's greatest motivators, especially in the eyes of the modern day workforce.
For instance, professionals are motivated by compliments because it means that someone admires their work, while, obtaining publicity (in most cases) shows that you have achieved something that others have not. And there isn't really a need for an explanation as to why someone would be motivated by money.
For designers, reaching these goals ultimately relies on their ability to consistently produce quality work and their willingness to network with respected professionals and take advantage of résumé-building opportunities. Luckily, the explosion of social networks has made it much easier for designers to actively work toward professional dominance.
Let's get famous, admired and rich - at least digitally - with these five design-based social communities.
Motivators: Publicity, Compliments and Money
As one of the most popular design communities on the Web, Behance, which is part of the Adobe family, is like the Facebook of design-based social networks. Designers can leverage this network to showcase their portfolio, connect with other designers, view available job opportunities and have their work seen by potential employers. In fact, at the time of this writing, Behance projects had more than 49 million views in just the past 30 days. That said, being part of this network isn't just a good way to network and obtain compliments on your work, as it can also help designers land a job (get money) and gain publicity within their profession.
Motivators: Compliments and Money
Designers can join Dribble to share projects and gain inspiration from a community of design professionals that includes Web designers, graphic designers, illustrators, icon artists, typographers, logo designers and other creative minds. Aside from sharing work on this platform, designers can also interact with other member's projects by liking, sharing and saving designs, as well as searching for job opportunities. In fact, this design community has even posted job openings at top companies like Facebook, Yelp, Tumblr, Salesforce and Microsoft in the past.
Motivators: Compliments and Money
Forrst, which is powered by Zurb, is a feedback community where designers and developers can share their work and evaluate reactions from their peers. According to the company, "Feedback is the key to successful designs, successful code, and, thus, successful products. The top reason that designs, products and startups fail is that they didn't get the feedback they need." Even when feedback doesn't come in the form of compliments, it can still help you achieve success in the long run - and being successful leads to publicity, compliments and money. It is important to note that this site can also be used to find job opportunities, even though its focus is design feedback.
Motivators: Publicity and Compliments
This creative community spans the globe with more than 3.8 million members around the world. Designers can sign up with this platform to gain color palette inspiration as well as to create and share their own favorite color combinations. The network not only allows people to view, comment and "love" palettes and patterns, but also sort these design inspirations with filters like most loved, most views, most comments and most favorites. This means that the designers who create the most popular palettes and patterns, not only receive tons of compliments from their peers, but are also featured more prominently, which increases their visibility within the design community.
Motivators: Publicity and Compliments
The Hunie design community is similar to Forrst, as its focus is giving designers critiques from their peers. Critiques come from a variety of professionals, including creative minds from top companies like Facebook and Twitter. Members can also collaborate on projects, as well as earn "karma' points, which improves the user's reputation, by giving constructive critiques on projects. Designers who post their projects on this site can sift through the critiques to find compliments so that they know what they are doing right, as well as to discover areas where they could use some improvement.
These are far from the only design-based social communities on the Web, tell us your favorite platform in the comment section below: