Tight-knit. Awesome. Artastic: Share your Art on Shadowness!

On Valentine’s Day 2011, the ninth version of the art community Shadowness.com was launched. To find out more about the person and the website, I interviewed its founder, designer and coder of the site, Meng To.

Mike: Meng, could you briefly introduce yourself?

Meng: I'm a user interface designer/developer. I've been doing this for as long as 10 years and Shadowness has been my main inspiration for all my works and growth. I love art myself -- I do graphic design and photography as a hobby.

Mike: How would you describe Shadowness and how does it set itself apart from other communities?

Meng: Shadowness is very tight-knit, with a focus on selective art and highly customizable unlike many other art communities out there. We deeply integrated Facebook connect and their social plugins. Finally, people on SN, as we affectionally call it, are very friendly, active and extremely responsive to comments. They thrive on constructive feedback.

Mike: You've just launched version 9 of Shadowness. How would you describe its development over the years and what are the unique features of this version?

Meng: Funny story: I did no expect to find the time to work on a new version and I was basically in between jobs, waiting after a chance to work in San Francisco or New York (I live in Montreal), but I knew something had to be done because I've always felt inspired every time I work on Shadowness. The last version was a flop -- it was nicely designed, but lacked totally in the interaction department. Then, many old school members came to me about reviving the community, and we started throwing ideas... The general consensus was that V4 was awesome and everyone loved it. So V9 is basically a revival of V4, but done right this time. If I was to specifically name features: I'd say the EXP system where users would feel rewarded as they get active. We also have a chat, where all hell breaks every night... Many customizing features such as the background wallpaper, header and HTML.

Mike: This version definitely has come a long way. In how far does SN reflect your development as a person?

Meng: As anybody with some development background can tell you, it takes a lot of discipline to start a social driven site like Shadowness by yourself. If not for my passion for art and for this heartwarming community that I love, this would never reach this level of deep integration. It literally takes 12-15 hours of my time every day for the past 2 months, weekends included, to get to this point, and all that design/coding totally from scratch. Not only that, but I participate in every single discussion, greet every single new member and try to comment on virtually all the new pieces. Everyone has been great and very supportive and they're the reason why I'm so involved with this community. They keep me disciplined and driven.

Mike: With all the work you put in, what do you want to get out of your endeavor?

Meng: I'm hoping that this project would allow me to be self-sufficient and go at it full-time, for years and years to come. I hope to bring tremendous exposure and opportunities to the many deserving artists that call this place "home". I hope to inspire the artists and persons on Shadowness on a deep level of learning and culture as they learn and be completely aware of their skills and where to grow.

Mike: So it's like a big, supporting family of artists.

Meng: Yes, many would agree that we're like a big family where people literally treat each other like friends who have known each other for years... because the reality is that they did. Shadowness has existed for 10 years now. Some members even started their own Panda, Monkey and Tiger clans. That's how personal and fun it gets. :)

Mike: Isn’t a large number of people joining a threat to the tight-knittedness of the community?

Meng: We started as a beta initially and many have known Shadowness for years. Basically, they ensure that the culture and tight-knitness is kept intact. Also, with scaling comes responsibility that deserving content is filtered right, so we have a Following system that doesn't require dozens of clicks. Simply click once on your Feed and browse based on your closest friends and favorite artists. Everything becomes unread in that one single click.

Mike: If you could sum up the essence of Shadowness in one word, what would that word be?

Meng: Tight-knit. Awesome. Artastic? ...wait, are we allowed for multiple one-words? Otherwise, so far we have Tight-knit art community or Facebook for artists. Art shared beautifully.

Mike: With that we conclude this interview. Thank you, Meng, for your time and insights.
And you folks, if you want to see how beautiful art can be shared, if you want to become a part of the Shadowness family of supportive artists or if you just want to download the hottest wallpapers on the net, head over to Shadowness now and have a little chat with Meng yourself! He’s always around.