Although the design community as a whole can seem quite large—especially online—it’s very tight knit, and closer than you might imagine. Discovering the right people to follow, become friends with, and continue discussions with, can help your chances of finding a good job, as well as help you keep learning as a designer.
Use the following platforms to discover designers to follow and engage with:
Platforms like Dribbble and Behance can provide you with great inspiration for upcoming projects, and help you gain a sense of your own design style. You also have the opportunity to engage with your “design heroes” by viewing their work and commenting on it.
Twitter takes that engagement a step further, and allows you to engage in direct conversations with designers you admire. Designer News can help you stay up to date on various topics, trends, and elements of design.
Design-specific Slack channels provide a wider network of people you might want to engage with, learn from, and share content with. While these are slightly more time-consuming to be a part of, you never know how a connection from one of them might lead to a future endeavor.