As a sort of follow-up to my previous post, in which I stated that we standards-based web designers need to start talking more about graphic design, rather than just standards, usability, and accessibility, I’d like to invite you to drop a few links to some of your favorite graphic design resources. In particular, I’m interested in blogs, forums, and other social, collaborative types of sites. I do not care if they are web-oriented or not (in fact, I’d almost prefer they were not). What I am looking for is sites that are more interested in discussing design itself, and not the technology behind it. I’m not interested in CSS tips, Photoshop tutorials, or semantic markup discussions. I’m interested in brand identity, color theory, typography, design styles, design trends, etc. I’ll start with a few of my favorites:
001 // Shaun Inman // 11.22.2004 // 11:49 PM
Less blog, more collaboration, Designologue is focused almost exclusively on collaborative communication through visuals. Browse the top rated for some sweet work—but even some of the less skillfully executed DSNLGs have valuable discussion about the reason’s for a particular designs failings.
002 // Jeff Croft // 11.22.2004 // 11:53 PM
Thanks, Shaun. I should have mentioned DSNLG, as it’s one of my favorites to be sure. I was thinking of things that were more discussion-oriented, but anyone who hasn’t checked out Designolouge absolutely must do so. Not that I really want to kiss Inman’s ass (Mike D. told me it wasn’t as great as you might expect), but let’s face it — pretty much anything the dude touches turns to gold.
003 // jordan gillman // 11.23.2004 // 12:45 AM
Foreward is a blog devoted to book design and book cover design. Worth a look. Hypulp has more reading on book design and graphic design, but in all honesty I am looking forward to seeing some more sites to tickle my fancy. I started out doing web design but have been working as a graphic designer (at least until retrenched on friday) and have found there to be plenty of reading for web design. But comparitively few on graphic design. Thanks Jeff for the idea.
004 // marko // 11.23.2004 // 6:29 AM
I like our ‘local’ mi3dot.org design community, but unfortunately it’s in Croatian.
005 // Vinnie Garcia // 11.23.2004 // 7:45 AM
Thank you so much Jeff. I’ve been looking for resources like these for ages. I just found Design Observer last week, but the others look very interesting too.
006 // Chris // 11.23.2004 // 8:38 AM
Our little community over at http://www.mellaflusia.com/ is a pretty cool mix of web designers, photographers, writers, illustrators, and cartoonists, alond with a few prepress folks thrown in for good measure. Currently, our “Daily Frog” is focusing on the basics of design (i.e., balance, proportion, etc.)
007 // Chris // 11.23.2004 // 8:41 AM
Oops! I forgot to mention the musicians! Hope they don’t get mad at me and start throwing instruments!
008 // Thomas Michaud // 11.23.2004 // 8:46 AM
Hey Jeff, I’ve only been visiting your site recently and enjoy the articles and links! In addition to you site, and others you have links to, I want to add a site that I’ve enjoyed being a part of. Mellaflusia is a great little site in it’s infancy. The site (aka the ‘flue) is currently starting a weekly series on the basic principles of design and it’s community is comprised of mature Web Developers, Graphic Designers, Artists, Photographers, Illustrators, Writers, and Musicians. Considering The ‘flue has only been around for six months, and is already nearing its launch on a new platform, it’s a place to consider being a part of and adding your creativity.
009 // Dustin // 11.23.2004 // 10:23 AM
Is this a cheezy thing to do?…
…
I’m trying to write about graphic design more than just standards usability and accessibility. Just click on my name.
010 // Pete // 11.24.2004 // 3:48 AM
designinteract is pretty cool, although I find some of the work a little hard to appreciate due to an often total disregard for standards compliance.
keri makes pretty things and is an easy read.
magwerk is dead sexy
the forums on australianinfront can be good although, sometimes its just a lot of noise.
Cool topic. Nice links
011 // Jeff Croft // 11.24.2004 // 1:53 PM
Thanks for all the links, everyone! Some great ones!
Just to be clear: I don’t really care about standards compliance for the purpose of this entry. I’m just looking to collect some good sites that discuss design. I don’t care if they’re about web design or not. I don’t care if they’re standards-compliant or not. And, I don’t care if they’re flash or not.
That’s kind of part of the idea here. A lot of us standards-complliant web designers, I think, ignore many examples of great visual design on the web just because they aren’t standards based. While I definitely think we should keep writing standards-based code, there are a lot of great visual concepts we can learn from flash sites, sites that use tables for layout, and offline design — which we can then take and apply in the context of standards-oriented web design.
012 // Dustin // 11.24.2004 // 7:43 PM
Ah, I definitely hear ya. In that case, Genetic Shoes. I’m not one for flash…but if you know how to use it like these guys…I say go for it. It’s just an amazing site. Also, Chipotle.com, that’s just a fun website.
013 // pete // 11.24.2004 // 8:35 PM
Some other sites that I visit regularly are: Style boost is great. Regular updates of all that glitters. top shelf Creative behavior Interesting reading. Often interesting articles on things like narative. Great for thinking about storytelling wellvetted by the people for the people. The bookmarks of the people you bookmark. Some Nice folios: beautiful illustration sexy motion cool dark stuff nice graph stuff graphic illustration styles
014 // Daniel Knibbs // 12.06.2004 // 5:31 PM
cbc radio 3? It’s arguably one of the best culture mags on the net. I’m reading it often, and listening to the great playlist :)
015 // Natalie // 01.03.2005 // 8:24 AM
Hi Jeff. I am about to launch a design chat forum within the next week or so….. I have been using your blogs on my home page during setup and I sure hope that it will get off the ground…. I am more interested in creating a unique designer networking community than offering anything else. Keep an eye on www.ukdesignernetwork.com ;-)
016 // Luke Gilman // 01.21.2005 // 12:23 PM
On my own blog, I’ve undertaken to post a review of a ‘site a day’ for the next year - going through my bookmarks and posting sites that have interesting or unusual approaches to the graphic design of a website. It’s been a very rewarding exercise. It’s given me tons of ideas for my own work, since talking about design forces you to be more observant of what’s really going on. It’s also training me to talk coherently about design ideas to clients, since a lot of times I feel like I’m speaking a foreign language and I need to know how to ‘translate’ into something they can understand.
Also check out Edward Tufte’s Ask ET Forum in which Tufte presides over a wonderful discussion on issues related to information design graphics.
017 // Vaclav Ronow // 04.15.2007 // 9:07 AM
Little late but I need agree to Luke - Tuftes forum is different than the other sites or fora anyways but has probably the most ‘hidden value’. And Tufte’s 1+1=3 is surely one of the most illuminating things to know as a designer.
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019 // Testttyq // 06.17.2008 // 8:53 PM
Hi
Bye
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021 // Naturelimit // 07.14.2008 // 5:55 AM
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022 // Naturelimit // 07.14.2008 // 5:56 AM
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023 // davernginzks // 08.02.2008 // 8:09 PM
I’ve recently joined and wanted to introduce myself :)