No Dribbble Invite? No Problem, Try Favwork

Design-snippet-sharing sites are all the rage right now, but for some sites and some designers, exclusivity can be a problem.

If you’re looking for a way to share bits of designs for feedback (or vanity) but you’re still waiting in the queue for an invite-only site, you might want to give Favwork a try.

The concept of the site is delightfully simple: Just upload a small- to medium-sized JPEG of your current favorite piece of work, and tell the world why you like it. Other users can comment on, like, share and link to your favorite; and you can browse popular images, new favorites or images that you’ve liked.

To say that Favwork is a clone of the so-hot-right-now Dribbble would be an understatement of the greatest magnitude. In the following screenshot, you can see Favwork above and Dribbble below; while not identical to the last pixel, there’s certainly a heavy amount of “inspiration” going on there.

However, Favwork does build upon Dribbble’s offering in a way that’s intriguing and likely to be popular with quite a few user-designers out there.

First, you don’t need an invite to join and use the site, including uploading your images. Second, Dribbble only allows designers to upload 400 × 300 pixel images; Favwork increases the limit to 600 x 400 pixels. Mind you, you’ll have to make sure the image doesn’t exceed those boundaries; unlike Dribbble, Favwork won’t let you crop images in-app.

Like Dribbble, each image shared has its own comment thread, permalink, Twitter sharing button. All Favwork is missing is the “rebound” feature, which allows users to spin off and remix one another’s creations.

Here’s the Favwork catch: You’re only allowed to post one piece at a time. Dribbble limits the number of “shots” allowed in its own way, but designers can still throw up a reasonable set of images to flesh out their portfolio.

Favwork creator UK dev/designer Stu Green writes on the site, “The idea is that you upload just one item of work (your favorite) and change it every now and then. When you change your work, your old work will be archived, and your new work will be shown on the Latest Work page so people can like it.”

And by “archived,” he means “gone for good.” The concept is very “what have you done for me lately?”, not so much “check out my wall of trophies.” It’s an interesting and fresh approach, one that could lead to quite different user behaviors than those seen on other sites.

And again, Favwork’s concept is completely democratic. As Green writes in an overt nod in Dribbble’s general direction, “Favwork is open to anyone who has creative work they want to share… There is no ‘invite only’ pre-requisite or exclusivity for joining; anyone can join, and your work will appear on the home page if you get enough likes.”

If you’re into design but not so much into exclusivity, give Favwork a shot, and let us know what you think about the concept and the execution.

More About: design, dribbble, favwork, snippet

For more Dev & Design coverage: