Garth Braithwaite discusses the change of the project he’s spearheading from Open Source Design to the new name Design Open. I couldn’t be happier.
While open source projects are fantastic, not everyone is in a position to slap an open license on their project and give it all away for free. But that doesn’t mean you can’t share what you know, what you’ve learned, mistakes you’ve made, etc, etc. Garth explains:
Although open sourcing is great, not every design can be published under an open license. However, almost every project can be designed openly to some degree and usually more than we are accustomed to doing now. If it is a client project, request to write a post mortem of the process. If you have design variations that you did not ultimately use, see if you can publish the source files so someone else might benefit from your investigations. Use a public platform to broadcast progress and keep yourself accountable to the goals you’ve set on a personal project. Put forth real effort to designing in the open. Show your work, process, and mistakes. It’s good for the community, but more importantly, it is good for your own personal growth as a designer to honestly track progress.
So please answer the call. In your own projects, push hard to share your work in whatever capacity you can get away with. There are so many benefits in doing so, and the world will thank you for it.