“Creative Content for the Web,” presented by Naz Hamid, was the topic for Tools of the Trade I which took place on April 24th at the Alliance Française.

Naz Hamid is an independent designer who works out of his home studio in Ravenswood. As the creative director for the regionally oriented news site Gaper’sBlock, Mr. Hamid is particularly excited by the concept of community and how that translates to the Web.

“In our day-to-day lives, we experience many kinds of communities...” said Mr. Hamid, “...the Web is a community at large... all are welcome.”

Naz showed examples of many community-based sites from the purely social, such as Facebook, to more artistic networks, like Flickr. There were some fun ones in the mix too, such as the craft site Etsy and Muxtape, where users can upload playlists to share with friends. He then asked the audience to share any of their own site concepts in which two individuals participated.

Mr. Hamid’s overarching message was, simply put, “If somebody else isn’t doing it, why not you?” Naz encouraged everyone to get involved in creating Web communities since the Internet is unique in that it’s user-driven — a setting in which the proliferation of ideas and unified group interests can be started by anybody.

He then offered eight or so principles which he discovered on his own journey of enthusiasm. His advice included understanding the audience and respecting their intelligence, knowing who to work with to keep the project maintained and continually interesting, incorporating assessment, keeping people happy and knowing when to quit.