Designers Designs Dang it!

Okay, I was just perusing a few of our wonderful iStock designers and there is something that I thought was kind of lacking here at iStock that would be a really cool feature.
Designer Portfolios

Maybe, either that or I am a nutter who needs to be committed stat!

What I would like to see is MORE of what our designers do, more than just their 4 highest rated designs.

I'd like to see a Designer's portfolio of things they have submitted to Designer Spotlight and making it accessable via a link straight from the Designer's profile page.
For those contributors who are designers and photographers you would have two portfolios: one for Designs and one for Photography/Illustrations.

I know that you can sort the designer spotlight by contributor, but thought this would be a nice plus for the designers on iStock.

I think it would encourage more participation from Designer's to submit designs if they didn't get lost in all the other submissions and if there were a place where they could easily be seen/commented/get feedback on, also it might/would be a useful to the photographers in the community to be able to see how stock is used in the real world and encourage the production of more useful stock.

Anyway... perhaps just a pipe dream, but I think it would be kinda cool



(Edited on 2005-07-14 19:37:18 by kcline)

It isn't that easy for a design to make it to the designer's spotlight (at some moments, and at some moments it's like anything gets in ) and with the negative comments, a lot of designers gave up contributing to it...

The in-action-forum is great to show the work you've done but it really gets lost after a day or 2...

It would be great to have a design-portfolio on iStock, just to show how the images have been used and who has done it (better than the way it's done now)

I'm for it!

I'd love to see this too. I'm not a designer, but I'd love the chance to see more of what designers do-- it might help me learn more about what they're looking for.

Not a bad idea

I'm guessing that space constraints might hinder this, considering how many members there are (and I have no idea how many are designers.)

I just go to their profile area and link to their website; hopefully they have a portfolio set up there.

Madtinsis makes the point. After the savaging somebody got for a very nice book design (which they hadn't even submitted themselves, they'd just sent a copy to the photographer) it made me think it wasn't worth the hassle. I have enough clients who like my work, not to have my day spoilt by half a dozen people I don't know, discussing publicly what they don't like about my design work.

Maybe you should offer credits as an incentive for the designers to submit their work?

That's a great idea, for this reason and more. I was thinking the same thing so I did a search for the topic. As a photographer I know how cool it would be to see an image of mine work out. As a designer I would love to be able to share my work with the photographer whose photos I've used. Sitemails are just too cumbersome, but if I could upload a design (separate from the spotlight) into a portfolio a photographer could see it him/herself.

Another addition to your suggestion is to have a link on each photograph's page showing which designs it was used in (just like "View galleries with this file" - you'd see "View designs with this file"!

It would also be a great way for someone thinking about downloading a file to see it in use and spark ideas (and sales)!

I think it's a nice idea, but may just be way too much space needed & I think most designers have their work posted in portfolios on their own sites...

I know I don't feel like updating my new designs online, then posting it again on iStock... plus I'm a contributor, so it's a lot of extra work... but that's just me... hmmmm...

what if designers had an option to "showcase" their designs as fairly small, manageable thumbnails that link to it in their own portfolio - then you could click to see it larger scale without putting a strain on istock's space...?