There’s so much going on in the world of design, it can be a challenge to keep up. Whether it’s catching the latest inspirational projects, staying up to date with new tools, or hearing about new techniques, checking Creative Bloq regularly is a must – but let’s be honest, even we can’t cover absolutely everything.
So in this post, we’ve rounded up the best design-oriented newsletters around. They’re all quick and easy to sign up to, you don’t have to give any information beyond your email address. And best of all, they’re all free.
If we’ve missed your favourite newsletter, though, please let us know in the comments below!
01. Creative Bloq
You won’t be surprised that we’ve included our own brilliant newsletter – which has recently undergone a redesign – on this list. Sign up and you’ll get the latest from Creative Bloq, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox. Posts featured in our latest newsletter include 10 top tips to improve your sketching skills, Upgrade your design skills in 2017 and 10 best new web design tools for January.
02. Sidebar
Want a design-related newsletter that doesn’t overload you with too much to read? The daily Sidebar newsletter provides you with just five essential links per day, on topics broadly related to UI and UX design. To give you a flavour of what to expect, posts in the latest newsletter include Designing a product with Mental Health issues in Mind, Guilty Pleasures for Designers, and a Twitter Redesign Concept.
03. Hey Designer
Hey Designer provides a curated selection of articles for web designers and developers. Sign up to their newsletter and get the most popular stories of the week into your mailbox every Sunday. Posts in the latest newsletter include How to Use Colors in UI Design, Sketch Users: Here’s Why You Should Consider Switching to Figma, and A Designer’s Guide to Perceived Performance.
04. Netted
Netted is a daily email from the team at The Webby Awards featuring new apps, products and services to make your life better. “We spend a ton of time testing services before sharing them with you,” they say. “That means we genuinely believe everything we feature is going to help you in some way – whether with your commute, with saving money, with getting the best flights (or getting cash back for the worst ones.” Recent posts include Search for Flights with Layovers in Cities you want to Visit and The Best Apps and Services of 2016.
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05. Sketch App Sources
Sketch App Sources is a repository of resources for designing with Sketch, including UI kits, icons, templates and more – 2,413 to date. Get news of the latest Sketch resources sent straight to your inbox by signing up to their email newsletter, along with links to popular tutorials. Recent posts include Tinder iOS UI kit, Bootstrap 3 Datepicker, and 70 flat social icons.
06. Smashing
Smashing Magazine is a web design institution, and its twice-monthly editorial email newsletter features a range of useful tips, tricks and resources for designers and developers. When you subscribe, you also get a free ebook as a welcome gift. Posts linked to in the most recent newsletter include The Beauty Of Simplicity, A Sneak-Peek At The New Smashing Magazine Redesign, and Movie Poster Design At Its Best.
07. Responsive Design Weekly
Whether you're new to responsive web design, want to further your knowledge, or are looking for some inspiration, then Responsive Design Weekly has you covered. Give them your email address and receive an email every Friday, covering off everything worth knowing about building your websites responsively. Typical posts include Why “Progressive Web App vs Native” is the Wrong Question to Ask and How Readability Can Make Sure People Actually Read Your Content.
08. ItsNiceThat
It’s Nice That is a popular creative blog that believes passionately that creative inspiration is for everyone. Championing the most exciting and engaging work online, they send out a daily round-up of projects in newsletter form throughout the working week, as well as the Top 10 most-read articles of the week on a Friday. Plus you can edit your preferences to tailor your newsletters once subscribed. Posts linked to in the most recent newsletter include A Chat with the Anonymous Curator behind Scenic Simpsons, The Ulm Model: a School and its Pursuit of a Critical Design Practice, and Street View: Photographs of Urban Life, displays 100 years of photography.
09. Invision
Ever-popular prototyping app InVision is a great way to create and prototype collaboratively. But even if you don’t use the app, its blog and related newsletter, which has more than two million subscribers, is well worth checking out. It doesn’t just cover news about Invision, but all sorts of design topics, with posts such as 7 tips for Designing Awesome Animated GIFs, 10 UX Copywriting Tips for Designers and A Comprehensive Reading List for and by Designers. Sign up (by clicking Subscribe in the top-right of the page) and you’ll also get three free downloads as a special gift.
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Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.