60+ Essential Feeds for Freelance Web Designers
Freelance Folder recently posted an open thread asking the question “How Do You Stay Sharp?” The post has some great discussion in the comments section, where many people said that it’s through web sites and blogs that they are able to keep up to date on developments in their particular fields.
Web Design / Development Blogs You Should Be Reading
I myself have a set of design and development related blogs that I read… whether for the latest xhtml/css and WordPress tricks, for design inspiration, etc.
I asked my designer friends on Twitter which sites they thought were the best design blogs to read. You know, the old question “if you were stuck on a desert island and could only have one…” LOL
Without a doubt, the number one answer was Smashing Magazine – for good reason! But there were many others, as well. So for all of the web designers and developers out there, below are 17 essential design blogs you should be reading!
- A List Apart
- Creattica Daily
- CSS Tricks
- David Airey
- Design Mag
- DevSnippets
- Dzineblog
- Function
- Net Tuts
- Noupe
- PSD Tuts
- Script & Style
- Six Revisions
- Smashing Magazine
- Vandelay Design
- Vector Tuts
- Web Designer Wall
More Design Blogs You May or May Not Know About
aka Some Twitter Friend Link Love
The blogs above are great and very popular, but we all know there are a LOT more than this. There are a ton of great blogs out there, many of which you might never have heard of. Or if you have, they don’t quite get the publicity they deserve.
I’m eternally grateful to my Twitter friends – we’re a great bunch helping each other out with questions, retweets, Diggs, Floats, you name it… Twitter has a fantastic community feel to it. I’ve received a ton of support and link love and I want to return the favor…
So without further ado, here is a bit of a Twitter link love of my own – 46 design / development blogs of some great Twitter friends!
- Anidan Design | @josieg182
- Arbenting | @angbowen
- Athena Emily | @athenaemily
- Bitt Box | @bittbox
- Blog Design Blog | @blogdesignblog
- Boxed CSS | @boxedcss
- Brian Yerkes | @brianyerkes
- Colorburned | @colorburned
- Crazy Leaf Design Blog | @crazyleaf
- CSS Tricks | @chriscoyier
- Design Cubicle | @behoff
- Design For Users | @KrisColvin
- Design O’ Blog | @nebrow
- Design Shard | @designshard
- Designer Daily | @mirkohumbert
- Doug Cloud | @dcloud
- Ebb and Flo | @Jacen_Xhan
- Elite by Design | @EliteByDesign
- Essential Keystrokes | @charpolanosky
- Gabe Diaz | @gabediaz
- Fudge Graphics | @fudgegraphics
- Fuel Your Creativity | @adellecharles
- I Am Mike Smith | @blogdesigner
- iDesign Studios | @idesignstudios that’s me!
- Im Just Creative | @imjustcreative
- Joshua Clanton | @joshuacc
- Just Creative Design | @justcreative
- Keylime Creative | @keylimecreative
- Komodo Media | @rogieking
- Lee Munroe | @leemunroe
- Mayhem Studios | @mayhemstudios
- Naldz Graphics | @naldzgraphics
- Organized Chaos | @arronlock
- Penflare | @penflare
- Phire Design | @phiredesign
- Pro Blog Design | @problogdesign
- Productive Dreams | @gopalraju
- R27 Creative Lab | @r27
- Sean Neill | @seaneill
- Sharebrain | @sharebrain
- Spyre Mag | @jophillips
- Styl.eti.me | @styletime
- Tanya Nichols | @cre8tn
- Think Design Blog | @thinkdesign
- Union Room | @unionroom
- Web Design Fanboy | @webdesignfanboy
- WPMU Tutorials | @andrea_r
- 99 Graphic Designs | @99graphicdesign
To all of the people above, I say Thank You!
What’s In Your Feed Reader?
If you could only read 1 design related blog, what would it be?
Please share your inspiration in the comments below!
More Essential Feeds
About the Author
Selene M. Bowlby is a web designer and front-end web developer with over ten years of professional experience in the design industry. As the owner of iDesign Studios she specializes in creating custom web sites for other businesses. more » 
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Ohhh you wonderful person you. I keep on saying it, but I never tire of lists, lists and love are great. Keeps us all going and ensures a healthy flow of info and people to bore to death with.
So thanks awfully for including me, and the first list of feeds has shown me a few I didn’t really know about. So great stuff.
Thanks
Graham
ImJustCreatives last blog post..The ImJustCreative Branding Story – Part 1 – Pre History
More RSS feeds
I’m trying to keep up with 400+ already! 
Thanks for featuring Styletime!
styletimes last blog post..My mate Pablo…No Rhyme or Reason
Keeping up with trends, techniques, what works and what doesn’t is a tough job, but lists like this make it so much easier!
Thanks for including me in the list and giving me a few new people to follow!
Char
Chars last blog post..13 More Beautiful Pink for October Site Designs
I like that you included yourself Selene LOL
All the TUTS sites are incredible. Smashing Magazine and Vandelay Design are also favorites of mine.
Ben Hunt and David Airey too.
Thanks so much for this list Selene!
Easton Ellsworths last blog post..Yuor Azmanig Barin: The Bset Waeopn In Yuor Bglognig Asenarl
@Graham Yes, lists are fun…
There are so many feeds and so little time to determine which ones are most valuable. Who has the time to do that?!
Why not allow someone that’s respectable such as Selene do the hard work for you
Thanks for the list Selene…It’s a great place to start.
Arif
Arifs last blog post..Optimizing your Global Navigation links for Search Engines
Thanks for the link love! Here we go again. lol
Ooo thank you lovely! I <3 lists especially when I’m on them!
Dani McDaniels last blog post..My Favorite Firefox Add-ons
Great selection. I would have chosen all of those if it were my list. thanks for the link love! twitter rules!
Franz Jeitzs last blog post..Free Watercolour Brush Strokes: Hi-Res PS Brushes + Source Files
Hey Selene,
Thanks for the shout out! It’s always amazing when you find people doing your evangelizing for you =) See ya ’round on Twitter.
Chris Coyiers last blog post..Links of Interest
awww….. thx for the mention! means a lot to me
thomas
thomass last blog post..Color: Color Jack – Color Schemes with Tool Tips
Hi Selene – this is a top list you’ve got. I’m already following most of them. I’ve got a design blog too if you’re interested?
Blog: http://www.creativeworld.com.au/blog/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/creativeworld
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Nice collection and good idea with the Twitter links!
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Selene, great idea & I agree with Jacob on the twitter links! Thank you so much for including fuelyourcreativity.com, I really appreciate your support as well others in the design community.
Adelles last blog post..Interview with Designer, Anthony Cozzi
Great list Selene, very useful to have to hand.
And I appreciate the link.
Lee Munroes last blog post..30 Creative Twitter Theme Backgrounds
Thanks for great list. Keep up the good work !
I will check all
Hey Selene!
Thanks a ton for including SpyreMag! Really appreciate it! It’s nice to be in such good company hehe
See ya on Twitter!
Jon Phillipss last blog post..Simple Ways To Save Time With A Default Code Library
Very much appreciated, Selene! Thanks also to Easton for his personal recommendation.
Good post – thanks for the list Selene. Already have quite a few of them, so nice to see I’m on the right track for a change!
Dafydd Vaughans last blog post..60+ essential feeds for web developers
Love this list! I’m already following some of them here. Looks like there’s more to add this weekend.
Daniel Richards last blog post..10 Things: Absolute Coolness That You Can Believe In To Make Your Blog Super Awesome!
Wonderful post and a great list, few of them are really new for me. You forgot to add SmashingApps.com
An Jays last blog post..Adobe Photoshop Tutorials, Design Tips, Photo Effects, Icon Creation, Special Effects, Textures and Patterns and Much More At PSDTOP
Nice list of feeds! Good stuff! Some I have and some I don’t! Keep up the good work!
Andy Sowardss last blog post..Daily Links
Selene, thanks for including me in your list
Doug C.s last blog post..From Me To You: Happy Holidays
Thanks for the Twitter links!
@frankd2l
franks last blog post..FREE Desktop Download
Awesome list! Thanks very much for including my site!
btw, don’t know if I ever told you, but love your site design!
Nick Paganos last blog post..Free Textures: 15 High-Res Wine Cork Textures
Very nice list, definitely some blogs there I hadn’t heard of.
BTW, I run a design blog at LogoDesign.org, if you felt like adding it
Great list. Found some great new subscriptions!
Great list! Thanks for featuring Creattica and The Design O’Blog!
Niki Browns last blog post..OM*G I Want An iPhone!!!
Great list! Lots of great people and inspiration here!
Aaron Irizarrys last blog post..
Great list! I was looking for a list like this since I lost my bookmarks and found yours. Thanks!
Web Majors last blog post..Desiging with tables
Thanks for the mention Selene. Lot’s of designers to follow there!
Michael Martins last blog post..Design Review: 21 Gun Studios
Great List. Made some new twitter friends.
Brad Stricklands last blog post..The Ten Commandments of Twitter
I love your blog. Keep up the great work. Beautiful designs btw.
sandy
megastarmedia.com
So many lists out there but still adding new ones on my reader. Thanx for that
Gerasimoss last blog post..
Thanks for including my website!
I wasn’t following much on Twitter/Google reader these few days and i just saw this
Thanks again!
I’ve just recommended this post to my Twitter followers, because this is too good to be missed. Now I’m going to bookmark it at Delicious.
Thank you for compiling this list, Selene. Great job. I’m not a web designer, but I’m very interested in the topic. Therefore, all (good) links are more than welcome.
Karen @ SEO Writing Servicess last blog post..Sample SEO Articles
First of all I want to say that I have bookmarked this page and have also recommended some of my twitter friends to go through it. Thanks Selene for such a great list.
Nandini@HIPs Consultants last blog post..Privacy Policy of Greenarch, a HIP Solution provider in UK
Nice list, Thanks
Rishi Luchuns last blog post..New website!
nice list but maybe tooo long… tired to browse time return to work…
Daliuss last blog post..Meomi
Thank you for the link love Selene. Lists like this are a great way of communicating some people that other don’t know about. Here comes more Follows!
AJ Troxells last blog post..Free Wallpaper – Vintage Stripes
Good list! I picked up a few new tweet peeps.
Brad Stricklands last blog post..Super Secret Twitter Giveaway: LaCie d2 Quadra Hard Disk 500GB Hard Drive
Wow, this list is overwhelming! But in a good way of course…
Hi, love the list i’ll check out the feeds. Who needs to do any design when you can spend all day reading blogs.
great list, I included you on my blog roll Selene, great stuff you got here, I am always looking for new people websites to explore. I also think css play is a great resources that is often over looked, I think its one of the best design resources around.
What a great list!!!
I’ve heard of quite a few of these, but there are also many I have not visited before.One of my personal favourites that doesn’t appear to be on the list is:
http://www.queness.com
the tutorials on it are great!