Chasing the ball - how to get into dribbble and why
A few days ago a friend mentioned something arbitrary regarding her dribbble account.
As a young aspiring designer this conversation aroused an expected reaction from me in the form of: “OH F&#$ I’M DOING SOMETHING WRONG! I’M NOT UP TO DATE! I DON’T HAVE AN ACCOUNT!!”
So, to make a long story short, I decided to open a dribbble account.
What is dribbble anyway?
Dribbble is a social network for designers from different fields — animation, illustration UI, typography and more.
Designers upload images of their work (called shots in dribbble), and they get feedback from other designers.
When dribbble started in 2009, the goal was to create an exclusive social network for designers that only included the best of the best, this is why dribbble members can only join by receiving a personal invite from another member.
What does that mean? You can create an account and view shots of different designers freely, but if you want to upload shots yourself, you need to get an invite.
That’s the problem with dribbble, it’s like going to a really good brunch restaurant on Saturday morning without reservations. You can see how good the food looks and that everyone seems to be having the best time, but waiting in line just takes all the fun out of it.
Why you should forget what I just wrote and join dribbble
Starting from the obvious — if you’re looking for a work opportunity this is the place to be.
Employers are scanning dribbble in the hopes of finding the next best employee for their team.
As opposed to your portfolio where you will probably show a limited number of projects and you will dive into each project, in dribbble designers usually show a large amount of work but superficially.
The combination between your portfolio and your dribbble account allows employers to get the full picture of who you and allows you to create a more professional and active impression.
Even if you’re not looking for a job right now, dribbble is still the place to be.
It’s a social network full of talented designers and relevant inspirations.
You can see designs from all over the world uploaded by hundreds of thousands of users.
You can take inspiration from current trends, and you can create connections that might benefit you in the future.
Most importantly, dribbble is a stage to show the world you kick ass.
If you’ll upload really great work it might even get some recognition with bloggers, and you’ll find your work in posts that reach people all over the world.
I’m sold, how can I get an invite?
As I wrote, I decided to open my own dribbble account, and quickly I learned that:
A. my friends were not helpful.
B. it’s not that easy to get an invite.
Eventually the long awaited invitation came! To help make your way shorter than mine, here’s a quick guide to get a dribbble invite!
First step — open an account
At this stage you won’t be able to upload shots, but put in all the other information you can. Fill in information about yourself, enter skills and upload your image.
This is important, it shows you’re eager to join and waiting on an invite.
Second step — ask around
Ask your friends for an invite or try asking in a Facebook group.
If you were lucky and you found a friend with an invite just pass him the link to the account you just opened, and you’re all set.
Third step — get an invite through dribbble
If you go down this road, I promise that eventually you’ll get an invite, but this is also the longest road to take. There are a lot of people who have invites to offer and post about it in dribbble.
To find them go to the search bar in the upper right part of the page and type: invite.
Then, filter the results to view “Recent” instead of “Popular”.
When you see an image the says “invite,” click on it.
People that offer invites get a lot of inquiries so in order to pick they ask that you will send them an email including 2–3 shots of you work.
It’s recommended to follow them, it’s not something they are allowed to ask for explicitly and it’s not particularly fair, but it might help you to get picked.
A small note: it might sound obvious, but make sure your mail is well written and polite. Introduce yourself, say hello - these things can really get you the extra mile.
Remember to attach a link to your dribbble account and if you have a website it’s good idea to attach a link to it as well.
From here, it’s just a matter of luck and persistency. Send shots to everyone whose deadline to submit hasn’t passed yet, come back every other day to check if there are new invites and keep on sending emails.
You’ve got an invite!!
YAY! Your first shot gets a honorable status and will appear on the front page, so take advantage of that. It’s your opportunity to present yourselves.
It’s customary to create a first shot that says hello in an original way.
If you really want to start on the right foot, you can tag the person that gave you the invite in the first shot.
BTW -you have 30 days to accept the invite or it will be cancelled.
That’s it, I’m looking forward to seeing you in dribbble and being inspired by all of your amazing shots.
See you there ;)
