Behance –I dare say– is the graphic designer’s (and many other creative fields) most important medium. It has let us show our work to the world since 2006 (it was then acquired by Adobe in 2012), connecting us to potential clients and letting us express our work freely. I have yet to find a more reliable source for inspiration (not even Dribbble).

NOTE: This article will be better appreciated if read on bigger screens (laptop and desktop computers).

As you could read on the excerpt though, this article is a bit more of a critique on Behance. Maybe you can’t see a difference between the two icons from the article’s cover, that’s simply because the one on the left, isn’t optimized for HD screen (Retina display), the other one is, and if your device does not have an HD/Retina display, you shouldn’t see any.

What’s a Retina Display

Retina Display (marketed by Apple with a lowercase ‘D’ as Retina display) is a brand name used by Apple for screens that have a higher pixel density than their previous models.

– From Wikipedia

What happens very commonly in some social networks, is that some assets aren’t shown on a sharp resolution, mainly because images such as profile or avatar pictures are low resolution versions of the original ones you uploaded, and sometimes, this auto-generated images don’t reach the pixel density needed to look sharp on HD screens.

On Behance

My particular problem with Behance is that this issue doesn’t happen only on avatars and profile pictures, but in our project slides as well (even when you upload them twice the size required, which is the solution in most cases), in a much lower scale of course.

This is made on account of load speed, and as a developer, I know how vital this is. I also get, that being a site full of creative, detail obsessed, OCDish freaks –like myself–, heavy images are an issue. But I would have imagined that Behance (again, our most important medium) would have sacrificed a bit of load time over quality now that our devices let us reach such an incredible level of sharpness, and since they’re already generating images automatically, wouldn’t it be awesome if they just pumped those pixels up a bit?.

Here’s an example, look at my logo on the comment form and then look at it on the comment itself, can you see the difference?.

Here too. Check these illustrations from Mr. Das’ Behance project, do you see the difference? Look closer…

The one on the left (top in mobile) was downloaded from Behance, the other one is the actual artwork.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this is meant to be constructive criticism. As I said before, this is the best source of inspiration a graphic designer can use. I just think the people at Behance should reach a more appropriate balance between load times and resolution, keeping in mind their network is about visual communication. It would just be SO MUCH BETTER to live in a crystal clear Behance world.

As always, thank you for reading.