The new year started off with a bang as the Dribbble community gathered at sixteen Dribbble Meetups hosted all around the world. With over 500 designers in attendance, January proved to be a very inspiring month of events. Designers learned and shared on all kinds of topics from the value of user research, modern design trends, to typography as a storytelling medium, and much more.
A new year means plenty of new opportunities to get together with your local design community. Keep an eye out for meetups happening near you—it’s not too late to join one this February in places like Cincinnati, Portland, Cairo, Leeds, and more! No meetups happening near you? We’d love to help you get started in hosting your own.
Port Harcourt @ Beaut/ful Strokes
“It was a great privilege to host our first Port Harcourt Dribbble Meetup. Our meetup was a blast! It was fun and educative. We created an event program which consisted of networking, introductions, brief talk about Dribbble and the need for designers to get on the platform (especially those who aren’t already), guests introducing themselves (name, company, and role), and a Q&A discussion that lasted for 45 minutes on collaboration amongst creatives.
“It was great hearing other designers share experiences and the problems they face with clients and possible solutions. There was also a call for presentations for anyone wanting a portfolio review (Shorts). Shorts from different artists and their process were reviewed. Some were applauded and some inspired designers to bring their A-game even more. We had refreshments and Dribbble swag was given out. This was a great platform to meet other creatives in our community. Shout out to our partners Smart Spaces, Iwazi, Aperturevision, and Beaut/ful Strokes for provifing refreshments amd more Dribbble swag.”
Charlotte, North Carolina @ CapTech Consulting
“Our 8th Dribbble event was titled See It To Believe It and it was all about the value of user research. CapTech Consulting, a national technology firm focusing on digital solutions and customer experience, both sponsored the event and hosted it at their office in Uptown Charlotte to an audience of about 25-30 people. The speaker was CapTech’s own Chris LaCroix, a UX Director from Richmond, Virginia, who focuses on UX design and research. The talk dug into the different types of user research, both primary and secondary, and the value of doing each on a project, along with learning from Chris’ own mistakes along the way, and practical takeaways for performing your own research and testing. CapTech is currently hiring UX Researchers, UX Designers, and Visual Designers for their Charlotte Team!”
Noida, India @ Sparx IT Solutions Private Limited
“All attendees presented their unique ideas and design trends that have inspired them so far. This was a perfect get-together for professional folks to groom their design skills. The whole session comprised topics, including the era of ancient designing, modern design trends, UI/UX & Mobile app design, and design for better conversion and optimization. CSSChopper.co, one of our sponsors was courteous enough to provide snacks and cocktails along with goodies.”
Islamabad, Pakistan @ National Incubation Center
“Our Islamabad Dribbble Meetup 2019 was a hallmark in Pakistan’s design industry where terms like UX/UI Design are still on a nascent stage. Three years back, these terms were non-existent but today at least top brands are thinking about it and slowly changing things. Stippple, a freelance marketplace for designers founded by Roshaan Sheikh, created history by gathering a crowd of 100+ designers from private and government bodies.
“The event kicked off with a talk given by Ms. Momina Latif, Design Lead at Daastan who serves in KeepTruckin. Her talk titled ‘Visual Guftugu’ revolved around how typography can help with effective storytelling and reviving #urdu literature.
“Ms. Shafaq Pervaiz from IDEATE Innovation shared a concept called ‘design for error’ and highlighted the practices in our local industry that need to be changed. Mr. Salman Khan from 3rd World Studios highlighted the importance of showcasing your designs on global platforms and how to discover your talent through his personal journey. Mr. Umair Shafique, Chief Innovation Officer at IDEATE Innovation Mr. Fasieh Mehta and the Program Manager of National Incubation Center spoke about their organizations. The event closed with a performance by Ms. Mehroz Waseem.”
Orlando, Florida @ PRPL HQ
“Thank you all who participated in our 1st Dribbble Meetup of 2019! Daniel and the Sketch App Community team shared their experiences working fully remote, enhancements coming to Sketch 53, and how much the community loves Dark Mode. During an intimate Q&A session, attendants had the opportunity to ask questions about transitioning to Sketch, finding resources, and licensing for larger organizations. This was a unique and exciting way to start the year!”
Malang, Indonesia @ State University of Malang
“This was our first meetup of 2019 and our second time holding it in Malang. The meetup was held by Interaction Design Association (IxDA) Malang in collaboration with Informatics Workshop Research Community (WRI) and Indonesia Design Grafis Association (ADGI) and took place in the State University of Malang. The title of our second meetup was “Visual Element Illustration in User Interface Design”. Two speakers talked on the subject: The first speaker was Rezza Alam, a professional illustrator and the second speaker was Rukma Pratista, founder of Lieur Company (a design agency). Our first speaker talked about how creative thinking works before creating an illustration and the second speaker shared how to implement illustration into a website. The next topic they shared was about the challenges of creating an illustration based on a brief.”
Bhubaneswar, India @ KIIT University
“This was our 5th Dribbble meetup in Bhubaneswar. Two local Startups ‘Slick Account’ and ‘Lecture Notes’ joined us at the meetup to mentor participants on how to build their idea to an actionable design. Attendees formed groups of five and we gave each group a few problems for them to solve. They all came up with a beautiful design in five hours. We had a great time at the meetup.”
Khulna, Bangladesh
“This was Khulna’s very first Dribbble Meetup in 2019. The event was a great success, with around 50 people attending. We gathered the small design community in Khulna under one roof to chat, mingle, and network. We began with a round of introductions, where everybody spoke about themselves and how Dribbble is helpful to them in their professions.”
Meetups
The following Dribbble Meetups are happening soon. For the full list of upcoming meetups, visit our Meetups page.
Find more Meetups stories on our blog Courtside. Have a suggestion? Contact stories@dribbble.com.
