If you’ve worked as a graphic designer for any length of time, you may feel a bit dried up on inspiration. While there are many ways to find your design mojo again, one key way is to read the best blogs for graphic designers to see what’s trending and get tips and ideas from other designers.
Knowing you need to read the best blogs for graphic designers is the easy part — but finding the blogs that stand out from the crowd is a bit harder. Luckily, we’ve done the work for you and found the best blogs for graphic designers.
Jump to: Friends of Type | Design Week | Fonts in Use | High on Design | Type Toy | Create | The Dieline | Ministry of Type | TDB | Creative Review | The Type Directors Club | AIGA Eye on Design | Type Theory | eLearning Brothers | Trend List | Digital Arts | Eye Magazine | Made By Folk | Abduzeedo | Noupe | Design Soak | Logo Design Love | Shillington Education | Creative Bloq
1. Friends of Type
Friends of Type is a blog dedicated to hand-lettered fonts. The images are full-size to better feature the beautiful lettering. You’ll find typographic inspiration on the blog. The site lists four men who contribute their designs to the site: Aaron Carambula, Erik Marinovich, Dennis Payongayong and Jason Wong. The designs are quite varied, likely due to the various styles of the four contributing.
Back to Top
2. Design Week
This U.K.-based magazine used to be in print but is now exclusively online. Find articles on a wide range of design topics, including current trending topics. Design Week features articles on up and coming designers, new technology and the latest tools and courses to help you become the best designer you can possibly be. The site also takes a look back at designs from the past, because you can’t know where you’re going as a designer if you don’t understand where you’ve been.
Back to Top
3. Fonts in Use
Fonts in Use solves a problem many graphic designers have. It’s one thing to see a font on a website and think it might work well in a design, but seeing fonts used within an actual design brings an entirely new level to the work. This blog features a variety of font styles and also shows how other designers are using those fonts in their day-to-day work. This provides inspiration and a more three-dimensional look at how a font might be used.
Back to Top
4. High on Design
High on Design is a unique blog that focuses on the business side as well as the inspirational side of graphic design work. The blog offers how-to guides, features of some of today’s top designers and provides tips on answering questions you’ll be asked in an interview to get hired as a designer. You’ll also find templates for portfolio sites, details on designing different types of projects (such as websites) and in-depth research.
Back to Top
5. Type Toy
Type Toy is a rather eclectic design blog. It features art showing different types of typography over the years. You’ll find old movie posters, comic book cover designs and a few logos scattered in the mix. The site is set up around the images, with the community tagging, sharing and interacting with the various images on the site and their creators. It’s more of a micro-blog of images, along the lines of Instagram.
Back to Top
6. Create
Create is Adobe’s website and features many different designs made possible by their software. The site features artists and agencies and the digital media they create, but it also digs deeper and offers articles on topics such as old typefaces and recreating them or creating specific design looks. The site is divided into categories such as graphic design, photography, illustration and motion graphics.
Back to Top
7. The Dieline
The Dieline describes itself as a packaging design blog and they provide just that element in their posts. When you land on their blog, you’ll see big, beautiful images of package designs from around the world. The focus might be on meat package designs and showcase a number of brands or it might be on a specific design and why it works. If you’re designing a product package, this site provides insight and inspiration.
Back to Top
8. Ministry of Type
If you’re looking for a site that considers the theory of typography, then Ministry of Type is an excellent choice for your needs. This blog looks at brands and the little details that go into an amazing logo design. Articles include a look at topics such as mobile responsive logos and calligraphic creatures. If you want to know something unique about type, this is the place to go.
Back to Top
9. TDB
TDB — “the design blog” — proves that one of the best ways to learn good design is to study good design. They feature the best designs from all over the globe, showcasing what designers do well. Their tag line is, “Don’t just be a designer, be a good one.” They back up that statement by showing everything from architecture to fonts and featuring a stellar designer of the week whose work is sure to inspire you. You’ll also find specific articles on topics such as t-shirt design and brand identity.
Back to Top
10. Creative Review
Have you ever wondered what other designers are up to? Creative Review looks at the way design impacts the world around us. Articles cover topics such as photographing major sporting events, the collections of specific artists and interesting reads about designers around the world. You’ll find designs for beer mats, fonts and even films. No matter what you want to create, you will likely find inspiration here.
Back to Top
11. The Type Directors Club
The Type Directors Club features news and events focused around typography. The publication has been around for more than 70 years. In addition to covering news of upcoming events, they also offer a number of competitions and scholarships for up-and-coming designers. The blog is run by the organization, so you can also join to stay aware of news and events for designers.
Back to Top
12. AIGA Eye on Design
AIGA is a professional club for designers and their Eye on Design publication digs deep into the history of design, where it is today and where it’s headed tomorrow. For example, they might feature an article about the courting rituals of a specific bird and how it inspires a specific typeface design. The topics are extremely in-depth and work well for advanced designers. However, they also feature beginner topics for those just getting started in the field of design.
Back to Top
13. Type Theory
Have you ever wished you could look at someone else’s sketchbook and see how they work through their own designs? Seeing how others work allows you to refine your creative process as well. Type Theory takes this concept and brings it online by opening up the sketchbooks of other designers and explaining the process behind those designs.
Back to Top
14. eLearning Brothers
Want to learn some new design tips or techniques? eLearning Brothers features numerous tutorials that show you how to achieve different design elements in your own work. You will find PowerPoint tips, graphic design tips and instructional design tips on their blog. Their webinars include training topics such as creating SVG graphics in PowerPoint. They frequently add new topics, so check back often to enhance your learning skills.
Back to Top
15. Trend List
Wondering what the latest trends in design are? Trend List features what’s hot at any given moment. While you shouldn’t just design to trend, as they change so quickly, you can certainly find inspiration that will allow you to create sites that are current and desirable for your clients or enhance your logos and other designs with unique features other designers may not yet be using.
Back to Top
16. Digital Arts
Digital Arts is the United Kingdom’s magazine for designers, but much of the material has a global slant and applies to people anywhere in the world. The blog digs into the history of artists and offers tutorials on how to create specific effects with software such as Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. In addition to the valuable advanced design techniques, the site offers a jobs page for career-seekers in the digital arts field. It is a complete solution for U.K. designers and an excellent resource for those in other locales.
Back to Top
17. Eye Magazine
This blog provides a wide range of trending ideas for designers, such as topics on visual culture and design tips. You’ll find critiques of some of the more current designs and learn what other designers do well and what needs improving. The magazine goes in-depth on topics such as displays at museums and reviews of books on design elements, as well as lessons on issues such as cinematic view and a historical look at specific types of graphics. Some universities subscribe to the print version of this magazine, so the articles have a more academic slant than other blogs.
Back to Top
18. Made by Folk
A group of designers started this blog in 2007 in order to collect the best work out there and showcase it for readers. The blog features a design, and then analyzes it and opens it for study and discussion on social media. It provides links to items, such as beautifully designed greeting cards and prints in case you want a copy of your own. It also offers podcasts on topics such as starting a type foundry or interviews with rising design stars.
Back to Top
19. Abduzeedo
Good luck remembering the name of this blog, but the word “abduzeedo” means abducted in Portuguese. A collection of designers and creative types run the site and contribute material. Topics include articles on photography, design and user experience (UX). The topics range from daily design inspiration to thoughts about what a redesigned 1989 Game Boy would look like today.
Back to Top
20. Noupe
Although the focus of this blog is on more than just graphic design, the site offers in-depth details every designer needs, as well as some website owner tips to help with marketing and a user-centered approach. The target audience for the site is designers and web developers, and it features topics such as CSS, graphics, typography and web design. You’ll even learn about tips for supporting elements, such as protecting your website from cyber attacks and how to make an app financially stable.
Back to Top
21. Design Soak
Are you hunting for inspiration for your next project? Design Soak features examples of amazing design work from around the world. Each feature looks at a specific design and then explains why it works and how to repeat the best elements yourself. Posts include all types of art and design, such as quilled paper portraits, recycled furniture design and posters.
Back to Top
22. Logo Design Love
Logo Design Love is the blog of designer David Airey and named after his book of the same name. He covers a range of design-related topics, including a look at the business side of graphic design. He digs deep into specific designs and why they have meaning, such as Pixar’s logo and the hopping desk lamp or Moonpig’s decision to lose the space pig the brand started with.
Back to Top
23. Shillington Education
One thing every good designer knows is you never stop growing and adding skills to your resume. Shillington Education offers a free blog and shares its knowledge of good design in a series of posts that serve as mini-lessons. Course studies include information on avoiding common design mistakes, top fonts of 2019 and tips for embarking on a career as a graphic designer. While it doesn’t give up all its secrets, there is a lot of valuable material and inspiration on this blog.
Back to Top
24. Creative Bloq
If you’re looking for a blog with daily tips, Creative Bloq offers posts every day of the week. You’ll find information on nearly every design angle you can think of, including three-dimensional, animation and illustration. A complete collection of how-to articles explains how to complete various techniques and offers inspirational examples of similar designs.
Back to Top
More Blogs out There
We’ve listed what we feel are the best design and typography blogs online today. However, new blogs spring up every week and old blogs get revamped. Watch your social media feeds for interesting posts and keep an eye out for blogs you love that inspire you to stretch yourself as a designer and become better and better at what you do.
About The Author
Eleanor Hecks is the Editor-in-Chief of Designerly Magazine, an online publication dedicated to providing in-depth content from the design and marketing industries. When she's not designing or writing code, you can find her exploring the outdoors with her husband and dog in their RV, burning calories at a local Zumba class, or curled up with a good book with her cats Gem and Cali.
You can find more of Eleanor's work at www.eleanorhecks.com.
Really , they are good tips on graphic design
Nice blogs. Thank you for the tips on graphic design. I like the idea that you shared for us. Very useful.
My favorite one is “AIGA Eye on Design”.
This year, we partnered with AIGA to provide limited edition prints (created exclusively for SF Design week) for sale to the public.
Thanks for sharing this useful tips will be helpful for graphic designer.
Thank you so much for sharing an amazing article, i got so many points after reading this article, it’s use full.
Great list of the top blog that can help newbie to learn graphic designing.
I am new in this domain and your tips will be helpful for me.
The talented hands of graphic designers are everywhere. This is a very interesting and very challenging job.
A great list. Some of them are new to me so it’ll be great to get a new perspective and get some new inspiration! Thanks for sharing.