Macworld UK and Digital Arts have teamed up with Wacom to create a Twitter-based community (known as @TabletChat) that pulls together conversations about graphic design, and tablet-based design in general.
"For us, this is an alternative to the traditional approach to publishing" said Macworld UK's editor in chief Mark Hattersley. "Instead of us pushing news stories at people, and companies placing adverts around that news, this is more about us searching for - and stimulating - discussion about a topic that lots of people like us are naturally interested in. So it's more about us trying to kick-start a conversation and seeing where it goes."
The plan is to use Twitter to search for conversations about graphic design, and to integrate this conversation with a Twitter feed while at the same time using our Web sites to ask our readers what they think about graphic design.
Every day Macworld and Digital Arts will run a question about graphic design, and the answers will be collected into a series of running polls.
Where it gets interesting is that these polls enable people to tweet their thoughts directly from the Macworld and Digital Arts website. These tweets then appear on the user's Twitter site, and are retweeted on the @tabletchat Web site.
This is early days, and a bit of an experiment for us. But we've had some great comments so far, such as:
"There is no 'copy & paste' in the analogue world of pencil and paper. Imagination and talent rule. via @andrewbriden"
"Think the best thing is it's purity, and a basic form of art that everyone can do, young and old. via @psdesignuk"
"Hand-drawn art is showcasing your "REAL" skill whereas digital art is too artificial. If only hand-drawn had Undo & redo. via @@junn_tan"
Our Twitter community has also come up with great examples of graphic design, and lots of advice on how to get the most out of tablet design.
If you have a penchant for graphic design, and like using tablets to draw in general, then pop on over to @TabletChat on Twitter.
We don't store any of your details incidentally. When you use the poll your login details are redirected to the Twitter website and we used the official Twitter API to create the poll.
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