The 10 Most amazing web design blogs for inspiration

Every now and then it is important for a designer to look around for resources and inspiration. There are many web design blogs around, but there are only a few that stand out from the crowd.

Check out the list of the 10 most amazing web design blogs for inspiration, learning new techniques, understanding trends and keeping up to date of what’s going on in the web design world.

1. A List Apart

Launched by Brian M. Platz in 1997 as a mailing list, A List Apart has gathered more than 16.000 members on the first couple of months after it has been created. Therefore the founder decided to launch the online “magazine” in 1998 to fill the blank left about this new profession that was appearing.

Excerpt: “I launched the A List Apart website in in 1998 partly because the two leading web design magazines of the time, although brilliant, did not cover “web design” as I was coming to understand the profession.”

A List Apart is the first in this list because we consider it one of the most intelligent websites about web design, coding and content around.

2. Smashing Magazine

Of course we couldn’t speak of the “most interesting design blogs” without talking about Smashing Magazine. Founded in September of 2006 by Vitaly Friedman this blog delivers useful and innovative information to web designers and developers. With about 900 posts published (as of the beginning of 2010) we can say that this website delivers a lot of inspiration for many people.

3. Webdesigner Depot (WDD)

Those guys rock! They’ve created this site around the end of 2008 (not sure – but it grew really fast!) and after a couple of years it’s boosting in quality content, has thousands of followers on Twitter and is, for sure, one of the big players around if you’re looking for quality web design content.

As they say: “Webdesigner Depot is an exciting new platform designed to explore different web and graphic design techniques, great examples and best practices.”

If you don’t already know them, go check this site out, ASAP!

4. Web Designer Wall

WebDesignerWall features a ton of great information for web designers! Articles that goe from best CSS practices to free icon sets and WordPress tips. The blogs design can be a bit disturbing sometimes (although very beautiful), but the content is awesome!

5. Abduzeedo

My fellow Brazilian Fabio Sasso (I lived there for 28 years), also known as “Abduzeedo (he tells himself “abducted by design”), created this blog at the end of 2006 based on his own experimentations with Photoshop and Pixelmator and it became a very famous source of tutorials and design inspiration.

Fabio plays around and shows the steps on how he achieved certain image manipulations (tutorials), but his blog has become an infinite source of design inspiration as well, with “daily inspiration” posts every day and tons of references to other great design sources.

6. Line25

Line25 is a design and reference blog created by Chris Spooner in March of 2009. Since then the site had a great reception among designers and grew at an exponential rate, becoming one of the main resources for web design articles and inspiration.

7. Six Revisions

Although not liking their user interface and design very much, Six Revisions, founded by professional web developer/designer Jacob Gube in February of 2008, has become a mainstream of information for web designers. Many authors from all around the world support and create quality content for this website daily.

8. DESIGNM.AG

Mainly feeded by its huge community from all around the world, Designm.ag has rapidly become a great place to look for design resources, freelancing tips, tutorial and, of course, design inspiration.

9. NetTuts

NetTuts is one of the websites of the huge Envato Network. Started by Collis Ta’eed in 2006 with PSDTuts, the Australian company Envato provides internet professionals with many marketplaces but also very useful and informational websites, including NetTuts, which covers HTML, CSS, Javascript, CMS’s, PHP and Ruby on Rails. NetTuts also provides people with a lot of freebies, video tutorials and articles about web design.

10. SohTanaka

This is actually the personal page of SohTanaka, but it’s a website that deserves being on this list. On his web design blog, Soh always writes very useful articles targeted for web designers and coders who love great quality code and best practices. His tips range from CSS/HTML Tricks to SEO Best Practices to be found locally.

And what about the other great sites not listed here?

Ok, we know, there are still many other great web design blogs out there and we know it. Since we tried to list the most important design blogs here, there are many left out. Some of them include BuildInternet, CSS Tricks,  Noupe (love it!), HongKiat, Tutorial9 and many, many others. The top-ten list here represents the blogs/websites we come across the most while browsing around looking for inspiration, trends and great articles.

Feel free to add any other useful resource you use the most commenting below. We hope this information is useful for you!

A little more about jwaldeck

Jan (which is more like "yawn" than "Jenn") has German citizenship (American too), was born in Colombia and raised in São Paulo, Brazil - where he spent most of his life. Jan has been a nerd forever. He strives for pixel perfect designs, great user interfaces & clean code, loves tennis and is currently exploring new pursuits such as blogging, photography and skiing.

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