07 Jan How Do You Get Dribbble Invites? Top Tricks and Tips
How Do You Get Dribbble Invites? Top Tricks and Tips
Started in 2009 by Dan Cedarholm and Rich Thornett and publicly launched in 2010, dribbble is all about being the best designing community that helps designers share their work, thrive, and get hired.
Dribbble is a go-to resource for seekers, helping them discover and connect with designers and creative talent from all over the world.
High-on-design oriented companies such as Apple, Airbnb, Facebook, Google, Dropbox, Slack, Shopify, Lyft, etc. draw their pool of creative designing talent from dribbble to create the designs that impress the world.
So, it is an obvious approach for talented designers to try to get into the dribbble community.
However, getting started at Dribbble is not as simple as free signup.
The Deal with Dribbble Invites and how to get one?
When starting out, the dribbble community was invite-only.
Hence, the members could get into the community to share their work and get hired only when they were able to get hold of an existing member (player) and have them give you one of their limited Dribbble invites.
Today, even after you have joined dribbble, you won’t be able to upload your designs for the world to see and admire until an existing dribbble member has invited you.
As of today, dribbble provides new team accounts.
Therefore, it has become easy for teams and the members on them to collaborate better and share work on the platform of Dribbble together.
While this has been criticised by a lot of designers and we do not deem it as wrong either, dribbble manages to maintain the quality of designs on their platform, and the overall community also happens to be more engaged and well-knitted together.
Coming back to the core subject of this blog post, how is it that one can get the much-coveted dribbble invites and kickstart their design community dream?
The easiest way out there is to get hold of someone who is already a dribbble member and check with them if they are fine giving you one of their limited invites if they have any left.
We bet you have already tried that and now are looking for other hacks to get into the dribbble community.
To begin with, you must understand the basic Dribbble flow of action.
There are two kinds of Dribbble users; The Prospect and the Player.
The Prospect user has signed up for the Dribbble community and can follow other designer users on the platform.
However, without an invite, all the uploaded work remains private and cannot be showcased on the platform.
The Player users are the ones who have already claimed their Dribbble invites.
They get access to limited invitations that they can extend to other prospects.
Once they choose to extend their invitation to one of the prospects, the prospect receives an email with a URL to accept or decline the invitation.
So, as a prospect, you are expected to take care of some tasks before you can place yourself in the community, seeking Dribbble invites.
To kickstart the invite hunt, you must, first of all, upload your complete and high-quality work on the Dribbble work.
It is recommended that you begin with at least five shots of your complete best work.
It is compulsory because you want these players (users with invites) to be able to see the best of your work before they decide if they want to extend their issues invites to you.
Filling out your complete bio is also a necessary action.
Your Avatar and a description of you are going to help other users on the platform assess you better.
Adding a link to your complete portfolio is also highly recommended.
Next up, make sure that you list all the skills that make you stand out from the crowd.
This is a further window for players and other users on the platform into your talent pool and helps them get an idea of how skilled you are at your work.
It is recommended that you add at least fifteen skill tags for the design work you excel at.
Adding your location has its benefits for the exposure of your new Dribbble account.
It is so because players that might have a location preference for sending out invites can end up finding yours.
However, ensuring your privacy over the Internet should always be a primary action point. For safe browsing, using a VPN is a secure choice.
Once done with these, you will be ready to go and look out for sources for invites so that you can become a Player on the platform and be able to showcase your work and get hired.
Now, let us finally look at the ways that can help you get access to Dribbble invites.
Look for the Invite posts on dribbble or hope for one to come along.
● To begin with, you can head to dribbble itself, and it can churn up a piece of good news for you. It often happens that some users are left with extra invites, and they choose to post the invite shots on the platform. So, before the wonder box gets empty, you can get in touch with them and claim your much-needed dribbble invite. You can go to the site and try out relevant keywords such as “invite” or “dribbble invite” with the “latest” filter. In this manner, you might get the invite. If you happen to get one, follow the instructions and send your portfolio in the mail.
● The other way to get an invite is after you have joined Dribbble as a ‘prospect’. Listing oneself as a ‘prospect’ is easy and can be done without an invite. When you are a prospect, you can post a shot that you are looking for an invite and maybe wait for the magic to happen if you get lucky.
This method, however, requires some substantial effort and the more you put in, the more are the chances of you getting contacted for an invite. Here’s what you can do:
● Show off your best work which is truly complete.
● You can also combine multiple screenshots of your finished projects into a single Dribbble shot and gain the necessary attention.
● Posting a polished gif of your work in a Dribbble shot can also help you stand out.
● Try spending more time on the platform of Dribbble and interact with the work of other designers and let them know how you love their designs. Follow the community ethics, and you might get the engine started.
● As a community, Dribbble is also about getting people to follow you. So, make efforts to build your follower count. You can do things such as promoting the design of other community members and have them follow you eventually.
Know the Dribbble playbook in and out
Before you choose to put your foot in the deep waters, make sure that you are open and compliant to the Dribbbble community guidelines in all ways.
Here are some of the community guidelines laid by the platform of Dribbble that you must abide by.
If one fails to do so, they might get in trouble with the suspension or removal of their accounts with Dribbble.
● Upload only the work you create
● Upload design work only
● Do not post inappropriate content
● Do not spam other Dribbble members
● Don’t use Dribbble invitations to draw attention to your account
● Give them due credit
● Constructive feedback
● Use messages to contact Dribbble members about serious work inquiries only
● Use personal accounts only to post your personal work
● Team accounts are for design agencies and in-house design teams
● The Project Board is for appropriate projects for individuals seeking a freelance or contract designer
P.S.: If you think you don’t want to go through the process of looking for Dribbble invites, a Pro account is always the way around.
Wrapping up, we would like to let you know that if you are a designer and are interested in design inspiration and being a part of a closely-knitted community of talented designers, Dribbble is one of the best channels out there.
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