DeviantArt

Creation

DeviantArt (initially written Deviant Art, and later deviantART)[10] started as a site connected with people who took computer applications and modified them to their own tastes, or who posted the applications from the original designs. As the site grew, members in general became known as artists and submissions as arts.[11][12] Deviant Art was originally launched on August 7, 2000, by Scott Jarkoff, Matt Stephens, Angelo Sotira, and others, as part of a larger network of music-related websites called the Dmusic Network. The site flourished largely because of its unique offering and the contributions of its core member base and a team of volunteers after its launch,[13] but it was officially incorporated in 2001 about eight months after launch.[14] DeviantArt introduced various logo redesigns over the years, among those the iconic "dA" (short for deviantART) arc used as backdrop for the wordmark as well as their logo.[10]

DeviantArt was loosely inspired by projects like Winamp facelift, customize.org, deskmod.com, screenphuck.com, and skinz.org, all application skin-based websites. Sotira entrusted all public aspects of the project to Scott Jarkoff as an engineer and visionary to launch the early program. All three co-founders shared backgrounds in the application skinning community, but it was Matt Stephens whose major contribution to DeviantArt was the suggestion to take the concept further than skinning and more toward an art community. Many of the individuals involved with the initial development and promotion of DeviantArt still hold positions with the project. Angelo Sotira was the chief executive officer[14][15][16] until June 2022 and was succeeded by Moti Levy.[17]

On November 14, 2006, DeviantArt introduced the option to submit their works under Creative Commons licenses giving the artists the right to choose how their works can be used.[18] A Creative Commons license is one of several public copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works. On September 30, 2007, a film category was added to DeviantArt, allowing artists to upload videos. An artist and other viewers can add annotations to sections of the film, giving comments or critiques to the artist about a particular moment in the film.[19] In 2007, DeviantArt received $3.5 million in Series A (first round) funding from undisclosed investors,[20] and in 2013, it received $10 million in Series B funding.

On December 4, 2014, the site unveiled a new logo, with sharp lines and angles[10] (visually similar to the not-equal sign ≠), and announced the release of an official mobile app on both iOS and Android,[21] released on December 10, 2014.[22] On February 23, 2017, DeviantArt was acquired by Wix.com, Inc. for $36 million. The site plans to integrate DeviantArt and Wix functionality, including the ability to utilize DeviantArt resources on websites built with Wix, and integrating some of Wix's design tools into the site.[23] As of March 1, 2017, Syria was banned from accessing DeviantArt's services entirely, citing US and Israeli sanctions and aftermath on February 19, 2018. After Syrian user Mythiril used a VPN to access the site and disclosed the geoblocking in a journal, titled "The hypocrisy of deviantArt," DeviantArt ended the geoblocking except for commercial features.[24]

In autumn of 2018, spambots began hacking into an indeterminately large number of long-inactive accounts and placing spam Weblinks in their victims' About sections (formerly known as DeviantIDs), where users of the site display their public profile information. An investigation into this matter began in January 2019.[25] This situation ended sometime in late 2021, however other forms of spam accounts have since been a common occurrence on the site ongoing as of 2025.[8]

In November 2022, DeviantArt launched DreamUp, an artificial intelligence image-generation tool based on Stable Diffusion. The release of DreamUp led to DeviantArt’s inclusion in a copyright infringement lawsuit, alongside Stability AI and Midjourney.[26]

In 2024, DeviantArt reported that its creators sold over $14 million, and that more than 220,000 users purchased artworks from over 26,000 sellers.[27] By 2025, sales increased to over $23 million, exceeding the total sales of the previous five years combined.

Also in 2025, Wix announced that DeviantArt would discontinue DeviantArt Muro on July 15 and switch to DeviantArt Draw.[28]

DeviantArt reached a new content milestone in 2025, with nearly 100 million new deviations submitted. The submissions spanned 150 major categories and used approximately 3.8 million unique hashtags, reflecting the platform’s broad range of creative activity.

Copyright and licensing issues

There is no review for potential copyright and Creative Commons licensing violations when a work is submitted to DeviantArt, so potential violations can remain unnoticed until reported to administrators using the mechanism available for such issues.[29] Some members of the community have been the victims of copyright infringement from vendors using artwork illegally on products and prints, as reported in 2007.[30][31] The reporting system in which to counteract copyright infringement directly on the site has been subject to a plethora of criticism from members of the site, given that it may take weeks, or even a month before a filed complaint for copyright infringement is answered.

Contests for companies and academia

Due to the nature of DeviantArt as an art community with a worldwide reach, companies use DeviantArt to promote themselves and create more advertising through contests. CoolClimate is a research network connected with the University of California, and they held a contest in 2012 to address the impact of climate change. Worldwide submissions were received, and the winner was featured in The Huffington Post.[32]

Various car companies have held contests. Dodge ran a contest in 2012 for art of the Dodge Dart and over 4,000 submissions were received.[33] Winners received cash and item prizes, and were featured in a gallery at Dodge-Chrysler headquarters.[34] Lexus partnered with DeviantArt in 2013 to run a contest for cash and other prizes based on their Lexus IS design; the winner's design became a modified Lexus IS and was showcased at the SEMA 2013 show in Los Angeles, California.[35]

DeviantArt hosts contests for upcoming movies, such as Riddick. Fan art for Riddick was submitted, and director David Twohy chose the winners, who would receive cash prizes and some other DeviantArt-related prizes, as well as having their artwork made into official fan-art posters for events.[36][37] A similar contest was held for Dark Shadows where winners received cash and other prizes.[38][39] Video games also conduct contests with DeviantArt, such as the 2013 Tomb Raider contest. The winner had their art made into an official print sold internationally at the Tomb Raider store and received cash and other prizes. Other winners also received cash and DeviantArt-related prizes.[40]

Litigation

In January of 2023, three artists Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt, claiming that these companies have infringed the rights of millions of artists by training AI tools on five billion images scraped from the web without the consent of the original artists.[41] In July 2023, U.S. District Judge William Orrick inclined to dismiss most of the lawsuit filed by Andersen, McKernan, and Ortiz but allowed them to file a new complaint.[42]

Versions

DeviantArt has been revising the website in "versions," with each version releasing multiple new features. Coincidentally, the third, fourth and fifth versions of the site were all released on August 7, the "birthday" of the website's founding.

Eclipse (Version 9)

In early November 2018, DeviantArt released a promo site showcasing a new update, titled 'Eclipse'. The site showed that the update would include a minimalist design strategy, a dark mode option, modified CSS editing, improved filtering through a 'Love Meter,' profile headers, and other cosmetic changes and improvements. The update would also include no third-party advertisements and improved features for the site's Core users.[64]

On November 14, 2018, a beta version of the Eclipse site was made available for Core Members who marked their accounts for beta testing.[65] As of November 21, 2018, the site reported that over 4,000 users tried Eclipse and that the site received almost 1,700 individual feedback reports; these included bug reports, feature requests, and general commentary.[66] On March 6, 2019, DeviantArt officially released Eclipse to all users, with a toggle to switch back to the old site. On May 20, 2020, the previous User Interface was discontinued from access, leaving only Eclipse available.[67]

In July 2021, a feature called DeviantArt Protect was added that notifies members if their copyright has potentially been infringed.[68] This feature was extended to include tracking non-fungible tokens on Web3 marketplaces in May 2022.[69]

Monetization

More selling options for members were added between 2022 and 2023. In September 2022, DeviantArt introduced a subscription service, allowing members to receive funding from their fans.[70] DeviantArt charges a commission of 2.5 to 12 percent, as well as payment processing fees, on this funding. In March 2023, a way to sell ownership of individual artwork called Adoptables, named after the well-established onsite practice of artists selling premade character designs, was released.[71] The Adoptables tool was later renamed to Exclusives in October 2023.[72] In 2025, DeviantArt introduced Launchpad, a program designed to support selected sellers with additional resources and guidance.

deviantART Summit

On June 17 and 18, 2005, DeviantArt held their first convention, the deviantART Summit, at the Palladium in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States. The summit consisted of several exhibitions by numerous artists, including artscene groups old and new at about 200 different booths. Giant projection screens displayed artwork as it was being submitted live to DeviantArt, which was receiving 50,000 new images daily at the time.

deviantART World Tour

Starting May 13, 2009, DeviantArt embarked on a world tour, visiting cities around the world, including Sydney, Singapore, Warsaw, Istanbul, Berlin, Paris, London, New York City, Toronto and Los Angeles. During the world tour, the new "Portfolio" feature of DeviantArt was previewed to attendees.[74][75]

DeviantART meetups (“DevMeets”)

Occasionally, DeviantArt hosts a meeting for members to come together in real life and interact, exchange, and have fun. There have been meetings for the birthday of DeviantArt, called "Birthday Bashes," as well as simple general get-togethers around the world. In 2010, European DeviantArt members held a deviantMEET (or "DevMeet") to celebrate DeviantArt's birthday in August.[76] There was also a celebration that year in the House of Blues in Hollywood, California.[77] More recently, in November 2025, DeviantArt hosted the first Launchpad Live DevMeet in New York City.