If you’re a designer, you’ll want to keep up with the latest industry trends, design news, updates, and releases.
Which is a problem.
Because a casual look on Google for “newsletters for designers” throws up over three billion results. (A narrowed-down search for “the top ten newsletters for designers” helps massively by cutting this down to a mere two billion.)
So, as a designer, how do you keep up with industry news? Which newsletters are the most reliable, the most relevant, and the most interesting to read over a coffee and a donut?
We can’t honestly say we’ve been through all three billion alternatives, but over the years, we have read, subscribed to, and curated what we feel are the very best email newsletters for those in the design industry, and we’d love to share them with you. These are the design newsletters you’ll actually want to read and the ones you really need to be reading to keep up, without getting out of breath. (Although that may be just us. Blame the donuts.)
Let’s dive right in!
Why Should You Subscribe To Newsletters?
All professionals need to stay updated in their fields to stay relevant, and designers are no exception. If you’re a designer, you might be browsing Behance, Pinterest, or even Instagram to find new content. Using social media platforms like these might be convenient, but it’s not the best way to get updates.
Email newsletters are a great way to get the latest news directly in your inbox without needing to search for it online.
Most of the content we consume on social media platforms is curated by algorithms. These algorithms are a black box, and constantly updated to maximize user engagement – and generate ad revenue.
Although these algorithms claim to serve you personalized content, it’s far more often the case that this will be preceded by a mountain of sponsored, poor-quality advertising content. These algorithms are also known to sometimes shadow-ban certain content creators, (this is the process of blocking a user from a social media platform without their knowledge, often by simply hiding their content from searches and feeds).
While it’s certainly the case that these algorithms introduce you to content that you might not have discovered otherwise, most of the time you’ll be seeing click-bait content that grabs your attention for a few seconds, and likely won’t provide in-depth information.
Since these algorithms are designed to reward content that maximizes user retention, you’re more likely to get content that keeps you glued to your screen – impacting your productivity.
On these platforms, content creators are also incentivized to post during peak hours. If everyone posts at the same time, it’s likely that you’ll miss some of the updates.
Email newsletters are meant to be asynchronous, meaning that you can consume content whenever you want. This saves time and effort, as you don’t need to sift through an overwhelming amount of information to find what you’re looking for.
Posts on social media are at the mercy of the platform, with content sometimes being removed, preventing you from re-reading earlier content. On the other hand, once an email is sent to your mailbox, it’s available to you indefinitely, only being deleted if you choose to. Modern email clients can automatically tag and organize emails in folders which makes it easy to archive necessary information for reference at any time in the future.
In addition to inspiration for new designs and the opportunity to learn from peers, many newsletters feature articles, tutorials, and other educational resources that can help designers improve their skills and expand their knowledge. This can be particularly helpful if you’re new to the field.
Finally, newsletters can provide networking opportunities. By subscribing to newsletters, you can connect with other professionals in the field, and stay up-to-date on industry events, conferences, and other opportunities for collaboration and networking.
The Best Email Newsletters for Designers
1. Godly (rss)
Godly is a feed of creative and innovative websites for people who want to think originally while designing a web interface. It’s mainly targeted at website designers who want to look at other people’s best work, or who need a platform to showcase their own.
New content is updated daily, and you can follow their RSS feed to get all of the updates – or sign up to their weekly newsletter that goes out every Monday.
2. Sidebar.io (rss)
Sidebar curates a list of helpful resources and tools that haven’t received much exposure. It contains anything from an article to a beautiful portfolio – or even a cool CodePen demo. You can submit your own work for publishing, but it needs to be easy to consume, i.e., it should not require users to download an app or a plugin.
3. The Smashing Email Newsletter (rss)
The Smashing Magazine offers a weekly newsletter that goes out every Tuesday. It covers a wide range of topics related to design, including accessibility, business, career, CSS, data visualization, design systems, e-commerce, typography, and more.
It is a great place to learn about design and other related fields. If you’re getting started in the design industry then we highly recommend subscribing to it.
4. UX Design Weekly (rss)
UX Design Weekly is an email newsletter that provides a curated list of the best user experience design links. Included are articles on topics such as designing for AI, along with tools, resources, and book recommendations for designers.
5. UX Booth (rss)
UX Booth publishes articles on various topics related to user experience and design. It also features content on business strategy, content strategy, information architecture, interaction design, design philosophy, universal design, and accessibility principles.
The website is geared towards UX professionals who want to stay updated with the industry trends.
6. It’s Nice That
This newsletter covers different design disciplines, including advertising, animation, architecture, digital art, graphic design, and more. It features articles on various topics such as creative industry news, design processes, and interviews with designers.
There are four different mailing lists, and you can subscribe to them individually so you only receive the content that you are interested in.
7. Inside Design Blog (rss)
Inside Design is a blog published by InVision – a popular design collaboration platform. It has a weekly newsletter that’s geared towards designers and design professionals. The newsletter covers topics such as collaboration, remote work, and design tools.
Each week it features articles, interviews, and resources that are intended to help designers stay up to date with the latest trends, technologies, and best practices in the design industry.
8. The UX Collective Newsletter
The UX Collective Newsletter is a weekly newsletter that provides resources to help designers stay informed, and think more critically about their work. The newsletter is sent out every Monday, and it respects readers’ time – all the information can be read in just five minutes.
9. The DESK Magazine (rss)
The DESK Magazine offers a weekly newsletter with articles and series exploring various topics related to design, productivity, self-improvement, and personal products.
It includes articles that discuss the role of designers as artists, the impact of design tools on the industry, and the importance of finding one’s niche. If you’re just getting started in the industry, we recommend reading the Dear Young Designer series. Although some posts are hidden behind a paywall, you can access plenty of content without any charge.
10. Creative Bloq (rss)
Creative Bloq provides news, advice, and inspiration for creative professionals in various fields, including digital and traditional art, web design, VFX art, and illustration. It publishes a wide range of articles to keep you updated on the latest design trends and technology.
11. The CodePen Spark (rss)
The Spark newsletter is published weekly. It features a collection of the most interesting and creative work of different people who posted their creations on CodePen – a code sharing platform. These are often focused towards front-end developers. If you are interested in making a CSS cupcake, a London misty evening scene with CSS, or a CSS-only fluid slider then you should sign up for it.
12. All The Small Things
The “All The Small Things” newsletter is a weekly roundup of articles on digital, design, strategy, and innovation.
It’s curated by one single person – Tijs Vrolix, a freelance design strategist living in Belgium. For this reason he makes it clear that he can’t promise to publish a new newsletter every single week, although so far he’s managed to release 174 newsletters in succession, and it’s a well-received publication by many within the industry.
13. HeyDesigner Newsletter (rss)
HeyDesigner is a newsletter with links to articles on design and frontend development. You can either sign-up for the daily newsletter, or get a weekly curated list. It covers topics such as visual component testing, visual design, UX design, product design, design engineering, inspiration, and creativity.
In general the content appeals more towards those involved in product design, product engineering, and UX designers.
14. Designmodo Newsletter
The Designmodo newsletter features articles, news, information about the latest products, and job openings from top companies in the design field. By subscribing to the newsletter you’ll also get recommendations of tools for building websites, as well as resources on coding, design, and inspiration.
15. CSS-Tricks Newsletter (rss)
CSS-Tricks publishes articles about web development and design. It provides news, articles, and videos about web development. The newsletter contains a curated list of these articles from their website. Some of the recent topics include typography design principles, media queries in CSS, tricks for optimizing images, and industry debates such as Adobe’s acquisition of Figma.
16. Web Design Weekly (rss)
Web Design Weekly includes articles covering the latest web design trends, and front-end tools. The latest issue features articles on topics such as Apple’s pricing tables, deceptive design, building a floating action button component, and safely sharing email addresses on a website.
It also shares helpful resources such as lists of interesting tools, code snippets, and links to conference talk by luminaries in the industry.
17. Hack Design
Hack Design is an online design course that provides a weekly lesson crafted by experienced designers. It also includes curated resources designed to teach the tools, techniques, and terminology of good design.
All previous lessons are available on their website, so you can explore tutorials covering topics such as the effective use of white space in design, using icons in interfaces, prototyping, how to get a design job with no experience, and responsive typography.
Next Steps
Email newsletters are a valuable resource for designers, as they can provide inspiration, knowledge, and networking opportunities that can help them stay ahead of the curve in an ever-changing industry.
Have you already subscribed to these newsletters? Did we miss your favorite newsletter? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter by joining us @atarim_io.
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