The online design and illustration community is plagued by a self-serving eagerness to praise work not necessarily because of its quality, but because of who made it. Much like the increasing disparity between the wealthy and poor, a relative minority of oft-praised creatives are covered time and again, relegating other talented individuals to the fringes. Superficial measures of “success”, such as follower counts, likes, and hearts are a slow poison that only encourage an inadvertent exclusion of the creative majority. Absolving ourselves of this poison isn’t easy, but reassessing the importance we bestow upon trivial numbers and being more mindful of their impact is absolutely within our means.

By Alex Griendling / Blog / Twitter