graphicdesignforums.co.uk is a UK based forum providing graphic designers the opportunity to provide each other with peer to peer support and general chat. The forum founder Damon Trasatti was kind enough to answer some questions about the how he started driving traffic to the forum, advice he would give to others looking to get started and his plans for the future.

Could you provide a bit of information about yourself?

I have always had an interest in design starting back in the late 80s with the graffiti scene and the early 90s when I studied graphic design. Although not pursuing this as a career initially, I later fell into work within the printing sector and took the move to start my own print company Stationery Direct, which offers graphic design, leaflets, letterheads, business cards and other printed products. My involvement with Stationery Direct and in particular the ‘Design for print’ part of the business re-ignited my interest in design.

Why did you start the Graphic Design Forums in the first place and did you have any specific aims when you launched?

I had visited many forums with a need on occasion to seek advice from fellow designers, however, I found that the quality of these forums was poor; very clique and un-friendly, too generic, US based and full of spam.As a result I wanted to create a friendly place where UK graphic and website designers and people generally interested in design could come to ask for help, offer advice, make some friends and maybe pick up a job or 2 in the process.

As well as above and to be perfectly honest my second reason for the forum was to create a place where the target market for my printing company would frequent, however, as time has gone on and the popularity of the forum has grown…I decided that advertising to our members was not something I was going to ‘force down their throats’ so to speak.

How did you go about getting people to use the forum, and was there one moment you can look back on and say that is when it took off or was it a gradual build up?

Starting a forum is such a difficult task, I know after failing once before! It’s a catch 22 situation, unless you have members and lots of threads already in discussion there is no reason for anyone to join up and post, without these people joining up and posting you won’t have any threads and discussion. So it was a long and evolving process where I would initiate posts in the hope that people would take the time to join and reply, in time and with a lot of perseverance and luck this is exactly what has happened.

We ran a competition back in 2010 where we offered thousands of pounds worth of design- orientated prizes, including Adobe Creative Suite, this was advertised on twitter/facebook and other websites and brought many new users to the forum, I would say from this point on the forum slowly took off.

Why did you make the decision to only allow UK IP addresses access to the forum?

This wasn’t a difficult decision to take, I have frequented many forums over the years and 3 of the most annoying issues for me are Spam, poorly written English and topics or advice that do not relate to me living in the UK. By restricting IP’s to solely UK based has eliminated 99% of spam and ensures all topics and advice are relevant to our UK based members.

This however is the reason that the forum has grown more slowly than others, not only is it a niche subject but we are also essentially barring users from the rest of the world from participating. There are many other graphic and website design forums with thousands of members and posts but the volume of spam and the rubbish on them is what differentiates them from us, the majority of posts on our forum are of use and relevant to designers in the UK…quality not quantity.

What advice would you give to someone looking to set up their own forum?

Be patient, expect to spend many hours initiating threads and discussion and don’t be too disappointed if it fails, my first forum attempt failed miserably, it really isn’t easy.

How do you see the forum developing in the coming years and what part do you think social media will play?

We have recently completed the design of a new logo and skin for the forum, along with an upgrade to the latest version of vBulletin. Our continued investment and the new ideas we have planned for the future will hopefully make the forum the place to be for anyone based in the UK interested in design.

We also do our best to create awareness of the forum by taking the time to write articles such as this and by contacting other design related websites, most realise that the forum is a great resource and are accommodating and help with exposure, be it a mention on twitter to their member base or a direct link from their website. We must say a thanks to them for their support and also to our regular members who take the time to advise on all manner of design related questions, if it wasn’t for them the forum would not have done as well as it has.

In terms of social media this is definitely going to be a major factor in the forum’s continued growth and we now have twitter and facebook pages which are continuing to grow and as a result attracting more forum members, don’t forget to give us a follow.

Are there any resources on the internet you use that you would recommend for beginners and advanced designers?

There are many, but deciding which to recommend solely depends on what is specifically required. I would suggest posting any questions you may have on our forum and see what our experienced members have to say; if they don’t have the answers they will certainly point you in the right direction.