Introducing....!

The Problem Solved

I was able to decide on my chosen topic pretty quickly as it is a concept I have already thought of in the past. My aim is to create a "Creative Commons UI" in which graphic designers can become members to share, contribute and create using open source resources. I got the idea after realising that in my own design work, I use a variety of different resources to create my own piece of work, and I end up having to bookmark multiple pages often wishing I could find what I was looking for in one place. Anything from photo's to photoshop elements such as brushes and patterns, I utilise those open to creative commons licensing often to create my own pieces of work.


It occurred to me that the culture of remixing on the internet is occasionally frowned upon and what I envisage my site to achieve, is a community base of designers who can share their creations for remixing, as well as show case their artwork which has been created using open source resources. It will also be a place where users can communicate with each other and set up internal groups within the community.

Inspired By...

Brusheezy

Brusheezy is a fantastic website where people can upload Photoshop elements created by themselves. I find this a great place to find brush sets, vectors and patterns for use in my own creations and I enjoy sharing my own created elements also. While it is a great place to find these sorts of resources, I find more often than not the person who has uploaded their creation hasn't adopted any creative commons licensing which makes the designs good to look at but that's about it. My site would incorporate the sharing nature of Brusheezy, however all work uploaded will need to have been shared with creative commons licensing and will need to be open source for other users of the site.

Deviant Art

Deviant Art carries the tag line "where art meets application". With more of a focus on user generated illustrations and artwork rather than the resources, Deviant Art has an array of pages offering you different themes of artwork to look at and choose from. The people who upload to the site are clearly talented and passionate about their visual artwork which inspires the sharing element of my site. As I intend to allow users to upload their overall creations which have been completed using other resources available on the website, I hope that people will find inspiration in each others work to keep the creative energy flowing, like Deviant Art seems to do for its own users. I found the lack of communication between users a downfall of this website. In terms of usability, from my point of view I think the menu's are a little overcrowded and it could certianly be simplified.

Creative Commons Search

Such a fantastic tool that I can't get enough of - which is the main base for the inspiration for my own website concept. The creative commons search function which is operated from the official creative commons wesbite allows you to search for any online media which is licensed for creative commons usage. Just brilliant! My wesbite will adapt a search function also, however it will be focused purely on visual design, no video or audio for the purpose of this assignment. It will be possible for users to use meta date or tags for their uploads and for other users to use a keyword search to find them. As it is only a search engine, its one of many tools we can use to find open source content.

Facebook

Well everybody has it or knows about it at the very least! I'm including Facebook in my line up inspiration purely for the community factor. Similar to Facebook, I hope for each user to have their own page or portfolio which will outline their uploads and interests in visual art, which members can comment on and communicate. As well as a private messaging service similar to that of Facebook, my concept will draw on many of the communicative elements of social networking sites like Facebook. It will of course be completely different to Facebook as I don't intend to include the "friend" system, but rather a favourite system where you can see updates from your favorite users in your home screen.

That covers off all of the sites that have inspired my initial idea. Over the course of the next few days, I intend to conduct some testing on these sites and more to establish how other graphic designers feel about these sites.