The last year or two has seen a dramatic increase in the amount of new design and development related blogs breaking out in to the community. In this article, you will see a list of fresh and new design blogs worth subscribing to and reading. Our goal here is to help you discover a few sites that you might not have heard of before.
Of course, we’ve left out the staples and the big boys such as Smashing Magazine, Abduzeedo, et al. because you’re likely already familiar with them.
1. Design Informer
Design Informer is an excellent weblog by Jad Limcaco, a web designer from Long Beach, California. Design Informer shares articles, tutorials, and freebies for designers.
2. DesignOra
DesignOra is a website for creatives that covers a wide range of topics. They also offer step-by-step tutorials for designing awesome stuff. The site is regularly updated so you’ll get a constant stream of great content.
3. Onextrapixel
Onextrapixel (more commonly known as OXP) was opened to the public on the 14th of April, 2009. It was started by two enthusiastic Singapore-based designers/developers. On OXP, you’ll find inspiration sources, tutorials, freebies, tools and various other articles.
4. Three Styles
Three Styles is aimed at web developers and designers, bringing them the latest trends and tutorials. Topics range from excellent designs for inspiration, high quality tutorials (from Photoshop to jQuery and everything between) and free resources.
5. ideasonideas
ideasonideas is a design blog by Eric Karjaluoto, who discusses design, brands and experience.
6. Inspired Magazine
Inspired Magazine (more known as InspiredM) was opened on the 2nd of March, 2009. It offers all kinds of design goodies, such as articles, freebies and inspiration.
7. Inspect Element
Inspect Element offers high quality articles, tutorials and also features a ‘best of the week’ series which includes links of the week and wallpapers of the week.
8. Blog of Francesco Mugnai
Francesco Mugnai is a freelance graphic designer who runs a design blog on the side. You’ll find articles about advertising, Apple, business cards, graphic design, design inspiration, WordPress and tutorials.
9. Design Boom
DesignBoom is huge design blog, posting about everything design from graphic design to illustration, from art to architecture. They also run regular competitions and own a shop.
10. Position Absolute
Position Absolute is run by a dedicated team to bring us the best content about everything that concerns web development. The blog was opened to the public on the 23rd of January, 2009.
11. Circlebox Blog
Circlebox Blog is my home. I blog about all things design with a pinch of photography and business-related articles. I opened the blog live to the public on June the 25th, 2009.
12. The Web Blend
The Web Blend is a community for designers, developers and tech junkies that keeps you current with a summary of the latest in web related news and trends. Users can vote for their favorite articles to see them displayed on the front page.
13. Folio Focus
Folio Focus is a design blog dedicated to showcasing beautiful web-based portfolio designs. It is updated on a regular basis (usually daily) and is sometimes updated several times per day. A great source for portfolio inspiration.
14. Blog Design Heroes
Blog Design Heroes is a blog dedicated to showcasing fresh and modern blog theme designs. It’s a great source of inspiration when designing or redesigning a blog and is updated almost daily.
15. Type Inspire
Type Inspire is a design blog dedicated to showcasing beautiful typography and text effects used in both print and web design. It’s (again) updated almost daily.
16. Siiimple
Siiimple is yet another design blog dedicated to showcasing a particular style of work. This time, showcasing simplistic web design. The site is regularly updated making it a superb place to visit for inspiration.
17. Bevel and Emboss
Bevel and Emboss is a blog powered site offering free web templates and icon sets that are simple to use, free to use (and modify) and require no linkback.
18. Web Designer Help
Web Designer Help is a blog dedicated to web designers, offering free resources, interviews, tutorials, inspirational showcases and competitions.
19. Script & Style
Script & Style is an archive for web developers and designers. Users can submit their own links, and browse others to help you grow as a designer and developer.
20. D-Lists
D-Lists is a blog dedicated to compiling lists of the very best in design, from advertising to web design. It’s administered by Michael Wilson and was opened on the 4th May, 2009.
21. Cats Who Code
Cats Who Code is a weblog dedicated to web development, with a focus on programming languages, blogging tips, web design and WordPress. Jean-Baptiste Jung, a Belgium based web designer and developer, runs this awesome site.
22. Design Blurb
Design Blurb provides web and graphic design tutorials, resources, tips and links on a regular basis to the design community.
23. Tutorial Board
Tutorial Board offers high quality tutorials for graphic design, motion graphics and visual effects. The site aims at offering the highest quality tutorials on the net with real world production issues and working solutions.
24. Marco Folio
Marcofolio is a blog by Marco Kuiper. The blog offers many categories including art and design, programming, fun stuff and tutorials.
25. [f5]
[f5] was opened in July 2009 and is regularly updated with daily creative inspiration. If you’re suffering from the dreaded design block, this is a great place to visit.
26. Little Box of Ideas
Little Box of Ideas was opened in February 2009 and is owned by Sneh Roy. The blog offers contests and giveaways, freebies such as brushes and icons, inspiration, interviews, resources, reviews and tutorials.
27. Nouveller
Nouveller is a design-related blog by Benjamin Reid, a web developer from UK. Being a side project, the blog isn’t updated as regularly as it could be, but when it is, you’re bound to learn something new. Categories include competitions, downloads, inspiration, jQuery, photography and tutorials.
28. Designussion
Designussion is a blog dedicated to design discussions, inspiration, brand identity, freebies, showcases and tutorials. It is updated on a regular basis with 2-3 posts per week.
29. Creativity Den
Creativity Den is owned by Liam McCabe and was started because of his love for design. The blog offers various articles, tutorials, resources, round-ups, interviews and freebies.
30. Web Developer Plus
Web Developer Plus is a web development and design blog providing tips, tutorials and advice on how to design and develop great web applications. Topics range from PHP/MySQL to AJAX, Javascript and jQuery, and HTML/CSS to WordPress tweaks.
31. Creative Opera
Creative Opera is a blog aimed at new designers and individuals that love good design. It is full of useful information, creative inspiration and lively discussion.
32. Minimal Exhibit
Minimal Exhibit is a blog dedicated to showcasing minimalistic and simplistic web designs. It is usually updated on a daily basis and is a great source of inspiration for all kinds of designers and artists.
33. From The Couch
From The Couch is an online video show, presenting interviews, site reviews, theme reviews, news about Obox Design, tutorials, the reality of running a small web company and much more.
34. Cart Frenzy
Cart Frenzy is a blog dedicated to showcasing the latest and freshest trends in online shopping cart and eCommerce design.
35. Design Snips
Design Snips is a blog dedicated to showcasing snippets (thumbnails) of design to produce a wall of inspirational work, allowing the user to click and view the full design.
36. XHTML-CSS-CODE
XHTML-CSS-CODE.com is a blog devoted to design, development, html, xhtml, css and creativity. It was made live to the public on the 21st of June, 2009.
37. DesignNewz
DesignNewz is an archive site that features articles, resources ans tutorials written by designers and developers from all over the design community.
38. Line25
Line25 was a new project of Chris Spooner’s this year (owner of Spoon Graphics). The blog is a drawing board of creative web design, a place where ideas and inspiration are drafted out into articles, tutorials and roundups of cutting edge web design.
39. Bit Rebels
Bit Rebels is a blog focused around fun, on the edge and relevant subjects and categories such as design, events, gaming, geek, lifestyle and movies.
40. Freelance Shack
Freelance Shack is a blog that covers every aspect of a freelancers life, from marketing to inspiration and pricing to clients. The blog was opened in September 2009.
41. Paper Leaf Design & Photography Blog
Paper Leaf is a creative husband-and-wife duo who regularly blog to build a rich resource of tips, articles, inspiration and important information for designers, photographers and clients.
42. Scarlet Bits
Scarlet Bits is a brand new project created by Marco and Iris. They headed out to bring the web design and development community new and exclusive freebies, tips, tutorials and important news from the niche.
43. Blue Blots
Blue Bots is a design blog showcasing trendy inspiration, freebies, tutorials and resources from all over the web.
44. Red Bilby Blog
Opened to the public in October 2009, the Red Bilby Design blog is one of the newest on this list. It offers inspiration, interviews, tutorials and various other design-related articles.
45. Smashing Share
Smashing Share is by Waheed Akhtar, a web designer from Dubai. The blog was founded in August 2009 and was started to share free web resources with designers and developers.
46. Echo Enduring Blog
Matt Ward opened the Echo Enduring Blog as part of his company in June 2009.
47. PSDeluxe
PSDeluxe is is an ultimate delight for all Photoshop enthusiasts. It’s armed with a huge pool of information regarding the tools and tactics of Photoshop.
48. Webitect
A web design and development blog targeted at freelancers, Internet entrepreneurs, bloggers, designers, developers and webmasters of all sorts. They are focused on making you a better webmaster.
49. Slodive
Slodive cover topics such as design inspiration, web development and unique Photoshop tutorials.
50. letscounthedays – Notebook
letscountthedays is the portfolio of Shay Howe, a Chicago native and a freelance web/user interface designer. His portfolio site has a blog section (which he refers to as his notebook) that publishes content that you should definely read.
Missed your favorite fresh design blog?
The comments is always a great way to discover even more great sites. So if you know of a fresh, off-the-beaten-path website that we didn’t mention, please share it in the comments.
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About the Author
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Callum Chapman is a freelance Graphic Designer and Illustrator Cambridge, UK. He is the creative mind behind Circlebox Creative and Circlebox Blog. He’s written for publications such as Smashing Magazine and other well-known design blogs. You can reach him via Twitter or Facebook.
