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Design & Graphics Forum: your suggestions and comments

B

Blue Velvet

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
I'd like to invite everyone who stops by or contributes to the Design & Graphics Forum to offer their feedback and suggestions on how we can make it a more useful and interesting place for everyone, from beginners to pros.

If you have any criticisms or negatives, they're very welcome as well, as long as they're kept polite. 😉

Any suggestions for certain sticky threads, resources... anything to make this a valuable forum for all pixel-pushers and ink-monkeys. 😀

All suggestions will be considered, so fire away. 🙂
 
I think this forum works pretty well for what it is: a side-forum on an apple rumors website. I really don't have too many problems with it. That said, I think if you could create a subforum (within graphics) specifically for critiques, it might organize it a little better.
 
Meh....I could live with or without any of those you pointed towards. I thought about a section similar to the "introduce yourself" thread, but I don't know that it would be used all that often, or that it would provide much in the way of meaning. I could be wrong on that, though.

The only thing I could think of that would be kind of cool would be a centralized place to organize all of our online portfolios, whether that be a single thread, or a sub-forum with individual threads for individual members (that way, discussion could be kept separate for each portfolio). Maybe that's reaching, though.

The only other one that made sense was the book recommendation one. But usually, I just go up the bookstore and thumb through a ton of them and find one I like.

Sorry to be less than helpful. (;

EDIT: Maybe we could have some assignments, like the photo guys do? I don't know how much I'd participate...but it might be fun.
 
All of these sound interesting, particularly assignments... I'll leave this thread open for a while just so we can get some ideas and a conversation going, and then when interest has dropped off, maybe in a few weeks time, we'll look at all these ideas and see what we can practically implement.

Thanks for your thoughts. 🙂
 
Please do keep it open. 🙂 I'd hate to be the only one giving input. If I am, however, feel free to rename it tobefirst's design & graphics forum. 🙂
 
The assignments idea sounds very interesting. Good suggestion.

The only thing that I can think of off the top of my head would be something similar to the Essential web-dev tools, tips and sites for Mac sticky over on the Web Design and Development forum – a place where we could link to useful stuff like tip sites, plug-ins, cool new fonts and other interesting bits and bobs.

Anything the web-heads can do, I'm sure we can do better. 😉
 
Jaffa Cake said:
...something similar to the Essential web-dev tools, tips and sites for Mac sticky over on the Web Design and Development forum – a place where we could link to useful stuff like tip sites, plug-ins, cool new fonts and other interesting bits and bobs.
Click to expand...

Maybe some stickies just to categorise the content a little? Not too many, but enough so one thread on its own doesn't become unmanageable or unwieldy?


Jaffa Cake said:
Anything the web-heads can do, I'm sure we can do better. 😉
Click to expand...

Well yeah, some of us have more pixels per inch to play with. 😀
 
Blue Velvet said:
Maybe some stickies just to categorise the content a little? Not too many, but enough so one thread on its own doesn't become unmanageable or unwieldy?
Click to expand...
That could work – split it down into, say, tips and tutorials, software and plug-ins, and so forth.

Mind, how busy does the Design and Graphics forum actually get? It is a bit of a niche subject – are there enough of us knocking about here that would post to a single sticky thread so that it would become unmanageable too quickly?
 
Jaffa Cake said:
...are there enough of us knocking about here that would post to a single sticky thread so that it would become unmanageable too quickly?
Click to expand...

Unmanageable as in for other people, like too difficult to find the content you're looking for... that's all.

Macs, graphics, niche? Hush! 😀
 
I think it would be great if there were sub sections in the Design & Graphics Forum.

ie. When you Click on the Design and Graphics Forum you would see a menu for threads such as

- Stickies
- General
- Print Design
- Web Design
- Fonts/Typography
- Critiques/Brainstorming
- Freelancing/marketing
- Pricing/Estimating
- Hardware
- Software
- Education/Courses

and perhaps one for "Forum Design Competitions"

If you feel there are not enough visitors to warrant that many categories, then some could be combined et.
 
I like the Assignments idea, but it would be great if it was a bit more streamlined than I've noticed the Photography assignments are. I believe their process takes 4 threads each time (topic suggestions, topic voting, actual assignment, and the gallery for work outside the assignment time).

I'd rather see one topic/project suggestions thread that's kept open as a sticky...and then a mod (or a small mod selected committee) would pick a popular and appropriate assignment every month (or whatever time span is decide on). The mod/committee could picky topics based on the challenge of the topic, relevance to current events, time of year, etc.

I love the idea of a guide or sticky thread for basic resources (books, etc) for beginners as well.
 
My comments are meant not only for this forum, but, the MacRumors forum as a whole. Is it possible to block viewing of most forums until log-in. I realize one can't post until logged in, but everyone can view anything on this forum without regulation. Most forums I belong to block viewing except for those that log in. I'm especially interested because in the Graphics Forum some artwork is being shared.
 
hsotnicaM said:
My comments are meant not only for this forum, but, the MacRumors forum as a whole. Is it possible to block viewing of most forums until log-in. I realize one can't post until logged in, but everyone can view anything on this forum without regulation. Most forums I belong to block viewing except for those that log in. I'm especially interested because in the Graphics Forum some artwork is being shared.
Click to expand...

I suspect that, if this were enacted site-wide, you'd see the newbie numbers fall sharply. This place is a wealth of information and inspiration- to limit that to people who are already a part of it, would keep many, many people from ever joining. I know I lurked for quite awhile before finding my voice in the forum. I likely would have never joined if I had to just to see whatever it was I was looking for. My story is not uncommon.
 
Hope I'm not too late to join in. Great idea asking for suggestions. I'm always surprised how small this forum seems to be, when I had the idea that lots of people in this field use Macs. Maybe they're all busy with their i*****s!

One or two thoughts come to mind:

1. I'd like to support the idea of having a list of recommended books. I've noticed a few people asking for advice on which ones to buy and for those of us who are "self-taught" it would help us no end. It would also give Blue Velvet a bit of a rest from answering questions and dispensing advice!

2. To be able to make a search in MR forum specific.

3. I haven't been back to check the old posts, but I have a feeling there have been a number of requests for advice on starting up etc. If there are, maybe they could be collected together.

Great idea BV!
 
Sorry if I haven't replied to many of these ideas yet. I just wanted to let the thread stick for a while and then have a good read of it and continue the discussion in a few weeks time. Thanks to all who've contributed so far and please keep the suggestions coming. 🙂
 
Just want to say that I love this forum!

What about a thread/sticky with links to things like free fonts, photoshop brushes, patterns, etc.? Resources for begginer-intermediate designers. I could deffinitely contribute a bunch that I have accumulated.

Edit: Something like this has already been mentioned, so I guess I am just seconding the idea!
 
Merge/Reorganize with web design forum.

One thing that irks me is that people sometimes post their portfolios in the Design & Graphics forum and sometimes in the web design and development forum.

I think to remedy this, move web design closer up, just under design & graphics or make it a sub forum.

Also, I think it'd be useful to have a dedicated portfolios/review forum with rules (to play nice and give constructive criticism).

These few changes would make me really happy 🙂

I think bluetooth's list is too long. The forum(s) would look sparse with so many options.

I think the idea of creating a marketplace for design is interesting. It should be a subforum of the real marketplace (with minimum posting requirements MR sitewide and in the design subforums) and linked from here.

To make it less commercial, what we could do is just make it so that designers can have their own threads or portfolios posted (which are public) and interested people can then post in their threads about freelancing.
 
tobefirst said:
So, when can we expect to see change? Has a timeline been made?
Click to expand...


Give me a few more weeks to digest the thread properly in detail and to let others chime in. Then discussions will have to be held, and some people who need to be involved might be on vacation... then we'll see what we can do... so is 2009 OK? On a Tuesday? 😉

Nah, we're probably looking at September given some of the other things going on here and in my own life.

Let's not rush into anything. Hold the faith and just enjoy the journey. 🙂
 
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