deviantART is a popular online artistic community. It was first launched on August 7, 2000 through the work of Angelo Sotira (CEO), Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens.
| The front page of deviantART | |
Type of site | Artistic community |
|---|---|
| Owner | deviantART, Inc. |
| Created by | Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens |
| Commercial | Mixed |
| Registration | Yes |
deviantART aims to provide a place for any artist, photographer, or writer to exhibit and discuss his or her works. It also provides a community of like-minded individuals and receives 2 million hits per day. The site consists of over 2 million users and over 24 million submissions as of August, 2006. The site accepts accounts from minors.
deviantART now displays multiple forms of art and creative expression laid out in an extensive category structure. The artwork on display ranges from photography to digital art, traditional art, literature and skins for applications. The site also has extensive downloadable resources for use within artworks such as tutorials and stock photography.
deviantART
Origins
The idea of a deviantART community, though inspired by other projects such as deskmod.com, screenphuck.com, customize.org and skinz.org, which were all application skin based websites, was thoroughly original in nature. The developers of deviantART, mainly the founders Scott Jarkoff (jark) and Matt Stephens (matteo), most sharing backgrounds in the application skinning community, took the concept further to make it an art community.
In order to provide an easily identifiable look to the site, "Fella", a small horned character, was chosen as the official deviantART mascot, while a stylized "dA" was used as the logo.
Throughout the existence of deviantART many individuals have been involved with the site in both a public and private capacity. These individuals have held and still hold numerous positions from administrators to volunteers serving as gallery directors and help staff. The current management and administration of deviantART is now fairly extensive, with Angelo Sotira (spyed) serving as the current CEO of deviantART, Inc.
Terminology
The site uses unorthodox capitalization in its title (deviantART) as a way of emphasizing its deviancy, and other aspects of the site reflect this attitude as well. As such, the following terms are used throughout the site:
- dA — frequent abbreviation for the site's title (also less commonly known as devART, and as dART, pronounced as "dart").
- Deviant — a user of deviantART.
- Deviation — every submitted piece of artwork is called a "deviation", so long as it is declared by the artist ("deviant") to be fully polished and in a state for exhibition. If not, the work is a "scrap" (an unfinished work, not exhibited prominently).
Features
Besides the basic features of an online artistic community, deviantART also incorporates:
- Several forums and a shoutbox.
- A real-time chat system called dAmn (deviantART Messaging Network).
- A private messaging service; private messages are called 'Notes'.
- Staff Picks (formerly known as Daily Deviations), the featuring of selected artists' works in prominent places on the site, such as the front page.
- The ability to enter one's longitude and latitude, which can be used to locate other deviants living nearby.
- Any deviant may select any other deviation as one of their 'Favourites'. This will place the deviation on that user's personal page, giving the original artist extra exposure. Deviants may choose to display only recent favourites, or randomize all favourites each time their userpage is viewed.
- Every deviant has his or her own personal page at the URL http://username.deviantart.com, where username is replaced by the username of the deviant in question. This page may list the deviant's interests, mood, hobbies and so forth. It also exhibits the deviant's recent works and his or her Favourites. Deviants may also select and display their most prized work as a 'Featured Deviation'.
- Each deviant can edit their own public journal. The journal is a blog-like feature: a deviant may write an entry and it will be displayed on the deviant's user page. However, no feature which restricts certain posts from being seen by the general public has been implemented.
- Any deviant may add any other deviant to a watchlist called deviantWATCH. Doing so will cause them to be notified every time anyone on their watch list submits a new piece of art or submit a new journal entry; one can also elect to be notified of the submission of scraps. These notifications may be toggled in the 'Friends List', where deviants are also allowed to group or remove watched deviants.
- A deviant may also buy themselves a Prints account, whereby they may sell their works for money, receiving 50% of the profits. By paying for a subscription, a deviant can also sell their work for 10% of each sale.
- There is also an adCast program, for advertising art- and community-related products/pages at a discounted rate.
- The deviantART gallery is a collection of art categories on the website. Each category of deviantART gallery has specific submission requirements which individual deviantART users use to determine how to post their pieces of art, known as deviations. This should not be confused with a deviantART userpage gallery. Each category of deviantART gallery and the criteria used to define what can be submitted to it is approved by deviantART staff and additional gallery categories can be suggested.
Obtaining a subscription to the site unlocks enhancements to these features, as well as provide additional services, such as larger thumbnails for browsing.
Growth
The site is in a constant state of growth, and features continue to improve and increase in number. There is a forum specifically focused on suggestions, and another for repairing known problems. In the past, a monthly magazine called devMAG was produced, but this was discontinued.
deviantART's latest revision (deviantART v5), was released on August 7, 2006, (deviantART's sixth anniversary). Upgrades are planned regularly on v5 until the release of v6, projected in 2007.
Subscription
deviantART maintains a subscription based service that offers extra features and privileges.
Some of these subscriber-restricted features are:
- Advertisement-free browsing. (this feature is currently under revision)
- Greater customization of a user's personal page.
- deviantMOBILE - the feature to download any (agreed) deviation to one's mobile phone, by a supported mobile phone carrier.
- Private forums.
- Faster surfing.
- Ability to alter the size of thumbnails used when browsing deviations.
- An opportunity to become a beta tester and try out new features.
- The opportunity to sell prints and receive 10% of profits
Subscription is usually bought by the year, but must be renewed constantly. However, some members, predominantly the staff and former staff, attain a subscription that continues "Until Hell Freezes Over", that is, never ends.