Every month HOW scours the web and pours through submissions from creatives to discover the top design websites. We’re looking for the best promo sites of talented designers and illustrators, as well as design tools, resources and fun sites for creative time-outs.
Check out the best design websites below. (You can also submit a site you think should be included in this list of cool design websites next month.)
- Get The Designer’s Web Handbook and find inspiration for your web designs.
- The HOW Interactive Design website serves up advice and inspiration for graphic designers working on the web. Check out our Site of the Day!
- Get hands-on web design advice for your own projects by attending an upcoming Design Tutorial or take a HOW U online web design course.
Brave the Woods
Brave the Woods is the new freelance studio of Brad Woodard, a graphic designer and who works during the day at Arnold Worldwide in Boston. His work is colorful, playful and richly typographic.
John David Lloyd: Archive
John David Lloyd has been working as a designer in the U.K. since 1960. This site is an archive of 50 years of amazing work, including some logos that look totally modern.
InstaThis
InstaThis connects with your Instagram account and helps you create stunning prints on acrylic or wood. Make your home and studio beautiful with images you’ve created!
The Chic-Type Blog
Chic-Type is a blog dedicated to the love of typography, hand-lettering and graphic design. Posts include the latest and greatest from the creative world. The blog also includes a 52-week typography quoster (quote + poster) project, where each week a quote is designed to experiment with typography, texture, and space.
Mag Spreads
“MagSpreads is dedicated to the process and progress of editorial design and the publishing industry. Its purpose is to define and promote the world’s best editorial design, and to provide a place where the editorial design community can review, critique and stay informed with the latest industry trends and design projects being created in the field.”
Life After Breakfast
Life After Breakfast is Alessandra Lanot’s crafts and design blog, featuring her adventures after the most important meal of the day. Though she has a day job as a designer, her creativity truly comes to life in her watercolor illustrations.
gray318
Jon Gray is a London-based designer who specializes in typography book cover designs that will make you want to curl up with a great book.
Happy Lovers Town
Jonathan Calugi is an illustrator based in Italy. He’s best known for his quirky patterns and doodles with minimal lines and simple shapes.
LAND
Caleb Owen Everitt and Ryan Rhodes are the design team behind the Austin, TX-based firm LAND. Their branding work for companies both small and large has an authentic vernacular quality that make it immediately likable.
Heysu Lee Illustration
New York-based designer turner illustrator Heysu Lee recently updated her website. Lee specializes in chaotic, colorful editorial illustration that capture the intersection of your most interesting dreams and strangest nightmares.
- Remember to submit a site you think should be included in this list of top design websites next month.
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More Resources – Free Ebooks
8 Winning Examples of Brand Strategy in Packaging Design
7 Archetypes that Established Brand Identity
Hi Megan, very useful article. We’ve recently launched simulty.com, a website combinator to navigate and search on multiple pages at once. I have created a list matching your selection (giving you, of course, full credit). Here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/czaz5wc
Perhaps you could let me know your opinion about how useful Simulty would be to you for promoting articles. Simulty can also be a great tool for research purposes as you can search upto 10 sites simultaneously. Try out the note taking facilities also.
Kind Regards
Finn Power
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