Something we're working on
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- karj
We're building on a community that helps creative people share what they're working on, and grow an audience for their work. (The latter is something I found tough, when I worked as a painter.)
What we're making isn't so much for designers working on client projects. Instead, it's for artists creating illustrations, paintings, sculptures, photographs, collages, quilts, popsicle-stick art... Essentially anyone who makes creative stuff will get something out of joining this community.
I've been a big fan of QBN for a long time—in part for the NSFW thread. ;-) Regardless, I wanted to share this here first. We're a little way from launching the first prototype of the service. That said, if you're interested in getting in early, please sign-up. http://signup.artivus.com
- prophetone0
i like the logo
- colin_s0
hm. i'll check it out.
- albums0
I believe you want it to be a different thing. However, it seems to be nothing more than another content management system (in the works).
I understand you'd like to have more personal projects displayed on your site, but you are leaving the content population up to the content creators right?
see previous statement.
- utopian0
Is this more like Pinterest but strickly for creative types without the gawkers, trolls, voyeurism, etc...
- karj0
It's not a content management system. We've already built one of those, and we have no interest in building another. (Whey bother, when there are plenty of good ones out there?)
I'd like to tell you more about what it is and how we think it will work. That said, I'd just end up typing a long essay, that would probably be a little tiresome to read.
Give us a few more weeks, then pop by and see what you think. Once you can actually test drive it, I think you'll see what I mean. From that point, you can determine if we've done as promised, or missed the boat entirely. ;-)
- karj0
@utopian. I think Pinterest is awfully broad in its appeal, and more about consuming than creating. We're trying to do something that rewards people for making, and then helps them build their own audience.
This all goes back to my painting days. I was in my early 20s and getting by, but I didn't really have an audience. By this. I mean that I'd work for a year on a body of work, have a fun opening night for the exhibit, and then go back to my basement to paint—and hardly anyone would see what I was doing for another year. (I had a website, but it didn't bring in that many visitors.)
The part that really burnt was when the work started selling. It seemed popular with banks and such, which was rather weird. Suddenly I was making some money, but I reasoned that no one who saw in the boardroom actually gave a shit about it. I didn't want to work that hard to make wallpaper for bankers.
I don't know that we'll be successful at keeping out the gawkers, trolls, voyeurs, and so on. That said, if this works, I want the 20-year-old in the basement—who's painting his guts out—to know that someone's paying attention to the stuff he's doing.
That's the plan, anyway. :-)
- bjladams0
interested in how you plan to open up to a larger audience on a new (assuming: small) network...?
- karj0
To start, we're concentrating on building a good tool that's easy to use. As such, for the first months, those who join won't see much more reach/interest from us than they'd get through their own sites. Once we get the kinks worked out, and are sure that the platform functions as it should, we'll then start reaching out to more people.
In the meanwhile, I intend to blog on the site about those who are participating in the community. My hope is that this will bring the artists/makers some attention, and build some incoming traffic for the new service. This too will be slow, at the beginning, but that's just part of the deal. I figure if we can get even a few people love the service at the outset, we'll be in good shape to build the community.
- ********0
sounds pretty cool... i hope its not for pay service, or a time limited free demo before having to pay a monthly service.
- karj0
The plan is for it to be a free service. We think introducing a fee would slow adoption, which we don't want to risk. Eventually, we plan to offer optional add-ons that are subscription-based—the core service would still be free, though.
- hellobotto0
karj – "We’d love for you to ket them know about Artivus, too!"
Check your 'ket.'
- karj0
Thank you—and fixed. (I hate when I make mistakes like that.)
- utopian0
I really like how the http://artsy.net presents the art online, the UI, experience, etc... Hopefully Artivus will achieve and or exceed these benchmarks.
- This is the current benchmark for fine art. I feel it tries to be a lot and thus loses the "gallery" feel.ideaist
- karj0
Artsy is beautiful. When we started sketching out our first plans for Artivus (which we later discarded) we found that site, and were really impressed.
I don't think what we're doing will in any way wow visitors like Artsy does. In fact, ours is shaping up to be a lot more plain. To me, though, that's a positive sign.
I'm not looking to push the UI or treatments too much. What I really want is to concentrate on making the experience exceedingly convenient for users, and valuable to them as a tool. If we can make those two things happen, I think we'll be on to something.
- utopian0
K, can I call you K? okay!
skeuomorphism or flat design?
- karj0
You can call me whatever you'd like. In fact, this morning, my mom told my brother that he should call me an "asshole;" I noted to her that I also respond to "fuckface." So, if I'm OK with that, I figure I'm OK with anything. ;-)
I don't think it's necessarily skeuomorphic or flat. There are flat areas and depth where appropriate, but no 3D slides and film rolls. Just plain ol' appropriate design. (And as little of it as possible.)