Research on Art Community Platforms

Here you can find different websites similar to our art community platform project. For each website, brief explanations about the content and noteworthy features are provided. Aim of this research activity is to make ourselves familiar with structure and organization of online art community platforms, and have an idea about what we can develop.

Arthibition

About

• Arthibition is an online art gallery for portraying the Iranian visual artworks aiming to familiarize the world with Iranian art style. Users can enjoy the easy access to Iranian artworks without facing any problem at our online gallery. Arthibition supports the art auctions, galleries, contests and exhibitions through providing the best facilities for showing all works online and informing the art lovers about these events in two languages.
• Arthibition established in 2014 aimed at connecting talented artists, art collectors and galleries to the art lovers and buyers all cross the world who value Iranian arts and artworks.

Features

• Users can search for an art item by specifying the category, technique, style, subject, price and size. It's also possible to make search by name. Artists are listed under the "Artists" section. We are able to search artists by name, or filter our search by selecting specific categories.
• Each artwork is presented with a identification number, category, technique, material, date created, dimensions and edition. Webpages of artists are provided with a brief biography, description and list of artworks.
• While scrolling over an art item, it provides a magnifying glass to zoom over it.
• Arthibition works with different galleries and informs the users about the upcoming exhibitions. Also artists can sell their items on this platform.
• You can create a profile on Arthibition as an Artist, Gallery, Collector, or Art Enthusiast.

Note

• In contrast to the website we examined during our meeting, it provides different registration systems for artists, galleries, collectors and art enthusiasts. Because of that an art enthusiast cannot contribute to the artworks present in the system. I believe this is a good example to show the difference between such concepts. Arthibition is somewhat a more boutique place for artists to show their artworks.

Karahan Sarıtaş

KUNSTMATRIX Art.Spaces

About

• KUNSTMATRIX is a tool that enables artists to create 3D showcases, virtual exhibitions and art installations.
• With their services, one can digitally present their art pieces, manage their art and promote to customers or organize public virtual exhibitions.
• They have 4 main tools: Art.Depot, Art.Spaces, Art.Augmented and Art.Office

Art.Depot

This is a database that enables artists to organize and categorize their art items. It also provides a complete overview of their portfolio.

Art.Space

This tool helps users to create their high-quality 3D virtual exhibitions of their art. These exhibitions can also be shared and embedded into artists website or blog. They have a wide range of virtual architectural spaces. Users can also customize their exhibition spaces such as selecting the color of the walls etc.

Art.Augmented

This is an application for IOS and Android devices. Users can present their art and exhibitions wherever they want to present and share. They just need to download the application and stick the 2d-barcode to the places where the augmented reality presentation going to take place.

Art.Office

This tool enables users to have easy sales management, organizing contacts and noting information on customers.

Features

• Besides the main tools, on this website one can easily search for an artist, an exhibitor, an exhibition itself or an art piece. One can visit the virtual exhibitions.
• Without logining in, one can send a request for an artwork to the artist and offer a price, then they can be informed by the artist about the price.
• They have great "How to" tutorials for the users.
• Free version of the service includes only 10 artwork at a time without public exhibition. Professional package includes 500 artworks and 50 public 3D exhibitions for 60 USD/Month. For further information pricing should be checked.

Notes

• It should be considered that this project is serving tools rather than an interactive community platform. It mainly aims ease of business management for artists by additionally providing virtual promoting.

Serdar Akol

Doodle Addicts

About

• Doodle Addicts is a popular art community for illustrators, painters, lettering artists and more. It has reached 30.000 artists by providing martketplace where artists can sell their items, resources which artists benefit from, art discussions, and drawing challenges.
• Artists can also be hired if they are available for hire.

Features

• There is a plus membership which costs $5/month and provides unlimited uploads, weekly drawing prompts, "Hire Me" badge, priority placement, no ads, selling art, personalized dashboard, project features, red mark next to the artist name.
• Trending, most recent shared, most favorite, most viewed, or curated galeries can be followed in the section od Discover Art.
• Drawing challenges are organized to make artists improve their skills and the winner is selected by voting of users.
• Drawings can be seen without signing up, but you have to register to follow artists, vote in drawing challenges etc.
• Artists can be searched by name,skill, or location.
• Searching an item on marketplace is also done by all prints, custom, originals, other, stickers, t-shirts, and zines categories.
• Resources includes guide for beginner artists how to draw in a specific type.
• In art discussion section, a discussion starts with the question of any user. You have to be a user to leave a comment on it.
• Users can also share news or create blogs in News + Blog section.

Notes

• Features are similar to those we discussed at latest meeting except plus membership. In Doodle Addicts, I think plus membership is somehow necessary to become more active. Otherwise, users can just discover artworks, upload limited items, participate in drawing challenges, and comment on artworks. Also, when we check most popular artists, most of them are plus members.

Sinem Koçoğlu

Artmajeur

About

• Artmajeur is an online art platform which links artists with art lovers and buyers. But it isn't just an art shop. It's also a vibrant community of artists who create, make, and stitch the arts. They can also meet art critics, art lovers and other people working in the art market to discuss culture and inquire about major exhibitions.

Features

• Users can create a profile as an artist, an art lover or a multi-artist account such as an art gallery, an art agent etc.
• There is an art gallery tab which you can browse galleries. Each gallery has information about the artists, presentation page which contains an introduction to the gallery and the location of the gallery, artworks page where you can view the artworks and it's reviews.
• Users can leave a comment on the artwork or share it on a different platform.
• It has a built-in search feature which is an AI-powered visual searchIt also has intelligent filters and geographic search.
• Users can also browse exclusive collections and Art majeur magazine.

Notes

• The site doesn't have a forum function or any way to provide discussions about art since the comment section is also barely used.
• The site doesn't have bidding options or exhibitions and the user system is different in contrast to what we've discussed about the project.

Serhat Hebun Şimşek

Eames Fine Art

About

• eamesfineart.com is the website of Eames Fine Art Gallery and Eames Fine Art Print Room located in London, England.
• They are accepting modern and contemporary works from all over the world.

Features

• Website has detailed artist profiles which you can examine his/her works with their prices , exhibitions and publications.
• You can buy art works from website without using another website or application.
• Website has a blog that consists of reviews, curations and Q&A sessions with artists.
• Search results contain artist names, works, exhibitions... everything you can get from the website.

Note

• It's not a collaborative platform, but it has a perfect front-end design that inspire our design ideas.

Doğukan Türksoy

Artstation

About

• ArtStation is a website where users may share and discover art. It has over a million members and reaches over 150 countries across the world, making it an ideal platform for artists to share their work with the world while also receiving inspiration from other artists.
• On the same site, artists may post unique artwork and share it with the world, as well as examine intriguing works by other artists.

Features

• ArtStation is a fantastic resource for both professional and amateur digital artists, with several membership levels that allow you to share your work in whatever way you wish.
• You may give artworks that you like a 'Thumbs Up,' which is similar to a Facebook-like feature. ArtStation, on the other hand, does not allow you to leave comments on artworks or contact directly with other artists.
• The ArtStation Forums are brimming with creative artists who want to help and encourage one another by providing criticism on their work and teaming up to enter contests.
• Users subscribe to and follow certain users they like to see new artworks emerge in their feed every day and to receive notifications when they upload new pieces.
• On the site, there are several courses covering anything from sculpting to digital painting to sketching manga characters.

Note

• Artstation offers various capabilities that our system must have as well, such as photo uploading, forum discussion, and art sales. There are a lot of similarities, however, you can't comment on artworks and it doesn't have an "exhibition" element. The most intriguing aspect is that the website also has an instructional section for newcomers.

Metehan Dündar

EyeEm

About

• EyeEm is a global art community focused on photography, which aims to connect engaged creators with leading brands to provide original content. This platform connects 8 million creators at the moment with brands.
• The web and mobile applications are available in English and German.
• The photographers can sell their art and the brands can find original photos or book a photoshoot if they can't find the image they wanted.

Features

• Users can view photos published by photographers without registering, they can search for photos with words and filter or sort their search with different criteria such as the format of the image, min. resolution, color, number of people, releases, date published and price.
• Users can join the community as a photographer, sell their photos, get booked for shoots, and also get awarded with EyeEm awards and join EyeEm awards exhibitions.
• A brand can view the photos published by all photographers and license photos.
• There is an EyeEm magazine feature that serves as a digital magazine, in which different articles about photography, exhibitions are published.
• The community arranges photo weeks with 32.000 visitors and world-class artists.
• There are also visual trends reports every year, which guides brands through their licensing process and helps them to stay relevant.

Note

• This platform focuses on only photography while our art community platform aims to create a more diverse community.
• With respect to content that the artist added to the EyeEm market, the artist grants to EyeEm the non-exclusive, transferable right to offer such content for licensing through Eyeem and our distribution partners worldwide.
• If third parties are interested in licensing exclusive rights, EyeEm will ask the artist separately for his/hers consent and will therefore contact the artist.

Sena Mumcu

Instagram

About

• Although no introduction is needed; Instagram is a free photo and video sharing app available on iPhone and Android.

Features & Notes

• It has a very good example of user-artist identification, similar to our app. Anyone can view or share their art and get verified if they reach a certain level of recognition.
• It also has similar comment features to discuss specific art items.
• Although I am unclear about the annotation feature, the save option is a good example of bookmarking, for work one may want to go back to in the future.
• The advanced recommendation and geotagging features are also very similar.

Elif Bayraktar

Etsy

About

• Etsy is a global online marketplace, where people come together to make, sell, buy, and collect unique items. We’re also a community pushing for positive change for small businesses, people, and the planet.
• There’s no Etsy warehouse – just millions of people selling the things they love. We make the whole process easy, helping you connect directly with makers to find something extraordinary.

Features & Notes

• Although ETSY is not necessarily an art platform, it has some features similar to what we want to implement.
• This is a global online marketplace for unique items. Even though you can find all kinds of different things here, it is mostly geared towards small businesses where independent people sell handcrafted items. So even though not all of it can be called art there is usually a creative effort involved.
• The feature that is similar to our project is the selling one. Here artists (e.g. painters) can sell their artwork independent of any gallery. Anyone can sell (or buy) both the original or the ready-to-print copies of their artwork.

Elif Bayraktar

MasterWorks

About

• Masterworks is the first platform for buying and selling shares representing an investment in iconic artworks. Build a diversified portfolio of iconic works of art curated by our industry-leading research team.
• Our research team uses our proprietary data to determine which artist markets have the most momentum.
• Our acquisitions team locates what we believe is a good piece, at a fair price, and we purchase the work.
• We file an offering circular with the Securities and Exchange Commission allowing anyone to invest.
• Wait until we sell the painting to receive your pro rata proceeds, after our fees or you have the option to seek to sell your shares on our first of its kind secondary market that enables you to buy and sell shares directly to and from other investors.

Features & Notes

• Although this app does not necessarily have a similar purpose to ours it has some great and interesting features, which could add a lot.
• This website lets you buy and sell shares of iconic artworks. As an alternative to NFT’s which are gaining a lot of popularity.
• This is a more environmentally friendly option as the NFT’s have a very high carbon footprint. It makes investing in art more reachable for small scale investors. It is also very profitable for both the sellers and the buyers.
• Here a knowledgeable team of experts decide on which artworks are a good investment, perhaps in our project we could make use of the popularity data to make recommendations.
• Although we are not at the point in the project to come up with additional feature ideas, I thought this was a good one to keep in mind.

Elif Bayraktar

OpenSea

About

• OpenSea is the world's first and largest NFT marketplace where you can buy and sell digital artworks and products via nft tokens.
• OpenSea build tools that allow consumers to trade their items freely, creators to launch new digital works, and developers to build rich, integrated marketplaces for their digital items.

Features & Notes

• OpenSea has a nice and simple interface that we definitely aim to achieve.
• In OpenSea you can browse by category. This is one of the systems we are considering to build our tagging system on.
• There is a trending section in the website so that you can see the most popular and in demand art pieces.
• It has a wide range of art categories from photography to music, sports to experience.
• It has a ranking system essentially similar to our level system, which ranks collections by their market volume.
• You can see the entire trading history of an art piece from creation to the last owner.
• Even though NFTs are intrinsically connected to cryptos you do not necessarily need them. You just bring what you have and they will make it work.
• Users and partners can create NFTs for free at any time. However, OpenSea charges a small fee for every transaction that happens on OpenSea.

Furkan Keskin