25 Must-Read Blogs for Freelance Designers
Posted June 23, 2009 in Graphic Design, Tools/Resources, Web Design
So far at FreelanceFolder we’ve had a showcase of 20 Must-Read blogs for Freelance Writers, and also a showcase of 20 Must-Read blogs for Online Entrepreneurs — so it’s only fitting to add to this collection of lists and showcase 25 must-read blogs for freelance designers.
It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to sharpen your skills as a vector designer, a photoshop designer, a website designer or if you’re just looking for resources, inspiration and freebies (like brushes & icons), the websites below will give you everything you’re looking for. I’d definitely suggest checking them all out and subscribing to each of their RSS feeds (I’ve got them all in my feed reader).
Vector Design Blogs
Below are some great blogs specifically written for those of us who are looking for vector tutorials and resources.
Vectortuts

Vector Diary

Vectips

Photoshop Design Blogs
Below are some great blogs specifically written for those of us who are looking for photoshop tutorials and resources.
General Design Blogs
Below are blogs that will help you move forward in every aspect of design – photoshop, vector, web design, ect
Abduzeedo

You The Designer

DesignM.ag

Naldz Graphics

Six Revisions

Think Design

Smashing Magazine

Tutorial9

Vandelay Design

Web Design Ledger

Web Designer Depot

Design Newz

Spyre Studios

Arbenting

Design Shard

My Ink Blog

1st Web Designer

The Design Cubicle

What do you think? Do you use read any of these blogs regularly? Do you know of other Must-Read blogs for designers that should be added to the list?
Share your recommendations in the comments.
Related posts:
- 20 Must-Read Blogs For Freelance Writers
- 20 Must-Read Blogs for Online Entrepreneurs
- 27 Indispensible Resources for Graphic Designers
- 25 Tutorials for Advanced Freelance Web Designers
- 33 New Design Blogs with Great Content & Resources
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95 Comments
David Leggett
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:45 amThanks for including us Mike, really appreciate the mention :) Outstanding list of blogs!
Smashing Magazine image doesn’t seem to be loading for me, but it sure is a great site!
Mason Hipp
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:19 amHey David, your site is always worth the mention, I’m glad Mike included it :-)
Thanks for the catch on the SmashingMag image break, I’ve gone and fixed it now (was my fault to begin with).
Cheers,
— Mason
Katherine Gaskin
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:20 amGreat list!
Might I also suggest http://www.freelanceswitch.com/
Luis Lopez
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:18 pmGreat list, maybe u could’ve included, GoMediaZine is a great site also.
Great list
Mike Smith
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm@David – you’re welcome. Your site kicks some major ass – would be dumb of me to leave it out ;)
@Katherine – freelance switch is an awesome site, but it’s not geared at designers like the rest of the sites are.
@Luis – Thanks, GoMediaZine is definitely another one thats well worth the time to read.
Steven Snell
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:58 pmMike,
Thanks for including Vandelay Design and DesignM.ag. I appreciate being considered with these other great sites.
Mike Smith
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:13 pm@Steven – no problem. Your sites are great.
Daniel Hunninghake
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:41 pmFantastic list. Hopefully doesn’t drain too much of my time :) …but it’s always nice following what other freelancers are blogging about.
Angie Bowen
June 24th, 2009 at 3:11 amThis is a great list, I read all of these blogs and really get a lot out of them. Thank you so much for including Arbenting among such great company.
Audee Velasco
June 24th, 2009 at 4:04 amI admit I haven’t visited some of these blog.. for sure thats the next thing I will do after reading this post! Thanks!
Danh ba web 2.0
June 24th, 2009 at 5:17 amGreat sites, thanks a lot !
Nikhil
June 24th, 2009 at 9:14 amThis is a great list….
I read nearly all the blogs daily….
Jo
June 24th, 2009 at 9:29 amThanks, this is a great list. Another one, just for plain and simple freebies is http://lordofdesign.com
Jeremy Darko
June 25th, 2009 at 2:56 pmThanks for the list. I do read most of them. I haven’t heard of all of them & I do not read them everyday, but as often as I can. Abduzeedo is amazing and I think Smashing Mag has to be my personal favorite as they incorporate everything. You should also include http://dzineblog.com which is another great resource for designers.
christian
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:26 amGreat List. Another one specific to print related design: http://printedproof.com get the feed or email if you order printing online, save some money.
Brian Hoff
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:13 pmThanks for including the Design Cubicle among your list. Really great blogs listed here and honored to be among so many greats. Thanks!
Geeee
July 4th, 2009 at 8:37 amThat’s really a great collection pro .. thx a lot for sharing the great resources … keep up the good posts :)
supremegraphx
July 7th, 2009 at 3:12 pmkeep up the good work. love these resources you have here. gonna take days to go through each one of these sites
everytime i clean up my bookmarks i come across a whole rack of new bookmarks that i need to orginize again lol thanks guys
Infrastruktur
October 30th, 2009 at 2:11 pmI currently read only one or two of these on a regular basis… although a few of them are bookmarked (I just never get around to them).
I try and visit Brian Hoff’s blog (The Design Cubicle) as often as possible. I follow him on Twitter, and just subscribed to him via RSS. That’s how I found this article.
Good list!
Dan Ryland
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:55 pmI would also include…
http://www.line25.com
http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/
http://mediamilitia.com/
Otherwise a great list! Thanks
Karol
February 23rd, 2010 at 5:14 amI could recommend one more blog to General Design Blogs category.
It’s tspot.pl: http://en.tspot.pl
Hope you enjoy it.
adri_rory
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:27 amGreat list you have here ! Many of them I didn’t know about :)
Thanks !
Matthew Richards
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:30 pmIt’s interesting to me how so many of these sites catering to designers and developers use a relatively small hand full of web templates. I frequently hack templates to my own ends, but so many in these lists look so much the same. Just an observation and not so much a criticism.
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January 26th, 2011 at 5:29 pmHopefully doesn’t drain too much of my time :) …but it’s always nice following what other freelancers are blogging about.
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February 17th, 2011 at 5:04 am{Excellent article|Great read}, thanks for sharing it.
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February 17th, 2011 at 5:07 amJust came upon your post and will review other ones. Looks like seriously good stuff.
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February 19th, 2011 at 5:08 pmAwesome list you have share with us. Those sites are awesome. Another great site is http://designersdigest.co/
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March 29th, 2011 at 7:51 amUnfortunately, some blogs in the DoFollow list are actually nofollow blogs. In order to cleanup the directory and weed out dead blogs and nofollow blogs, I have asked users to report those blogs as they come across them.
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March 31st, 2011 at 5:46 amGreat list. Had a look through and some good tutorials to try out…Keep them coming.
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