Gallery Standout - Shutting its door

[nativescrapper]

Im so sad that GS is closing.
This is what was posted on the site:

The time has come...

Dear faithful followers of Gallery Standouts -

The time has come for GS to shut it doors. I want to openly thank all of you for supporting the adventures of GS and making the site a place to come for inspiration.

More specifically I wish to publically thank Amy Wolff and Lauren Barden who helped me bring my dream to fruition and lastly the GS site team..where would I have been without you?

Thank you for the great ride!

Go and grow in your art!



average joe

[Jen D]

So sad =(

[bluelemur01]

I'm going to be honest here and say that I never really "got" what Gallery Standouts was all about. I mean, I "got" the part where people's layouts were highlighted as being-- good? Cool? Talented? and I often saw lots of dd layouts there, which was nice! It's nice to see my friends' layouts being show off!

But the site never really seemed to have an explanation of what it was all FOR, or ABOUT. I was sort of stumped.

That being said, I guess I'm not heart-broken that it's closing. Sorry if I'm a party pooper! And I KNOW there will be lots of ways that the talented ladies here get recogized for their beautiful work.

Jennifer

[Heidi2008]

That's too bad...I really loved the different artists you could find on that site. Wonderf what happened?

[oldvwblues]

Oh that's sad...always enjoyed looking at all the layout there...some are really incredibly unique and always saw some pretty amazing color combinations! Was cool to see so many layouts from DD recognized there. I think their goal was to show such a variety of really artistic and different layouts to give everyone inspiration. Hope they don't remove the site right away so we can still go looking!

[Jen D]

Originally Posted by bluelemur01

I'm going to be honest here and say that I never really "got" what Gallery Standouts was all about. I mean, I "got" the part where people's layouts were highlighted as being-- good? Cool? Talented? and I often saw lots of dd layouts there, which was nice! It's nice to see my friends' layouts being show off!

But the site never really seemed to have an explanation of what it was all FOR, or ABOUT. I was sort of stumped.

That being said, I guess I'm not heart-broken that it's closing. Sorry if I'm a party pooper! And I KNOW there will be lots of ways that the talented ladies here get recogized for their beautiful work.

Jennifer

I only ever went there when somebody pointed out that a DD member's layout was posted. But, I did like to look =)

[audrey77]

You know how much work it probably was?

[Kayleigh]

I saw that today, I am sure it was a lot of work. It's too bad.

[hguenthe]

I liked it for seeing the inspiration and different styles from around the web. I loved seeing DD pages there because they tend towards my preference for style looks and you always like to see nice people recognized. An avenue of seeing people who love the art of scrapbooking recognized without having to submit for publication. It was recognition of everyday great works.

[jazzmatazz]

Don't cry for GS yet. There is a new note on the site stating that there is a designer interested in taking over the site and preserving its vision. Stay tuned ...

[BridgetL]

I rarely, if ever post here, but thought I'd chime in as I was part of the GS team. My take is that GS was trying to provide some spotlighting for a variety of LOs and to provide inspiration for other scrappers. It was quite a bit of work for the team members, and I'm sure more for "average Joe", who ran it. I loved being part of choosing LOs and trying to find unique and lesser-discovered/praised LOs. At other sites, such as DST, it seems that the same artists are spotlighted over and over. I don't/won't speak for anyone else on the team, but I put a lot of effort into finding new LOs to spotlight.

[JALong]

I was glad to hear that someone else is thinking about taking over at GS. I love the inspiration I find from the layouts there.

[nativescrapper]

GSO is Back!!!!!!!! Hurray!!! Yes!

[bluelemur01]

Bridget, I can understand how it was a lot of work.

But to be honest (I seem to have a penchant for saying things that people don't ordinarily share), I always felt like GSO was a "cool kid club" or sort of clique-y. It's possible I felt that way in large part b/c my layouts were not chosen for it, lol.

But anytime someone reports what they consider the "best" or "coolest" layouts around, there is always going to be some disagreement about what is chosen, or a lack of understanding of WHY things are chosen/what criteria are used. Although I understand -- it's hard to put WHY you like certain LO's into words. I know that some layouts appeal to me in a visceral way even though I can't explain exactly what about them is so appealing. So I can't fault your site for not being specific about WHY certain layouts were chosen.

I guess, although you didn't ask! -- my advice for the site would be to make the decisions more transparent; include some detail on why certain LO's appealed. More info about the long-term goals fo the site would be cool, too.

Thanks for reading!
J

[Aino]

Originally Posted by bluelemur01

But to be honest (I seem to have a penchant for saying things that people don't ordinarily share), I always felt like GSO was a "cool kid club" or sort of clique-y. It's possible I felt that way in large part b/c my layouts were not chosen for it, lol.

But anytime someone reports what they consider the "best" or "coolest" layouts around, there is always going to be some disagreement about what is chosen, or a lack of understanding of WHY things are chosen/what criteria are used. Although I understand -- it's hard to put WHY you like certain LO's into words. I know that some layouts appeal to me in a visceral way even though I can't explain exactly what about them is so appealing. So I can't fault your site for not being specific about WHY certain layouts were chosen.

I guess, although you didn't ask! -- my advice for the site would be to make the decisions more transparent; include some detail on why certain LO's appealed. More info about the long-term goals fo the site would be cool, too.

Thanks for reading!
J

I have to say that I understand what you're saying here, Jennifer!! I hope I am not stepping together with you into the proverbial saladbowl -
I like the IDEA of the site, but I really don't take it too personal (if my own pages don't appear there) and certainly not very serious (taste is, as we all know, as varied as there are ... "behinds").
And in a whisper I have to admit that a lot the pages shown there were perfectly beautiful, but far from my taste/style/preference.

I am, however, happy that the site may continue, it seems to have a lot of followers!