The Open-Design Project aims to bring together the talents of new designers and developers together with industry experts to collaborate on developing websites for open source projects and Non-profit organizations.

For newly minted designers and developers, the project provides an opportunity to build a professional portfolio and gain experience in the field. This is of benefit as most new designers won't be hired unless they can show some example of previous "professional" work.

For the experts, this provides an opportunity to mentor new talent, provide direction and advice in a practical way, on a real project and most importantly help to encourage best practices from the start instead of trying to get designers to adapt themselves to such practices later on in their careers.

For the Open source and Non-profit organizations, this is an opportunity for them to get a professionally designed website, something they may not ordinarily be able to afford or as is the case with many open source projects, have time for. Without question, a good website is a necessity for any organization or open source project in today's world, especially if they want to be taken seriously.