It is time for the second article in our series ‘The Teams of VP’, where we get an inside look into what it is like to be a member of each team. If you missed the first article in this segment on BloggerTeam, feel free to check it out here after you have read this article! 

As you probably already guessed, the next team in line is DesignerTeam! DesignerTeam, or DT for short, is a team consisting of artists who create the clothing you see on the avatars around the site. You can easily recognise an official designer by the badge, but you can also find a list of all designers, current and previously badged, in the ‘show only’ filter in your wardrobe. Everyone have the opportunity to design clothes for vp, but by being an official member of DT you get a few other functions and responsibilities, which we will, tanks to the help of Lily, Ad0xa, Aeris and Moss, take a closer look into in this article. 

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The main function and purpose of DT is to provide the site with clothing, and to make sure there always are designs available for system use, such and Game/HOF and DM. As a badged designer you are required to submit at least one design per month for this use, where at least every second month you have to submit a male design, as there tend to be a shortage of sets designed for males. Designs created especially for team use, like codes and competition prizes, comes in addition to the one monthly required design. To keep track of this, the designers have a Discord server where a lot of the planning with what sets goes where and who designs what, is discussed, and each member is therefore able to control what their own designs are used for.

On top of just designing, as a badged designer you also get access to the upload and coding functions. A huge part of being a designer that everyone might not realise, is that they have to upload all their own designs, as well as help with the uploading of the approved designs sent to the DT account by non-badged designers. Sometimes there are also minor fixes on already uploaded items that needs to be done, such as moving it one pixel up or down or change the colour category. This function may feel a little foreign and complicated at first, as there are a lot of steps and detail that goes into uploading a design, and for some, this process takes up a lot of time. 

However, some perks with having access to this function, is that each designer have full control over their own items, where they are placed, what categories they are put in. They get to tag their designs with their name so that everyone knows who made them, and can easily find all their designs via the sorting function in the wardrobe. Having access to the clothing management also includes an overview of all designs uploaded and set for different functions, which is why designers for example know what the weekly diamond member set is beforehand and can give hints in the speculation thread. 

Given that the sets used for the system requirements mentioned earlier are the same for all three servers, the DTs of each server have to collaborate in filling the needs. “The servers have a rotation of who's supposed to provide DM, HOF and WOF sets each week.” says Moss, who is a badged designer on the German server. Because the English server have more active designers than the others, some EN users have been asked to help out on DE and NL, and thus gotten a badge and access to all designer functions there.

- What has your experience being badged on a different server been like?

“It was a very exciting experience! In my case, I was invited to become badged on DE because they needed some help with their schedule. This made me really happy, as I saw it as a kind of validation that my designs were good enough to deserve the nametag and the responsibility that comes with the badge.”

But being badged on a server where you don’t speak the language fluently, has its challenges. Moss could tell me that Masilein, another german designer, kindly put together an English explanation of how uploading and coding works. “So, thankfully, the designer functions weren't too much of a hassle to learn! Some words are harder than others though, such as the ‘others’ category being called ‘anderes’ in the German wardrobe, but ‘verbleibende’ in the uploader. ”

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By clicking on the nametags under, you can read more about the personal experiences of the three EN designers who helped with this article! 

How long have you been a member of DT? 

I have been a member of DT since late November 2019 <3

What should you know and prepare for if you aspire to become a member of this team?

You should prepare for needing to set aside time for designing ofc! I am not the most efficient designer, but it is very time consuming nonetheless. And after having joined the team I have to admit I do sometimes doubt I have the skills to be in it, designing stuff for other people to use can put a lot of pressure on you, and constantly worrying about what other users think of your items is not always very pleasant ; - ;

How much work and time does each member have to put into this team?

I can't answer for the other designers but I myself have used anything from 8 hours and up to several weeks for one design, I also have a lot of unfinished ones that I no longer want to finish because I am so sick of them xD I didn't make a lot of designs before I joined the team so it might just be lack of experience. I haven't paid much attention as to how much time I use to upload the designs, and as each item needs to be uploaded and placed individually it depends on how many items are in that specific set. I'd also set at least a few hours a week helping out uploading designs from the DT account and fixing items. Also I am constantly on the designers discord chat.

What is the best or most rewarding part of being a member of this team?

I guess I really liked finally being "acknowledged" that I was good enough at designing? I've always been unsure about my art in general. I've wanted to be a designer since I started playing gSm, so I've wanted this for a long time. Also being on a team with so many talented designers is fantastic, I find it really motivating. I think I can speak for the other DT members as well when I say how amazing it feels to see other people wearing something you've designed. 

Have the team experience taught you something that you will be taking with you to other aspects of life?

It has definitely made me work more towards improving my designs and art, and actually having some deadlines will make me more prepared if I ever decide to start doing art full time (which is what I hope to do one day). Whether that is designing actual lolita dresses + prints, or being a character designer, I will absolutely treasure the experiences I've made while being a part of the team.