community @ dribbble

For over a decade Dribbble’s been a thriving, global community of designers—a place to share work, talk shop, get feedback, and make connections amongst fellow creative practitioners.

Designer Midnight Umbrella
Project Form Design Community & Content
Client Dribbble
Dimensions Various
Year 2019–2021

COMMUNITY BUILDING: SHAKING HANDS, KISSING BABIES, & TALKING DESIGN.

in the trenches meeting folks & talking shop

I’ve been a proud Dribbble community member since 2012—and finally got to work alongside the team in 2019, as community manager and event wrangler. My gig included a wide swath of responsibilities—developing community engagement programs, honing Dribbble’s affable, approachable brand voice, teeing up regular communications, and helping facilitate Dribbble Meetups across the globe.

I also got a chance to be a face representing Dribbble, including emceeing the main stage of Hang Time NYC, our 700-attendee design conference at New York’s storied Hammerstein Ballroom. I also spearheaded co-branded events, talked shop with Dribbble’s 700k+ Instagram followers in our livestreamed Dribbble Coffee Break, as well emceed and produced Dribbble’s virtual workshop sessions serving over 1,000 creative practitioners.

View of a theater or concert hall from the stage, showing rows of audience seating filled with people, with a balcony level above. The room is dimly lit with blue and purple lighting.
Table with pink balloons featuring 'dribbble' logos, pink and black craft sticks, white 'dribbble' cutouts, and artwork related to water and rivers, including cards and ribbons.
View of New York City streetscape with the Empire State Building in the background, people walking with luggage, street vendors, and tall modern buildings.
People gathered in a dimly lit auditorium or conference hall with blue lighting, some standing in line or walking, and others seated in the background.
Crowd of people socializing and dining at an indoor event with digital screens and a sports scoreboard in the background.
An audience seated in a dimly lit auditorium watching a presentation or performance, illuminated with blue and purple stage lighting.
A large group of people attending a presentation or conference in a modern, well-lit room with a large digital screen at the front. The room has white walls, with some cityscape artwork visible, and a ceiling with long, bright light fixtures.
Graphic with the Toronto skyline silhouette, a basketball, and the CN Tower, advertising a dribbling meetup scheduled for September 26.
Colorful tote bag with the phrase 'Seek the Ocean' and a stylized ocean scene, held by a person in front of a window with a cityscape background. There are pink balls or balloons nearby.
A pile of stickers with a green, white, and black design promoting a Boston Meetup event in 2019, featuring a crown and the word 'Dribble'.
A man stands on stage with a microphone in hand, giving a presentation at a conference or event. Behind him is a large screen with the words 'HANG TIME' in yellow, a pink graphic, and 'NYC' in blue. Audience members are seated and watching the presen
Two men holding coffee mugs during a live video session, one close-up with glasses and a beard, the other partially covered by a mug with a circular symbol, both smiling.
A busy indoor event with people socializing and sitting at tables, some using laptops and phones, with multiple display screens and modern lighting overhead.
A crowded indoor event space with people standing, sitting, and chatting around tables, and watching screens on the walls.
A person speaking on stage at a conference or event, with a large screen behind them showing sponsorship logos for 'inVISION'. The stage is lit with blue and purple lighting, with an audience in the foreground.
Group of people smiling at a social gathering, some holding drinks, in a room with modern decor. Tags with usernames are overlaid on the photo. Text at the bottom reads: "When BSDS shows up to @dribbble is when you know things start getting wild."
An indoor theater filled with audience members seated, with multiple levels of balconies and blue lighting illuminating the space.
A large group of people seated and attentively listening at a conference or seminar inside a modern, well-lit venue with multiple screens and digital displays.
Illustration of a cartoon pencil with a yellow and brown body on a blue background.

writin’ words.

In addition to in-person community building, behind the scenes I also put pencil to paper crafting communications—this included weekly commentary for Dribbble’s Courtside emails, as well as contributing (usually typography-focused) featured articles for our popular blog, plus authoring community-facing platform feature announcements. Got to gets my hands dirty making accompanying imagery, too.

featured articles & product announcements

Yellow background with large black and white text saying 'Wonder!' with smaller red and italicized text underneath that reads 'Fig. 1 (GOODNESS)' and 'Fig. 2 (GOODNESS GRACIOUS)', highlighting different styles and expressions of the word 'Wonder!'
Yellow background poster with the large black text 'RULES' and white distressed text underneath that says 'to be broken' and smaller black text at the top and bottom of the poster with humorous font, reading 'From the desk of THE OFFICE of STRINGENT
A bright blue background with yellow and white text. The yellow text says '(Measure)ments' with 'Measure' in bold. The white text is placeholder text about various desserts, starting with 'Cupcake ipsum dolor sit amet chocolate...'.
Colorful typographic poster with phrases expressing excitement about a change or improvement, including words like "WOW!", "AIIHHH!", "HEY THERE PAL", "STOP HORSIN' AROUND", "I AIN'T TAFFY", "YES, SO MUCH BETTER", "VIM & VIGOR", "SHARP", "DRESSED", "
Red background with large black-outlined dollar signs, the words 'IT'S OK TO USE FREE FONTS' at the top, and repeated white 'free' text on the right side. Yellow script text at the bottom reads '... but use your noggin!'
Red background with large white number 49, yellow dollar sign, and text indicating 33% off and hashtag blessed.

FLEX THAT CREATIVITY IN THE WEEKLY WARM-UP.

One of the community initiatives I had the privilege of bringing to life was Dribbble’s Weekly Warm-Up—an inclusive, low-stress design prompt for the creative community to grow in their craft, together.

Design has enough cutthroat competition, right? Vapid, award-seeking, ego-stroking aplenty. In contrast, the Weekly Warm-Up is an earnest attempt to foster design simply for its own sake. No prizes, no trophies. Just the offer of encouragement to work beside your creative peers—of all skill-levels—in a joint pursuit of stretching one’s creative muscles over a common prompt.

To date, the Weekly Warm-Up has racked up thousands of submissions from designers across the world, and across a wide range of creative disciplines. And, yes—when time permits, I definitely try and throw my hat into the ring, which you’ll see below.

A dark background with colorful geometric shapes and icons. White text asks, "What do you hope 2021 will bring? Design a New Year's resolution." Pink labels read "PROMPT NO. 54," "dribbble," and "WEEKLY WARM-UP."
A stylized illustration of a monkey's face, featuring a brown outer ring, a white inner face, black eyes, and a black mouth, set against a pink background.
Black sign with white gothic and serif text reading: "Vigo the Carpathian. Psychomagnotheric slime. Sorcery & tyrannny. Scourge of Carpathia, sorrow of Moldavia. Cruel, despised, unholy. 'Death is but a door, time is but a window. I'll be back.'"
Red background with the quote "always kindness, without hesitation" with hearts and arrows.
Colorful, retro-style text art spelling 'WORMTOWN' repeated in alternating colors of yellow, red, white, and brown on a black and brown background.