18 best graphic design blogs

Graphic design plays a large role in UI design. Furthermore, a great UI design boosts UX tenfold. It makes sense that, as a UX designer, you have a solid knowledge base of the fundamentals of graphic design. Following graphic design blogs can be a great way to keep your creative sword sharp!

Regularly checking graphic design blogs and reading about the topic will help you keep track of the current trends and how they’re evolving. It will splash you with the zesty juice of inspiration when you hit a brick wall, as well as help you come up with creative solutions to common UI design problems.

But it’s not just designers who can benefit from following graphic design blogs. If you’re a product manager or a UXer from a non-creative background, you too can benefit from adding a bit of creative imagery and prose to your weekly reading list.

In this post, we’ll explore exactly how regularly exposing yourself to the graphic design world can help boost your career. We’ve also thrown in a list of the top 18 graphic design blogs.

Digital graphic design plays a large role in UI design. It helps to constantly read graphic design blogs that will provide you with tips on typography, logo styles guides and color palettes. Elements like these can have a huge impact on a product’s branding and usability. As a UX designer, it’s also crucial to know how things like typography can affect aspects like visual hierarchy.

But that’s not the only reason why you should read graphic design blogs. They also help you to stay abreast of the latest trends and developments in the design industry. Why is that important, you ask?

Following or not following certain graphic design trends can affect the UI design of whatever product you’re working on, and thus, affect the UX of that product. Trends often develop for a reason, and are very seldomly just random changes. It’s crucial for you to be on trend as well as getting yourself a professional prototyping tool.

For example, flat design came out of a genuine need to simplify user interfaces, reduce cognitive load and to help web browsers load pages faster. Subsequently, flat design 2 came about as a result of some much-needed depth that flat design didn’t have.

But what about originality? That’s important too, right? How do you become a trendsetter and break out of the current status quo? The answer is by knowing what the current trends are. Only when you’re aware of the current trends and understand them, can you answer back with your own unique and original designs.

However, learning about trends isn’t the only way graphic design blogs can help inspire you. The fact that many blogs showcase work from other designers means they are a goldmine for inspiration.

Regularly exposing ourselves to the work of other designers can provide us with a fresh perspective. Seeing the work of others might open us up to new ideas, to avenues that we hadn’t considered traversing before.

After all, much of a designer’s work, or indeed, any creative person’s work is often inspired by the toil of others. Therefore, both experienced and beginner designers alike can benefit hugely from regularly exposing themselves to other people’s creative accomplishments.

As graphic designer Gareth David said in his Youtube video, What is Graphic Design, design is about “thinking, problem solving and practicality”. It’s about finding a solution to a problem. Following graphic design blogs is not only a great way to get inspired, but also a way to think outside the box.

“It’s [design] not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

									 - Steve Jobs 								

Here’s why: following other niches of graphic design can help you come up with creative solutions to problem solving. Let’s say you work solely in digital UI design, that doesn’t mean that you can’t, and shouldn’t take inspiration from other niches.

A stark example of this would be the use of print design in VR app UIs. Once again gaining much traction in the app development market, VR app designs often take inspiration from traditional print. That is because this type of design works better when space and distance become factors. By using print design in VR apps, designers were able to solve a usability problem by applying traditional graphic design concepts.

When it comes to the need to solve problems in the web or app development cycle, a product manager and a designer will be on common ground.

If, as a product manager, you can speak and understand the language of the designer – it can help your exchanges with the design team run more smoothly and efficiently. You don’t have to be a professional designer, but it does help to be able to understand terms like contrast, hierarchy and alignment.

Furthermore, if you develop your taste for graphic design as a product manager, you’ll be able to appreciate and understand the artistic decisions taken by the design team. This will benefit the overall aesthetic and branding of any product in the development cycle. Finding the time to read and follow graphic design blogs can be a huge help with this.

The only problem comes in knowing where to start when it comes to reading graphic design blogs. There’s a lot of variety out there on the web, so that’s why we’ve taken the time to narrow down your search, so you don’t have to!

Here’s our hand-picked list of the top 18 best graphic design blogs around.

First on the list is Creative Bloq, a graphic design blog that covers all areas of graphic design, from 3D art and illustration to motion and animation.

If you’re looking for creative and artistic inspiration, they also have a decent collection of different art works readily available for your perusal. What we like about this blog is the fact that it also includes many free materials and resources to help you build on and hone your design skills on a daily basis.

The downside? Apart from being a particularly useful aid to UI designers, it’s not the most aesthetically appealing UIs at first glance. However, we guarantee the content is well worth a browse.

Made by Folk is a graphic design blog that was put together by a bunch of artists, illustrators and programmers who want a space to share their favorite artwork. It’s the type of graphic design blog that any budding or experienced designer should have in their bookmarks.

Made by Folk features many design categories such as “Graphic”, “Typographic”, “Screen prints” and more. It’s a great way to keep up with design trends throughout the world and to get inspiration for UI design.

The only downside for those who prefer a bit of in-depth reading is that there’s not much of it to be found on this graphic design blog. They prefer to let their graphic design prints do most of the talking.

If you’re looking for practical interactive content to help sharpen your graphic design skills, Envato Tuts + is the right place to come to.

Envato has a great selection of Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, Django and other graphic design-related tutorials, that are practically short courses of which the longest doesn’t last more than a few hours.

There’s also an astonishing number of educational ebooks available for you to read on the go, if you’re searching for more in-depth reading about graphic design. Additionally, their community section features a nice array of informal, easy-to-read posts on graphic design.

The downside? It can be a little difficult to find their blog, which is located in the community section of their website and not entirely intuitive at first glance.

Know what the best graphic design blogs to trust are? The ones that have an awesome graphic design, of course!

Telepathy inspires confidence with an appealing design that draws you in to learn more – from the appealing visuals to the compelling headlines, you can’t help but click on something when you land on their homepage.

The downside to this blog is that when you first land on their homepage, it’s not quite clear where on the page you can start scrolling, as there’s a large section that’s static. Another problem is that the design section is one big standalone category with all types of design blended together – it can be hard to find the posts relating specifically to graphic design.

If you’re looking for visual inspiration, then The Design Blog is the place to go. Set up by designer Ena Bacanovic, a Croatia-based designer, it offers a broad collection of work from design studios from around the globe.

What we particularly like about this graphic design blog is the large emphasis it places on the younger designers out there, giving them a medium through which to showcase their work.

Everything on this graphic design blog has been succinctly laid out in specific categories, from sticker design to digital design. This makes what you’re looking for very easy to find, but also allows you to discover and navigate to other niche categories.

However, it can be a little difficult to find the actual categories. But we assure you, they are there – they’re just underneath the advertisements. You have to scroll down a bit in order to see them.

Dribbble is a website that allows designers from all around the world to create an account and submit their digital art for anyone to view and use with their permission. It’s a great way for designers to introduce work and receive feedback on their designs.

They also have a great blog that has many entries from professional graphic designers. However, Dribbble is a highly visual website and so is their graphic design blog. If you’re looking for in-depth reading, you’ll be hard pressed to find any here. Nonetheless, the content they do have is of great quality and written by professional designers.

If you’re looking for some font inspiration, then Typeroom is the place to go. It does exactly what it says on the label (“Glorifying, eclectic typography”) which is to provide you with boundless inspiration for different font layouts. They also provide tips for achieving the perfect aesthetic and hierarchy with font.

The best thing about this graphic design blog is that it provides eye-grabbing inspiration, while at the same time, showing you how certain design problems can be tackled by just using font alone.

The downside? The navigation menu on this graphic design blog can be a little confusing at the best of times. And if you’re looking for downloadables, you may be a little disappointed.

UC Creative is a graphic design blog that promises to feed you all the latest industry trends in a mouthful.

Not only is it a great place to get up to date with current trends in the graphic design world, but it’s also a brilliant blog just for browsing. It features plenty of interesting and quirky blog posts with everything from chalkboard fonts to tips on visual hierarchy.

This graphic design blog is also a great accompaniment to professional designers, as well as a solid introduction for beginners to the graphic design world, as there is something for everyone.

The only thing missing on this graphic design blog is some enticing imagery. However, it’s still a great one-stop shop for the odd burst of inspiration!

If you’re looking for a highly visual graphic design blog for inspiration, then Abduzeedo could be your gig. This graphic design blog is composed of individual writers who contribute posts in their respective design fields, such as photography, UX and graphic design. You’ll even find posts on speciality areas like typography.

Interestingly, this graphic design blog also places quite a high focus on 3D design work, which is still not such a common theme on most design blogs nowadays. It’s also a great place for photoshop and illustrator enthusiasts of all levels. Abduzeedo gets it just right in terms of finding the perfect balance of training materials and inspirational items.

The only deterrent might be discovered by readers in a rush who probably won’t be able to find the design posts they’re looking for. This is because the layout of the blog doesn’t let you search by categories or provide a search bar. Additionally, the order of the content, like with many graphic design blogs, can seem a bit random.

Digital Arts is a British graphic design blog that’s aimed at professional designers. It aims to supply posts that discuss the various best practices and techniques of the industry, along with providing useful resources for designers.

Interestingly, you’ll also find inspiration drawn from other areas of design, like fashion, album-covers, branding and much more. Moreover, this graphic design blog boasts some pretty cool tutorials from how to design screenprints with photoshop to creating VFX animations.

Another useful section for professional designers is the review section where you can find many posts rating recently released design software and tools.

The only setback of this graphic design blog is that the section for Google advertisements is difficult to distinguish from other sections in the blog at a glance, giving the site a bit of a claustrophobic feel and causing distraction.

If you’re looking for a graphic design blog that has a solid history and design foundation, look no further Creative Review, which was founded back in 1980. Also from the UK, they prize themselves on being the world’s top monthly magazine in terms of visual design and advertising.

The posts on this graphic design blog feature a broad range of journalistic-standard writing, news and reviews about various design topics. You might want to bookmark this one if you want to keep abreast of all the latest developments in the design world.

While you can find plenty of posts to do with graphic design, this blog provides a more abstract inspiration on the practice of design, more so than actual artwork.

There’s a terrifying amount of graphic design blogs out there that really don’t look like they were made by designers for designers. Many have a cluttered, out-dated feel, but that’s not the case with the Noupe graphic design blog.

Noupe has a fresh, young feel, instilling you with the confidence that you’ll always find the latest trends in the design world on their blog. You can also find many entertaining posts that cover everything from product photography to how to use Google fonts in Photoshop.

The only thing we’d change is the navigation of the site. However, they do provide a search bar to explore the 2,500+ articles in their database.

The Inspiration Grid is a graphic design blog that promises to provide you with the inspiration you need for any kind of design activity. Contributed to by independent designers, the site’s content is organized around lists of images that combine to create a specific theme or mood.

Each post starts off with a short introduction of the artist, the theme and the goal of the project, followed by a list of images that you can scroll through. The general idea is very similar to that created by mood boards.

The only downside to this blog is that, like Dribbble, if you’re looking for some in-depth reading, you won’t really find it here, as this is a more visual blog. However, depending on your schedule or how you like to consume your content, that might not necessarily be a downside!

If it’s typeface inspiration and downloadable fonts you’re looking for, then Fonts In Use Blog is the graphic design blog to go to. The website of this blog features an archive of typefaces that you can search for by format and industry.

The archive features an impressive repertoire of fonts, along with their history and practical uses. The best thing? You can also download any of their fonts for reuse.

Many of the fonts available for download aren’t free and can be a bit pricey. However, it’s a great place for designers of all levels to learn about the fundamentals of typography!

If you want a wide overview of all things graphic design, then head to Graphic Design Junction. Their graphic design blog features a multitude of posts that cover every aspect of graphic design.

The topics you can find include photography, fonts, typography, logos and just about every other aspect of graphic design you could think of. Whether it’s inspirational illustrations you’re after, or Photoshop tutorials, they’ve got you covered for just about everything.

They’ve also got a great assortment of freebies, from logos and fonts, to vectors and add-ons, depending on what you’re after.

The only thing that’s a bit off-putting about the blog is the glaring advertisement right in the center of the screen that adds quite a bit of noise and clutter to the homepage.

If you’re someone who likes to get to the point or likes lists (and you also happen to want to read about graphic design), then One Extra Pixel should be your next port of call.

All of One Extra Pixel’s graphic design blog posts are written as listicles and cover a wide range of topics, from graphic design through to web and digital design. Their posts also include images for each item on the list, making them great posts to read on the go or if you’re in a rush.

The only gripe is that you won’t find many downloadables on this graphic design blog, or in-depth reading. But, as always, it depends on what you’re looking for.

Remember how we said it’s good to look to other niches within graphic design when it comes to inspiration and thinking outside the box? The Dieline is a graphic design blog that will help you do just that.

The Dieline’s blog includes entries covering just about everything to do with graphic design. You can expect to find a broad list of topics ranging from color trends to digital design, logo trends and packaging design.

Even the visuals of this graphic design blog are striking! From the brutalist fonts to the simple user interface and large, captivating imagery, you can be sure to find something that piques your interest.

If we had to mention one slight annoyance of this site, it would have to be the rather confusing filter options that features a series of unusual dropdowns and lacks a “Go” or “Search” button.

Lastly, we have a slightly different suggestion – Gabby Lord’s blog on things that apparently make her say “oh my god”.

Gabby is a graphic designer and art director and the great thing about her blog OMGLORD is that the whole site is composed of lists of design resources and examples that she finds useful and interesting. It’s like having someone research all the materials for a crash course in graphic design!

It can however, be a bit confusing to navigate the page when you first land on it. It may not be immediately obvious that the list panel on the left controls what’s displayed on to the right of the screen.

Obviously, depending on the kind of work you do, what background you’re coming from and what type of design you do, some graphic design blogs will be more helpful than others. For optimal results, you should base the types of blogs you follow around the following:

• Your line of work
• The type of UI design required of your job
• The type of clients or company you work for
• The type of branding you want to enforce
• How you like to consume content

Deciding on these factors can help you narrow down the perfect blogs that will help boost your job performance and enhance your general knowledge of design. As we’ve said before, knowing about all facets of graphic design is a great benefit, but certain blogs will definitely be of more benefit than others, depending on where you find yourself in your career.