DeviantArt
 | |
 | |
Type of site | Art display/Social networking service |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Owner | Wix.com |
| Created by | Scott Jarkoff, Matthew Stephens, Angelo Sotira, and others |
| Website | DeviantArt.com |
Alexa rank |  165 (June 2018[update])[1] |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | August 7, 2000 (2000-08-07) |
| Current status | Active |
DeviantArt (deviantART from August 7, 2000 to December 3, 2014, abbreviated "DA" by members) is an online artwork, videography and photography community. The website was launched on August 7, 2000, by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, Matthew Stephens and others. Artworks are organized in a category structure, including photography, digital art, traditional art, literature, Flash, filmmaking, skins for applications, operating system customization utilities and others, along with downloadable resources such as tutorials and stock photography. Additional features include "journals", "polls", "groups" and "portfolios".
DeviantArt, Inc. is headquartered in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States.[2]Fella, a small, devil-esque robotic character, was the official mascot of the website until 2014.[3] The domain deviantart.com had at least 36 million visitors annually by 2008.[4] By 2010, DeviantArt users were submitting over 1.4 million "favorites" and 1.5 million comments daily.[5] As of July 2011[update], it was the 13th largest social network with 3.8 million weekly visits.[6] As of January 2017[update], the site had over 26 million members and 251 million submissions.[7] On February 23, 2017, the company announced it was being acquired by Wix.com in a $36 million deal.[8] In 2018, Deviantart announced another redesign, currently titled "Eclipse".
Contents
1 History
1.1 Copyright and licensing issues
1.2 Contests for companies and academia
2 Website
2.1 Versions
2.1.1 Eclipse (Version 9)
3 Feature before other social media
4 Live events
4.1 deviantART Summit
4.2 deviantART World Tour
4.3 "Birthday Bashes" and deviantMEET
5 References
6 External links
History
DeviantArt started as a site connected with people who took computer applications and modified them to their own tastes, or who "deviated" the applications from the original designs. As the site grew, members in general became known as "deviants" and submissions as "deviations".[9][10] DeviantArt was originally launched on August 7, 2000, by Scott Jarkoff, Matt Stephens, Angelo Sotira and others, as part of a larger network of music-related websites called the Dmusic Network. The site flourished largely because of its unique offering and the contributions of its core member base and a team of volunteers after its launch,[11] but was officially incorporated in 2001 about eight months after launch.[12]
DeviantArt was loosely inspired by projects like Winamp facelift, customize.org, deskmod.com, screenphuck.com, and skinz.org, all application skin-based websites. Sotira entrusted all public aspects of the project to Scott Jarkoff as an engineer and visionary to launch the early program. All three co-founders shared backgrounds in the application skinning community, but it was Matt Stephens whose major contribution to DeviantArt was the suggestion to take the concept further than skinning and more toward an "art community". Many of the individuals involved with the initial development and promotion of DeviantArt still hold positions with the project, from administrators to volunteers serving as gallery directors and Message Network Administration. Angelo Sotira currently serves as the chief executive officer of DeviantArt, Inc.[12][13][14]
On November 14, 2006, DeviantArt gave its users the option to submit their works under Creative Commons licenses giving the artists the right to choose how their works can be used.[15] A Creative Commons license is one of several public copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works. On September 30, 2007, a film category was added to DeviantArt, allowing artists to upload videos. An artist and other viewers can add annotations to sections of the film, giving comments or critiques to the artist about a particular moment in the film.[16] In 2007, DeviantArt received $3.5 million in Series A (first round) funding from undisclosed investors,[17] and in 2013, it received $10 million in Series B funding.[18]
On December 4, 2014, the site unveiled a new logo and announced the release of an official mobile app on both iOS and Android[19] to be released on December 10, 2014.[20]
On February 23, 2017, DeviantArt was acquired by Wix.com, Inc. for $36 million. The site plans to integrate DeviantArt and Wix functionality, including the ability to utilize DA resources on websites built with Wix, and integrating some of Wix's design tools into the site.[21]
As of March 1, 2017, DeviantArt banned Syria from accessing its services entirely citing US and Israeli sanctions and aftermath, on February 19, 2018, Syrian user "Mythiril" used a VPN to access the site and disclose the geoblocking in a journal "the Hypocrisy of Deviantart" that sparked a public outcry across Deviantart and other sites. DeviantArt eventually ended the geoblocking except for commercial features.[22]
Copyright and licensing issues
There is no review for potential copyright and Creative Commons licensing violations when a work is submitted to DeviantArt, so potential violations can remain unnoticed until reported to administrators using the mechanism available for such issues.[23] Some members of the community have been the victims of copyright infringement from vendors using artwork illegally on products and prints, as reported in 2007.[24][25] The reporting system in which to counteract copyright infringement directly on the site has been subject to a multitude of criticism from members of the site, given that it may take weeks, or even a month before a filed complaint for copyright infringement is answered.
Contests for companies and academia
Due to the nature of DeviantArt as an art community with worldwide reach, companies use DeviantArt to promote themselves and create more advertising through contests. CoolClimate is a research network connected with the University of California, and they held a contest in 2012 to address the impact of climate change. Worldwide submissions were received, and the winner was featured in The Huffington Post.[26]
Various car companies have held contests. Dodge ran a contest in 2012 for art of the Dodge Dart and over 4,000 submissions were received.[27] Winners received cash and item prizes, and were featured in a gallery at Dodge-Chrysler headquarters.[28]Lexus partnered with DeviantArt in 2013 to run a contest for cash and other prizes based on their Lexus IS design; the winner's design became a modified Lexus IS and was showcased at the SEMA 2013 show in Los Angeles, California.[29]
DeviantArt also hosts contests for upcoming movies, such as Riddick. Fan art for Riddick was submitted, and director David Twohy chose the winners, who would receive cash prizes and some other DeviantArt-related prizes, as well as having their artwork made into official fan-art posters for events.[30][31] A similar contest was held for Dark Shadows where winners received cash and other prizes.[32][33]
Video games also conduct contests with DeviantArt, such as the 2013 Tomb Raider contest. The winner had their art made into an official print sold internationally at the Tomb Raider store, and received cash and other prizes. Other winners also received cash and DeviantArt-related prizes.[34]
Website
The site has over 358 million images which have been uploaded by its over 35 million registered members.[35] By July 2011, DeviantArt was the largest online art community.[36] Members of DeviantArt may leave comments and critiques on individual deviation pages,[37][38] allowing the site to be called "a [free] peer evaluation application".[39] Along with textual critique, DeviantArt now offers the option to leave a small picture as a comment.[40] This can be achieved using an option of DeviantArt Muro, which is a browser-based drawing tool that DeviantArt has developed and hosts. Although only members of DeviantArt can save their work as deviations. Another feature of Muro is what is called "Redraw"; it records the user as they draw their image, and then the user can post the entire process as a film deviation.[41] Some artists in late 2013 began experimenting with the use of breakfast cereal as the subject of their pieces, although this trend has only started spreading.[42]
Individual deviations are displayed on their own pages, with a list of statistical information about the image, as well as place for comments by the artist and other members, and the option to share through other social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).[43] Deviations are required to be organized into categories when a member uploads an image and this allows DeviantArt's search engine to find images concerning similar topics.[44]
Individual members can organize their own deviations into folders on their personal pages.[39] The member pages (profiles) show a member's personally uploaded deviations and journal postings.[45] Journals are like personal blogs for the member pages, and the choice of topic is up to each member; some use it to talk about their personal or art-related lives, others use it to spread awareness or marshal support for a cause.[46] Also displayed are a member's "favorites", a collection of other users' images from DeviantArt that a member saves to its own folder.[47] Another thing found on the profile page is a member's "watchers"; a member adds another member to their "watch list" in order to be notified when that member uploads something.[46] The watcher notifications are gathered in a member's Message Center with other notices, like when other users comment on that member's deviations, or when the member's image has been put in someone's favorites.[46]
In order to communicate on a more private level, "Notes" can be sent between individual members, like an email within the site.[46] The other opportunities for communication between members are DeviantArt's forums, for more structured, long-term discussions, and chatrooms, for group instant messaging.[48]
Versions
DeviantArt has been revising the website in "versions", with each version releasing multiple new features. The third, fourth and fifth versions of the site were all released on August 7, the "birthday" of the website's founding.[citation needed]
| Version | Release | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | August 7, 2000 | Site goes public as part of Dmusic Network. |
| 2 | February 5, 2002 | In version 2, browsing was made easier.[49] |
| 3 | August 7, 2003 | The "extreme speed and reliability increase" was accompanied by some bugs that had to be fixed.[50] For the release of version 3, there were numerous free giveaways.[51] |
| 4 | August 7, 2004 | In version 4, the chat client called dAmn was added to the site.[52] |
| 5 | August 7, 2006 | In version 5, each deviant has a Prints account, through which they may sell prints of their works for money, receiving 20% of the profits.[clarification needed] Users can also obtain Premium Prints Account offering 50% of the profits and an immediate check of material submitted for sales. Before version 5 of DeviantArt, users did not have by default access to this service and it had to be obtained separately. By paying for a subscription, a deviant could also sell their work for 50% of each sale.[53] |
| 6 | July 10, 2008 | In this revision, the message center, front page and footer were revamped. Users are now able to customize the DeviantArt navigation toolbar. The design style of the site was slightly modified as well.[54] |
| 6.1 | Early 2009 | In this revision, there is a slight change of design and easier search options. Users are given more options to customize their profiles, and stacks are added to message center later in 2010. |
| 7 | May 18, 2010 | Features a new smaller header design and removal of search bar except on home page. The staff later made updates to Version 7, including a search bar to every page. |
| 8 | October 15, 2014 (updated December 4, 2014) | Re-styled header, removal of the large footer, updated browsing interface, addition of "watch feed", a news feed containing a summary of postings by watched users, status updates, and additions to user collections. |
Eclipse (Version 9)
In beginning of November, DeviantArt released new promo site that show a new feature for upcoming site update known as "Eclipse" in term of giving a new minimal redesign: Featuring dark mode, an modified CSS, making easier for "deviants" to edit such like journals, New additional benefits for Core membership (20% Discount of print and submit film) Profile Header, No third-party Advertisement and Love Meter, an feature show more artwork based on your tastes [55] as well as some improvement such like Search and notifications.
In November 14, 2018, Administrator of DeviantArt, danlev released of journal for all beta tester to test the new site.[56] In total, there over 4,000 user tried Eclipse, 1,700 feedback, 407 bug reports, 532 feature request and 748 pieces of general commentary.[57] It is still currently available for beta tester.
It received mostly mixed responses as user biggest complain is removal of Custom Box, an Widget that only allow user who have Core (DeviantArt Membership) to customize, using CSS and HTML which the reason for user to buy Core Membership.
DeviantArt are currently working on new customization and personalization options.[58]
Feature before other social media
Along with the version upgrades, there have been numerous features that DeviantArt was using before other social websites. Co-founder Angelo Sotira shared these in an interview:[40]
| Innovations | DeviantArt launched it in... | Other networks (year founded) |
|---|---|---|
| A messaging center that tracks and highlights community interactions | 2000 | Facebook, 2004 |
| Galleries for photos, artworks, and videos | 2000 | YouTube, 2005 |
| Personalized, blingable profiles | 2000 | Myspace, 2003 |
| Default subdomains (yourname.DeviantArt.com) | 2000 | Tumblr, 2007 |
| Small square 50x50 avatar icons | 2000 | Twitter, 2006 |
| Crowdsourced emoticons | 2001 | Friendster, 2002 |
| Thumbnail images with drop shadows | 2002 | Flickr, 2004 |
| CSS-based layout (no HTML tables) | 2003 | Most online networks |
| Tools for commenting in pictures rather than words | 2010 | Tegaki, 2008 |
Live events
The Hollywood Palladium while hosting the first deviantART Summit
World Tour meet in Toronto in 2007
deviantART Summit
On June 17 and 18, 2005, DeviantArt held their first convention, the deviantART Summit, at the Palladium in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States. The summit consisted of several exhibitions by numerous artists, including artscene groups old and new at about 200 different booths. Giant projection screens displayed artwork as it was being submitted live to DeviantArt, which was receiving 50,000 new images daily at the time.
deviantART World Tour
Starting May 13, 2009, DeviantArt embarked on a world tour, visiting cities around the world, including Sydney, Singapore, Warsaw, Istanbul, Berlin, Paris, London, New York City, Toronto and Los Angeles. During the world tour, the new "Portfolio" feature of DeviantArt was previewed to attendees.[59][60]
"Birthday Bashes" and deviantMEET
Occasionally, DeviantArt hosts a meeting for members to come together in real life and interact, exchange, and have fun. There have been meetings for the birthday of DeviantArt, called "Birthday Bashes", as well as simple general get-togethers around the world. In 2010, European DeviantArt members held a deviantMEET to celebrate DeviantArt's birthday in August.[61] There was also a celebration that year in the House of Blues in Hollywood, California.[62]
References
^ "DeviantArt.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved June 26, 2018..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ "DeviantArt, Inc." Businessweek Investing. Accessed November 9, 2008.
^ "Official Fella file by $devart on DeviantArt". Devart.deviantart.com. February 21, 2007. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
^ "DeviantArt attracts almost 40m visitors online yearly". Siteanalytics.compete.com. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
^ "DeviantArt 10th Birthday Bash at House of Blues – Angelo Sotira's Closing Speech PT 2".
^ Matt Rosoff (July 27, 2011). "These 19 Social Networks Are Bigger Than Google+". Businessinsider.com. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
^ "DeviantArt – Job Board".
^ Lunden, Ingrid. "Website builder Wix acquires art community DeviantArt for $36M". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
^ Perkel, Daniel. "Making Art, Creating Infrastructure: DeviantArt and the Production of the Web". Berkeley CA. Retrieved September 28, 2012. p.29
^ "DeviantArt FAQ - What is a deviation?". Retrieved April 27, 2015.
^ Angelo Sotira (April 10, 2003). "spyed's DeviantArt Journal". Retrieved December 22, 2007.
^ ab Cyan Banister. "TechCrunch".
^ "deviantArt: About DeviantArt's Team Core". Retrieved December 21, 2007.
^ "News: TMD: 10 X 10". News.deviantart.com. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
^ "News: New Submission Process... LIVE!". Retrieved December 21, 2007.
^ "News: Now Playing: DeviantArt Film!". Retrieved December 21, 2007.
^ Kaplan, David (June 22, 2007). "Online Art Community DeviantArt Secures $3.5 Million In First Round". Paidcontent.org.
^ "DeviantArt Recent Milestones". Crunchbase.
^ "With Its New App, DeviantArt Finally Has A Mobile Place For Those 65 Million Monthly Visitors". Fast Company.
^ "Boldly Facing The Future". spyed's journal. deviantArt. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
^ "Website builder Wix acquires art community DeviantArt for $36M". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
^ "The hypocrisy of DeviantArt". DeviantARt. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
^ "FAQ #155: How do I report a submission which I think breaks the rules? on DeviantArt Help and FAQ". Retrieved January 8, 2008.
^ "Art Theft Scandals Rock deviantArt". PlagiarismToday. May 29, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
^ Weber, Sarah (May 5, 2014). "DeviantART clarifies it doesn't sell artists' work after Hot Topic shirt debacle". The Daily Dot. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
^ "Christos Lamprianidis: CoolClimate Art Contest Winner: What Motivated Me". Huffingtonpost.com. October 7, 2010. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
^ "Dodge Dart looks to score during NFL opener – Direct Marketing News". Dmnews.com. September 5, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
^ "Dodge Dart Inspired By You Contest by Moonbeam13 on deviantART". DeviantArt.com. April 17, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
^ "Lexus IS Design Contest by Moonbeam13 on deviantART". Moonbeam13.deviantart.com. July 12, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
^ "Riddick 'Rule the Dark' Winners by Moonbeam13 on deviantART". Moonbeam13.deviantart.com. August 29, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
^ "The Riddick 'Rule the Dark Fan Art Contest' by Moonbeam13 on deviantART". Moonbeam13.deviantart.com. July 18, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
^ "Dark Shadows: The Barnabas Portrait Project by Moonbeam13 on deviantART". Moonbeam13.deviantart.com. April 9, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
^ "The Barnabas Portrait Project Winners Announcement by Moonbeam13 on deviantART". Moonbeam13.deviantart.com. May 11, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
^ "Tomb Raider Reborn Contest by Ayame-Kenoshi on deviantART". Ayame-kenoshi.deviantart.com. February 1, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
^ "DeviantArt.com". Retrieved December 7, 2015.
^ Salah, Alkim; Bart Buter, Nick Dijkshoorn, Davide Modolo, Quang Nguyen, Sander van Noort, Bart van de Poel, AlbertAli Salah (July 2011). "Explorative Visualization and Analysis of a Social Network for the Arts: The Case of DeviantArt". Journal of Convergence 2 (1): 1–9. Retrieved September 24, 2012. p.1
^ Mccreight, Brian M.. "A Comparison of Peer Evaluation: The Evaluation App versus DeviantArt". Purdue University. Retrieved September 28, 2012. p.32
^ Perkel, Daniel. "Making Art, Creating Infrastructure: DeviantArt and the Production of the Web". Berkeley CA. Retrieved September 28, 2012. p.33
^ ab Mccreight, Brian M.. "A Comparison of Peer Evaluation: The Evaluation App versus DeviantArt". Purdue University. Retrieved September 28, 2012. p.33
^ ab Wang, Jennifer (2-24-2011). "THE DEVIANT EXPERIENCE". Entrepreneur 39 (2): 22–28.
ISSN 0163-3341. Retrieved November 24, 2012. p.27
^ Zukerman, Erez. "Sketch, Paint, and Share Online for Free with DeviantArt Muro". PCWorld. Retrieved October 6, 2012.
^ Reinstein, S.T. (2013). Trends in Postmoderish Art (& the Procurers thereof). New York: Penguin. ISBN 0385376936.
^ Mccreight, Brian M.. "A Comparison of Peer Evaluation: The Evaluation App versus DeviantArt". Purdue University. Retrieved September 28, 2012. p.34
^ Perkel, Daniel. "Making Art, Creating Infrastructure: DeviantArt and the Production of the Web". Berkeley CA. Retrieved September 28, 2012. p.34-37
^ Perkel, Daniel. "Making Art, Creating Infrastructure: deviantART and the Production of the Web". Berkeley CA. Retrieved September 28, 2012. p.31,34
^ abcd Perkel, Daniel. "Making Art, Creating Infrastructure: DeviantArt and the Production of the Web". Berkeley CA. Retrieved September 28, 2012. p.34
^ Perkel, Daniel. "Making Art, Creating Infrastructure: DeviantArt and the Production of the Web". Berkeley CA. Retrieved September 28, 2012. p34
^ Perkel, Daniel. "Making Art, Creating Infrastructure: DeviantArt and the Production of the Web". Berkeley CA. Retrieved September 28, 2012. p.35
^ "News: OMG OMG OMG". February 5, 2002. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
^ jark (August 31, 2003). "DAv3 September Status Update, Bug Fixes and More". deviantart.com. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
^ "News: deviantArt Passes The Terrible Twos, Turns Three!". Retrieved December 21, 2007.
^ "News: deviantART v4; Fournando be dAmned". News.deviantart.com. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
^ Angelo Sotira. "Spyed's DeviantArt Journal: deviantART v5 Release Notes". Retrieved December 21, 2007.
^ DeviantArt, Inc. "News: deviantArt Version 6". Retrieved July 10, 2008.
^ "DeviantArt Eclipse | DEVIATIONS". DeviantArt Eclipse. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
^ "BETA TEST: DeviantArt Eclipse". DeviantArt. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
^ "Thank You for Your Feedback on Eclipse!". DeviantArt. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
^ "Eclipse Change Log: November 28, 2018". DeviantArt. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
^ DeviantArt (May 8, 2009). "deviantART World Tour 2009".
^ DeviantArt. "#hq on deviantArt".
^ "Browsing DeviantMEETS on deviantART". DeviantArt.com. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
^ "deviantART's 10th BirthdAy Bash! Party with us! by Heidi on deviantART". Heidi.deviantart.com. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
External links
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to DeviantArt. |
- Official website
