Enter the Newbie – Online Forums - By Fanna Hudson

If you are new to design it is probably a good idea to get involved with the great amount of information online. There are links stacked upon links that will get you to an online design forum or artist’s message board speaking to other artists about your area of expertise. This is a great resource to have when you need immediate answers to questions or ideas about a project you may have. Becoming social with art makes for better art in the future. Look at the social exchange at an art college. Ideas flow freely and help is always around the corner. Friends and classmates are up late trading ideas and well kept secrets to add new dimension to their creative works. Interaction in the form of critiques, free information, and question answering can boost your career or make you consider a new one. Get ready newbie you are about to enter a forum. You can ask questions, vent about your boss, or post your work for all to see and laugh at. Just kidding.

So you want to post you work for critique, huh? Prepare yourself because all of the feedback that you may receive from the angry regulars won’t feel so good. It is not fun when you realize hundreds or thousands of people are viewing evil comments demanding your work to be placed on the chopping block. You will quickly memorize the names of the critics that camp out at your selected forum just to disrupt your view of design or art.

To avoid the tomato throwing session, surf the net and make a list of the art and design forums that tend to speak your language. It will help you bypass future depression and therapy sessions. Spend time on the selected forum site before you become a member. Read the topics of discussion and read the responses. You can become familiar with the regulars that frequent the forum. These are the people with many posts under their name. See how these guys and gals reply to previous critiques to other artists. Are they helpful or hurtful? If you see a negative trend in the response listings, move to another forum where positive advice and suggestions add awareness as well as inspiration. Anyone can degrade another person, but can anyone help another person become better in a few words or examples? More importantly will you return to the site for more help or information? The reason why you went to the forum in the first place was because you couldn’t purchase that $80 book on a $30 budget. Take advantage of good information for little or no cost.

Receiving helpful tips and tricks are great when they are free. There are many good examples of work out there. Listen carefully and use what you need. Many of the seasoned pros will be very helpful and less condescending. They will recognize that you are new and supply you with a bunch positive feedback that will aid on getting you on track.

Before you ask the pros, check around using a few search engines. You are not the only one posting questions. If a professional is going to take his/her time to help, they will only want to be bothered with meaningful questions. Do a little research first and when all else fails, post your question. Just as there are many forums out there, a plethora of websites also exist answering the same questions you need to ask at a forum.

Try these forums if you haven’t already

http://www.howdesign.com/forum/categories.asp

http://www.designers4m.com/

http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/

http://www.kirupaforum.com/forums/index.php