Every designer knows the feeling of creative blocks. There’s nothing worse than staring at a blank page or canvas, waiting for inspiration to hit. If you’re turning to the internet for your dose of inspiration, these top 12 design blogs hit the mark, offering readers the opportunity to find inspiration, resources, and community in their design journey.
Inspiration aside, it’s essential for freelance graphic designers, digital artists, illustrators, and photographers to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and constantly improve their skills to stay competitive.
These popular design blogs offer every level of designer the information and resources to continue learning and honing their craft, whether they are trying to climb the corporate ladder or turning a design passion into a new career.
Readers will find delight and surprise in these corners of the internet, and as a bonus, find a community of like-minded creative professionals ready to celebrate the good work of designers everywhere.
The real-world examples and case studies found in these blogs are the perfect place to test out ideas, compare notes, and put design education into practical use.
Plus, anyone searching for a tutorial, how-to guide, or the latest digital tools will find these blogs a must-read. If you’re interested in saving all the research, tips, and inspiration, use tools such as Markup by Kdan Mobile or Markup Hero so you never lose anything.
Ready to explore the best design blogs available today?
Let’s dive in.
99 Designs
The 99 Designs blog includes inspiration, design advice, and information on how to grow a design agency. From case studies to graphic design trends, business resources around web and digital design, and tutorials to learn the latest techniques, the 99 Designs blog has something for everyone.
One of the unique features of this blog is the Top 9 at 99 – a monthly roundup of the top nine designs on 99 designs.
These posts serve as great inspiration for new designers or anyone looking for a unique twist or perspective on a project.
This blog is ideal for anyone looking to learn design, establish a business around design services, or grow an existing agency. It’s a must-stop on the internet if you need a dose of inspiration for your next project — whether it’s a new website design, event poster, or book cover.
Why this blog is awesome: The 99 Designs blog is a uniquely curated collection of ideas and examples guaranteed to be useful to anyone in the design world. In addition, the site does a great job at featuring a global community of designers, offering perspective and inspiration that appeals to all cultures.
Vectornator
As a vector graphic design platform that offers resources to support its user’s journey of using its design tool, the Vectornator blog is a treasure-trove of information for the designer who loves to geek out on the latest digital tools.
This blog is a graphic designer’s dream, featuring notes, thoughts, and tutorials on nearly any graphic design adventure.
The articles cover plenty of tips and tricks and offer tutorials to help readers become better designers and focus on helping graphic designers to learn and improve.
The tutorials range from beginner to advanced with posts such as How to Draw a Leaf to more advanced techniques such as How to Design a Character.
For designers looking for inspiration, the Vectornator blog fits the bill. It features great examples of design work from its community and inspiring real-life examples from global organizations and companies.
Why this blog is awesome: Vectornator stands out for its practical application and extensive resources that support its own digital tool of the same name. In addition, the blog is easy to navigate and offers various perspectives from contributors with different backgrounds, experiences, and writing styles.
Creative Bloq
Creative Bloq provides regular content for all types of artists and designers. Touted as the place to keep up to date with the latest trends and developments in global design, Creative Bloq offers plenty of categories to suit the needs of multiple audiences.
For example, its “How To“ category spans articles around photography, drawing, learning software, and design strategy.
This blog shares numerous resources in the web design category that cover software, hardware, and design tools to help you stretch your budget.
With its wide range of content and perspectives, the Creative Bloq offers tips for all art forms and modalities while showcasing the latest trends and deals artists seek. It is perfect for graphic designers, traditional artists, illustrators, 3D and VFX artists, and web designers alike.
Why this blog is awesome: The Creative Bloq is notable because of its content diversity and its industry-leading buying guides, equipping artists with the information they need to buy the best tools. It also stands out for its authentic, user-submitted reviews, allowing readers to gain insights and opinions before making major financial decisions.
Smashing Magazine
As a blog for web designers and developers, Smashing Magazine provides articles, guides, books, workshops, and membership plans.
With over 2,200 articles in categories like checklists, best practices, career, inspiration, freebies, and SEO, the blog covers a wealth of information guaranteed to keep web designers and developers reading for hours.
The checklist category stands out as there’s nothing else quite like this feature in the other design blogs we’ve listed here.
The checklist content is also provided in downloadable PDFs and other formats, making it easy to access.
Smashing’s guides are also stand-out features, comprehensively covering significant topics. For example, its guide on User Experience is expansive, covering everything from landing pages to privacy, forms, intelligent mobile design, and the psychology behind the design.
The Smashing Magazine blog is best for website designers and web developers, as most content centers around these themes. This audience is guaranteed to learn the industry trends and best practices and also find printed resources.
Why this blog is awesome: The Smashing Magazine blog is impressive for many reasons, including the way it showcases community members, organizes topics and resources into easy-to-find sections, and incorporates workshops, job boards, and other resources beyond just its articles.
Visme
Visme blog names itself as “Visual Learning Center”, and for a good reason. It helps people become better visual communicators.
The blog comes with comprehensive content on specific design topics – presentations, infographics, video & animation, and data visualization. Besides, you can find information related to digital marketing, branding, design for businesses with ready-to-use customizable templates.
To put it simply, the Visme blog is a must place to hang out if you want to get the freshest information in the design world. Keep in mind that content writers realize that the blog’s visitors are not just professional designers but people who don’t have any experience in design.
Therefore, Visme’s content writers cover their topics using simple, not super-technical language that everyone can understand.
Why this blog is awesome: Blog for non-designers created by professional designers. Plus, there are lots of cool webinars and case studies to explore.
Design Milk
The range of the Design Milk blog covers everything artists need when it comes to modern design, including fashion, architecture, technology, interior design, and more. So a budding or professional designer can find something to suit their interests, whether they are interested in simple art, fancy furniture, or impressive technology.
Design Milk’s blog pulls readers in using a clean and minimalist design and features content categories like interiors, homes, lifestyle, pets, and fashion.
The blog’s individual posts feature photos, compelling content, and occasionally product recommendations for all budgets.
The editorial section of the Design Milk website now highlights organizations that promote diversity, equity, and relief in the design, architecture, and arts. They have also committed to expanding visibility for the designers and makers featured in their articles.
Regardless of your design experience or passions, the diversity of Design Milk’s content is perfect for anyone who appreciates design in everyday life.
The blog is less about learning or tutorials and more about inspiring artists and discovering how to bring the latest design trends into every aspect of your everyday life.
Why this blog is awesome: Design Milk’s constantly evolving content and approach to covering new territory make it a stand out in the design blog world. Plus, its companion blogs – Dog Milk and Adorn Milk – also open even more new avenues to explore design among dog and jewelry lovers.
Mashable
Mashable is less a design blog and more an international platform for entertainment, culture, tech, and science. It’s the largest independent news source and covers digital culture, social media, and technology in native and guest contributed articles.
Mashable divides its content into five primary categories – Tech, Life, Social God, Entertainment, and Deals. While design is not its own category, many of the sections offer insights into the design world.
Content is not limited to articles, however. There are video posts, links to product recommendations, and plenty of guest posts, as well.
The blog also features an extensive Review section and remains impartial through transparent business practices and disclaimers. For example, in a search for the term “design,” more than 1,500 posts appear and range from topics like wearable tech design to design apps, design careers, and course offerings to learn design techniques.
Mashable relies on advertising revenue and affiliate commerce, taking a more commercial approach than many design blogs. It’s great for those looking for a good deal, product reviews, or a variety of content delivery systems.
Why this blog is awesome: Mashable goes well beyond blogging by incorporating video and product demonstrations, offering users a first-hand look at the tools and products its editors recommend.
Web Designer Depot
Web Designer Depot is chock full of web design resources for web designers. It includes Photoshop tutorials, WordPress Plugins, web development tools, and content categories such as SEO, code, usability, design, content, and inspiration.
The Web Designer Depot blog is targeted toward website designers as it’s light on the developer-speak and big on design and aesthetics.
Every month, the blog curates the best and exciting new tools for designers and publishes the curated list under its Resources category.
The blog’s section on workflow is unique, standing out among the most common design blogs and offering a unique and helpful perspective on the nuts and bolts of operating as a website designer.
When designers tire of reading about the latest plugin technology or learning about how to use color-palettes effectively, they can click over to the Fun category for a light-hearted break of comics and funny articles like “5 simple steps to zero conversions.”
The Web Designer Depot blog also includes an extensive freebie section with free downloads ranging from font packs, icons, brush strokes, and patterns. It also integrates design-related deals from Mighty deals, allowing designers the opportunity to purchase tools and resources at significantly lower prices.
Why this blog is awesome: The Web Designer Depot blog is a one-stop shop for website designers, covering relevant content in an engaging and streamlined manner. It also features the popular design news of the week section, highlighting the best of the best around the internet.
The Design Blog
The Design Blog is an international collection of curated design inspiration, emphasizing young students and designers worldwide. The blog takes a unique approach to its content structure, bringing different posts and design-related inspiration throughout the week using theme days.
For example:
- Mondays feature the “designer of the week”
- Wednesdays are dubbed “web design Wednesday”
- Thursdays focus on apps and UI/UX, reserving
- Fridays are for freebies
- Saturdays are for recommendations in many different categories
- Sundays feature favorite profiles from Dribble
The blog also spotlights cool and interesting internet shops, brands, and products and invites readers to recommend additions. In fact, all the categories include reader recommendations, enhancing the community feel of the entire site.
Less about tutorials and instructional content and more about curated content, the blog focuses on young and more inexperienced designers and appeals to design students specifically.
Why this blog is awesome: The Design Blog offers a targeted approach to a growing audience: future designers. It also incorporates a shop featuring some of the most exciting and distinctive finds from across the world, inviting readers to browse the articles and take some of the pieces home in real life.
HOW Design
HOW Design targets makers, thinkers, and creators, beginning as a print magazine and now encompassing live events and a blog serving creative professionals.
This blog combines business, technology, and creativity with content spanning traditional categories like branding and packaging, marketing, and creativity. However, HOW Design takes it one step further with leadership advice, strategies for creative freelancers, and showcasing design award winners.
Some articles are curated from other sources like “The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2021,” while others inspire readers through design work examples.
Why this blog is awesome: HOW Design articles combine trends, curated resources, and community contributions in one reading experience. It has a high potential to equip designers with relevant and resourceful content as the archives grow.
Creative Boom
Creative Boom is a monthly magazine and website covering the arts, design, and visual culture. Since 2009, the Creative Boom blog has delivered news, advice, insights, and inspiration to more than six million creative professionals.
The blog’s diverse content attracts a broad audience, including designers, artists, illustrators, photographers, and even filmmakers. Articles often feature recommended tools, interviews with industry leaders and experts, along with tips and advice to help creative professionals at every stage of their career.
The topics covered are vast, as well. Creative takes accompany the traditional art and culture articles on design in gaming, the publishing world of design, and fashion.
Company profiles, award lists, and posts loaded with recommendations round out the content making the Creative Boom blog a destination for anyone who appreciates creativity in the world.
Why this blog is awesome: The Creative Boom blog feels like flipping through a high-end magazine where you can both appreciate the design and the content equally. Its diverse take on the global nature of creativity engagingly presents exciting and informative information.
Eye On Design
From the Professional Design Association for Design and the American Institute for Graphic Arts (AIGA), the Eye on Design blog is for professional designers and creative professionals worldwide.
“The AIGA is the oldest and largest professional design membership organization,” so its blog brings a rich history and perspective to industry trends.
Curated Editor Picks highlights some of the best content from the site, spanning articles in distinctive categories like Design History 101 and Design + Politics.
The long-form blog posts are rich in content and perspective, offering comprehensive views on the topic at hand. The blog is divided into four sections:
- Design
- Design+
- Design Series
- Countries
This segmentation gets specific under each category with unique takes on design and mental health, typography, packaging design, and posts dedicated to exploring global design.
The site is light on tutorials and instructional posts and more geared toward the designer who wants to embrace the rich culture and history of the design world.
Many articles feature real-world design examples and how companies have used design in their business models. In addition, every post packs additional resources from the site’s sister blogs, podcasts, and magazines.
Why this blog is awesome: Eye on Design is a dream for anyone who wants a deep dive into design history and thrives on understanding the nuisance of design in the real world. The breadth of history and culture and diversity of content provides insights that will help any designer hone their craft.
Final Thoughts
Design is a field that permeates every industry on every continent. Great design is primarily a matter of perspective and taste, from the packaged goods found in stores to the billboards on the highway and the social media ads on every device.
And, every designer started as a beginner.
For those just entering the field, finding opportunities to work alongside seasoned veterans is an ideal place to start, or even enrolling in a design course in a local community college or university.
For experienced designers, learning new techniques and strategies is a process that never stops. Seeking feedback from diverse audiences is a beautiful way to gain insights into how work is perceived.
The design industry is constantly evolving with new trends emerging on a whim and new artists trying to rise to the challenge of today’s heightened expectations. The best resources for designers are those that teach, inform, engage and inspire readers to dream about possibilities and break new ground.
