Designed By Many
A challenge-based design technology community where designers shared problems and solutions.
Designed By Many
Designed By Many (also called DesignByMany) was a challenge-based design technology community I co-created around 2010.
The Concept
The idea was simple: designers post challenges to the community along with their design source files. Other community members then post responses with their own source files to solve the challenge. Everyone could comment, interact, and learn from each other throughout the process.
It was open-source design collaboration before that was really a thing — focused on computational and parametric design challenges.
Why I Built It
Coming from Design Reform, where I was creating tutorials, I wanted to go further. Tutorials are one-directional — I teach, you learn. Designed By Many was about making it collaborative. Real design problems, real solutions, shared openly.
Connection to Design Reform
I announced Designed By Many on Design Reform in December 2010, inviting the community to participate. The two projects were complementary — Design Reform taught the tools, Designed By Many put them to use in a collaborative context.