Learn 16 Great Graphic Design Blogs and Sites

 

What are your favorite design blogs and sites? There are so many design blogs now, that your top list is sure to be a bit different. Here we've collected 16 great design sites that consistently bring high-quality material to their audience. They are filled with great resources, original material, thought provoking articles, or well constructed design tutorials that keep you growing as a designer. Add these sites to your feed reader, if they aren't already in there!

1. The Dieline

I'm not sure how many people know about this blog, but I just recently found it and liked what I saw. If you are looking for good packaging design inspiration, this is the place to find it. Here you can see outstanding packaging, labels, and other printed products. You can even vote on designs you like to share your opinion on the design. The posts include large and crisp images of the products. More complex packages might also include a variety of shots.

2. Outlaw Design Blog

OK, maybe this is a little shameless self promotion, but at least Outlaw Design Blog has a lot to offer in the way of graphic design. Aside from the freelance resources for graphic designers, you can also find a growing collection of Photoshop tutorials. There are also a number of print design tutorials that are currently in the works and should be surfacing soon.

3. Designer Daily

This is another up and coming graphic design blog that is worth keeping an eye on. Its really just another design blog that showcase both web design as well as graphic design and some other design related news. That said, the selection of materials that is on the site at the time of this writing seem to be really useful. A nice amount of up to date roundups of things like icon sets, poster design, etc.

4. We Made This

This is another personal blog from a smaller design firm. The nice thing about this graphic design blog is that you won't find the same old stuff here. Nope. No web roundups and major list of awesome icon sets. This blog is more devoted to the authors outlook on graphic design in day to day life.
What is nice here is that the author usually highlights some form of graphic design in a post and then shares some of his thoughts on it. It is a nice read if you are tired of the same old design blog.

5. Ad Goodness

I don't know what sort of graphic designer doesn't enjoy looking at creative advertisements. Its kind of like porn for designs in my opinion. Personally, I am addicted to the stuff. The Ad Goodness blog showcases some of the most creative ads to be conceptualized.
One nice feature of the blog is that they try to credit as many people as possible for the work involved. From the photographer to the creative director, they credit as many people as they can. Another great feature is that you get nice big images to look at rather than smaller ones typically found on blogs.

6. Authentic Boredom

I'm not really sure how you would describe Cameron Moll's blog, but its one that has to make this list. I have been reading this blog for a while now and recently started following him on Twitter. Cameron's blog is the blog for his portfolio/business site. But that's not to say it is filled with self promotion and personal rants, although there is some of that too.
On this blog you can find a wide variety of topics and articles about graphic design, history, theories, and more. I would compare this blog to something like a more personal version of The New Yorker magazine. There are lots of articles where he offers his professional opinion about both web and graphic design.

7. Smashing Magazine

I think you would be hard pressed to find a graphic designer that doesn't know about Smashing Magazine, but this list wouldn't be complete without it. Plus, everyone has to discover Smashing Magazine at some point right? This site may very well have set the standard for the web roundup style post on all things web design and graphic design related. No matter what you are looking for as far as graphic design goes, you'll likely find it covered in some fashion on Smashing Magazine.

8. Im Just Creative Blog

If you are a logo designer on the hunt for a good logo design blog, you have probably realized there is a very limited selection on the topic. One of the lesser known logo design blogs I follow belongs to a serious name in the Twitter community, I'm Just Creative.
The blog is his personal blog for his logo design business. It includes everything from inspiration posts, showcase of his own work, and logo and typography articles. If you are big into typography and appreciate an organic approach to logo design, then this is your guy.

9. David Airey Blog

In complete contrast with the above recommendation would be logo designer David Airey's blog. I say complete contrast only due to the fact that just about every one in the logo community knows who he is. I'm not sure how many people know of Im Just Creative.
Popularity aside, David's blog is full of useful and interesting posts for logo designers and graphic designers. He has a lot of personal articles about typography, branding, logo design, and business.

10. Go Media Blog

I'm sure everyone out there knows about Go Media and their awesome vector packs, but have you ever taken the time to visit their website? If so, you have probably stumbled across their company blog. If not, you are in for a surprise.
This isn't your usual design firm blog. No, this blog is almost another division of the company altogether. This blog sports a ton of real great info for all kinds of graphic designers. From comic book artist to t-shirt designers, there is some sort of article or tutorial on this site that will help you increase your skills and teach all sorts advanced techniques not found elsewhere.

11. Core 77 Blog

It surprises me that you don't hear more about a number of the articles that come from Core 77. there are a lot of long and comprehensive graphic design articles to found here. Equally surprising is the lack of reader interaction on some of their posts.
Make no mistake though, the Core 77 blog is filled with tons of great posts that cover a variety of topics that graphic designers will appreciate. They cover a variety of topics from interviews with top designers to showcases of outstanding design, packaging, and much more.

12. Blog Spoon Graphics

There is certainly a shortage of graphic design blogs out there that really showcase Illustrator in all its glory. Lucky for us, Blog Spoon Graphics exists. In my opinion, this blog is one of the best blogs to find Illustrator related tutorials (aside from our very own Vectortuts+ site of course).
While there are a ton of great vector related tutorials on this blog, the articles I find the most interesting are the ones where blog owner, Chris, shares his design practices. There are a number of tutorials where he shares his design process from concept to completion on a number of his personal and paid projects.

13. Design is Kinky

The Design is Kinky blog is a nice place to find a wide variety of graphic design news, inspiration, and links all in one place. This graphic design blog streams a lot of more trendy related design materials.
The author definitely has a style of design that he likes and shares all the cool things he finds and comes across on the web. I'm sure his style is very much in line with a variety of you out there. Lots of designer toys, skulls, bright colors, and well...kinky design stuff. A nice blog to discover new graphic design related stuff.

14.14. Veer - The Skinny

If you are one of those designers who refuses to buy a font or pay top dollar for a stock photograph, then you probably have never truly explored the Veer website. Veer sells high quality fonts and stock resources, but also has a world of other resources as well. One of these resources being its sites main blog.
The blog covers a wide variety of graphic design related topics. Some of my favorite post they do are the ones that showcase creative posters and ad campaigns. What I like about these aside from outstanding images is that they often tell the back story behind the design which always makes for an interesting read.

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15. Anamorphosis

It seems that a number of popular graphic design blogs cover a spectrum of topics. The design blog Anamorphosis is no exception. While the blog design itself is simple, the content that graces its posts is great.
What really gets me interested in this blog is that they actually write articles about events, things they find inspiring, etc. Whereas other graphic design blogs simply share a picture they like or give you links to other sites. This site reads sort of like a newspaper. It is simple and to the point, but still engaging and informative.

16. Creative Curio

This blog would be a lot cooler if it got updated more, as the content on it is really quite educational. There are a lot of original and creative print design type tutorials there. These aren't your basic create a flyer type tutorials, but more experimental and educational tutorials to help make you a better designer by showing you how to think outside the box. There are lots of design theory type articles here that are written in a more creative manner and not like boring text book material.

 

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