Temptation from our sponsors...
Temptation from our sponsors...
There’s a lot of talk about business models and tshirts on this site, but little discussion with designers and design communities. I spoke to Nick from Amateur Illustrator, an illustrator community started by two british students. We talked about the process of starting a community, the goals of the site and whether its harder to build one a community in the UK than elsewhere.
What is the vision of the site?
To become a great recourse to the illustration community internationally. Â To have high enough traffic to pay for itself. Â We have many other aspirations for it, for example to produce collaborative projects such as books.
Do you think there are enough communities or resources for UK artists/illustrators?
There are now 
 … I don’t think there can be too much good content which is half of what our site is about, the other half is social networking, which sure there can be too much of but I think our 500 or so users are responding well to our small community.  We are also aimed at aspiring and student illustrators, not professional illustrators…we interview the professionals so that the amateurs can learn from and be inspired by them
How did you go about setting up the site?
I knew I wanted a forum and a gallery where people could make there own galleries and upload work…so I started searching around the web, finding out about how you install php programs and the like…I decided upon PunBB and Coppermine Photo Gallery as they are both very customizable and also they can be bridged so that users don’t have to have two separate accounts for the site (which would be a real turn off).I had designed everything on paper and then basically created a custom skin for coppermine and punbb and wordpress, so that they fitted with the design of the homepage (which is just html written, made with the help of GoLive). Â There is of course a little bit more to it than this…and there is some php code on every page on the site.
Did you have any previous experience in web design?
Well I made this site (www.thebutterflyfilm.co.uk) for a short animated film I made a few years back, I made it using frames in GoLive so it wasn’t exactly a great feat of web programming. Â I am also working on a flash based site for my father, who is a photo journalist (it will be at http://www.stuartfranklin.com within a month).I had never heard of php before I started AmateurIllustrator, I knew what I wanted to do and knew that it was possible to do so I just wrote down everything I wanted and then looked around to see how others had done it.
What other design communities are you part of/do you admire?
Not really part of any others except AmateurIllustrator which takes up enough time…I like conceptart.org and also illustrationmundo.
It’s been suggested than British people are less likely to contribute to forums than other nationalities. Do you think its harder to build a UK community than it is in other countries?
You may be right about British people but I don’t think this has had any effect on our success. Â Our site is hosted in the US, we use .com and not .co.uk (although we have that too), most of our hits come from the US and one of the two other team members live in San Francisco. Â So we are an international site with no bias towards the UK.
What have you done to encourage involvement in your community?
We have a myspace (http://www.myspace.com/amateurillustrator), we have link exchanges with a few of the other art communities out there. Â There are rss feeds, there is a competition running, I also know many illustrators and artists so I have let my friends know about the site.
How do you plan to get more interaction in your community?
Well I we would like to do some collaborative publishing of books and t-shirts (this is already setup) and also I am always working on adding new features and fixes to the forum and gallery so that the site becomes easier to use. Â There could be better image rating options and also a few other things such as integrating the wordpress database with the main database so users can comment on articles without providing an email address. Â Also having the avatars appear next to comments on gallery images is something I’m working on at the moment.There are many little things that need doing before I can add any really new features.
Do you think being part of Amateur Illustratior will make people better illustrators?
I hope so, it is always good to receive constructive criticism and I think our site is a good place to provide that. Â It also has tips and tutorials and has a lot of stuff to look at by professional and amateur illustrators so at the very least should provide people with a source of inspiration and comparison.
Who is your favourite illustrator both in and out of the AI community?
I won’t say in the AI community, I wouldn’t like to favor any one illustrator….although Korky Paul has an account with us and he is a very well known childrens book illustrator. Â There is also an interview on the site with him (http://www.amateurillustrator.com/articles/?p=29).Outside the AI community I would say that Joe Sacco is my favorite Illustrator…I love his style of ‘graphic journalism’. Â I am trying to get him to do an interview for the site.
Has the inclusion of a paypal link helped offset the costs of running the site?
Not at all, no donations as of yet
