An Interview With The Best Design Blogs To look Out For In 2010

• January 4th, 2010
• Articles

This is a great article which features an interview with 12 web/design blogs which were started up in 2009 and are essential design blogs to look out for in 2010.

Each design blog was each asked five questions in total in order to gain an understanding in what motivated them to setup their blog, to find out what they have learnt about blogging, what’s the perks of blogging about web/design, and tips where you can take your blog within the next 12 months.

A perfect post for upcoming design bloggers because it gives you an insight into the challenges and experiences, which you may face and gain while blogging. The interview features only design blogs which where started in the last 12 months featuring Design blogs such as PVM garage, Line 25, Grace Smith, Inspired Mag, Media Militia, AI Monkey, Little Box Of Idea’s, Circle box, Design Informer, The Web design Blog, freelance review and Cheth Studios.

I hope you enjoy the article and thank you very much to everyone who participated in the interviews. leave a comment, which is your favourite interview ?

PVM Garage

Blog:

Twitter:http://twitter.com/piervix

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

:Hi, this is Piervincenzo and I’m blogging about Web Design on PV.M Garage. I love to write tutorials and articles to tell my experiences and my growth as web designer and blogger. It’s hard work to maintain a site, but… I’m loving it.

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:Make a backup every day! ;)Seriously, there are many great helpful people who can help us. Internet has a great power, it allow a quick and easy share of the knowledge. I trust in this power. And thanks to many other great blogger we can create a network of information to learn every day new things on a specific field.So, what have I learnt? Sharing free information and resources is a possibility of growth for all and a community, that works in this way, is a little goldmine for designers who want to learn.

3. What have you learnt now about blogging which you didn’t know before you started your blog ?

:Why? Hard to say because there are several reasons. But I think that the most important reason is the passion… without this essential element it’s impossible thinking to set up a blog.If a project starts from the need to share our passion, it will become a great project. I’ve probably launched my blog for this motive.

4. Whats been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:Seriously, there are many great helpful people who can help us. Internet has a great power, it allow a quick and easy share of the knowledge. I trust in this power. And thanks to many other great blogger we can create a network of information to learn every day new things on a specific field. So, what have I’ve learnt? Sharing free information and resources is a possibility of growth for all and a community, that works in this way, is a little goldmine for people who want to learn.

5. Thanks for answering the questions and what can we expect to see from your blog in the next 12 months?

:Maybe a redesign and I’m trying to create a little team of author and guest posters for PV.M Garage. So, stay tuned.

Line 25

Blog: http://line25.com/

Twitter:http://twitter.com/line25blog

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

:I’m Chris Spooner, a designer and blogger from the UK. I’m the guy behind the relatively new Line25.com. Line25 is a weblog focusing on the topic of Web Design, and each week sees a new post covering web design inspiration, articles rounding up tools and resources, as well as the occasional tutorial. So far there’s posts about HTML, WordPress, CSS, a little jQuery and plenty of sites of the week showcases!

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:I had plenty of fun developing my first blog over at Blog.SpoonGraphics for over two years. In March 2009 I’d reached a point where I was wanting to cover more website design topics, but I didn’t want to suddenly switch focus from the Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials I usually wrote. The best solution I came up with was to start afresh with a new blog, this gave me the opportunity to develop a place to post all my website design articles, as well as provide the challenge of growing a blog from square one all over again! Although this time, I was armed with plenty of experience, and an already established audience from my main blog.

3. What have you learnt now about blogging which you didn’t know before you started your blog ?

:Some of the experiences I brought through from main blog included knowledge of the posts types that tend to work, and how the post title can seem to have a serious effect on whether the post performs well on various social websites. I also based a lot of the structure and layout on my Blog.SpoonGraphics site design, as this seems to work pretty well! Little touches like a prominent RSS icon, large post titles and article header graphics all seems to play their part in capturing the viewers attention. Overall however, I’ve learnt pretty much everything I now know about blogging from developing my two blogs. I originally started out without any real clue, and slowly built up experience with a mix of research, picking up tips from various other websites, and learning from my own experiments.

4. Whats been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:The proudest moment on Line25 was to see how far it had grown in just six months of existence! The blog has grown to a higher point in six months than Blog.SpoonGraphics did in a year, so the future seems bright! It’s also fab to see traffic spikes every now again when a particular post takes off and gain additional exposure. The recent post about HTML5 became the blog’s highest traffic spike so far.

5. Thanks for answering the questions and what can we expect to see from your blog in the next 12 months?

:I’m looking forward to continuing Line25 with plenty more web design content. I’m also thinking about opening up the site to take on more guest writers, to give others a platform to get their name and content out there into the design community.

Grace Smith

Blog:

Twitter:http://twitter.com/gracesmith

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

:Sure, I am a 26 year old web designer and owner of a small but perfectly formed studio called Postscript5 based in Northern Ireland. I work with individuals and companies based in mainly in the UK and USA on a diverse range of projects from branding and blog design to application UI’s. My blog focuses on web design, development and UX with a healthy dose of Apple and humor.

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:After a number of years watching how other designers created a brand around their blog and a funnel for their services, I decided in March of this year that I couldn’t hold myself back any longer and finally setup my blog.

I was held back because of my own fears and insecurities that no one would visit or comment, of ‘trolls’ and that it would be yet another ‘invisible’ blog. I realised that it was time to just let go of the fear and get out there, so here I am.

The blog is a way for me to talk about the things that I am truly interested in, namely, design, productivity, UX and freelancing. It also acts as a means of keeping in touch with other creatives and bloggers and as a way to improve my writing and teaching skills!

3. What have you learnt now about blogging which you didn’t know before you started your blog ?

:That writing is only a small part of being a blogger! It didn’t take long for me to realise that one of the most important things a blogger can do is to become really involved in the community that surrounds them. I now spend a good deal of time networking, forging relationships and connecting with other bloggers as well as on creating content.

4. Whats been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:Tough question! There have been some wonderful moments since I started the blog back in March, from the very first comment, when one of my articles went popular on Delicious and Stumbleupon for the first time to featuring some of my web heroes such as Khoi Vinh and Veerle Duoh on the blog.

Although if I had to choose just one it would be when Jonathan Snook emailed me after commenting on one of my articles to say he was a regular visitor and knew me as “that ‘heavy-linkin’, web-lovin’, hard-workin” gal from Ireland.
It was a surreal moment to hear from someone I admired and respected being so fun, complimentary and down to earth. I think it made me smile for a week!

5. Thanks for answering the questions and what can we expect to see from your blog in the next 12 months?

:I’m beginning to concentrate on guest posting with other blogs to build my brand awareness and more importantly to reach out to different audiences. Due to this I am considering slowing down my post schedule to fewer but more in-depth articles. I also aim to start creating more design tutorials and focus on articles that take from my own experience within design, development, freelancing and business.

Up until now I’ve concentrated on resources, lists and features (and will continue to do so on a smaller scale) and now that I’ve build up my initial audience I want to focus a little more on my own experiences, as well as engaging with others in the community.

Inspired Mag

Blog: http://www.inspiredm.com/

Twitter:http://twitter.com/inspiredmag

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

:Because I felt like there is so much awesome content out there that I must create some on a ‘different’ kind of design blog. I like to say that one day Inspired mag will be a combination of weirdness and smashing magazine :)

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:Everything :) You know nothing until you start doing it! Come on people, grab a WP theme, get a domain name and start writing!!

3. What have you learnt now about blogging which you didn’t know before you started your blog ?

: When I received three advertising offers in the same day :)

4. Whats been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:We’d like to extend our focus on other creative sides that relate to design but are often overlooked by the webdesign blogs. Stay tuned for some Huge surprises! and Thank you for considering Inspired Mag for your interview!

5. Thanks for answering the questions and what can we expect to see from your blog in the next 12 months?

:We’d like to extend our focus on other creative sides that relate to design but are often overlooked by the webdesign blogs. Stay tuned for some Huge surprises! and Thank you for considering Inspired Mag for your interview!

Media Militia

Blog: http://mediamilitia.com/

Twitter:http://twitter.com/mediamilitia

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

:My name is jeyaONE and I am from Reno, NV. I am a 29 year old designer that runs Media Militia. We love to create and promote free resources for the design community like vector packs, textures, Photoshop brushes, and PSD’s.  We also post creative tutorials, design articles, and interviews.

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:Media Militia was originally a site that sold premium design resources. We enjoyed the creation process and the income it generated; however, it lacked a community and our willingness to give. On our old site we had a freebies section that received a good amount of traffic.  Because of the high traffic, we always caught ourselves pushing the freebies more than the things we were actually selling.

In August of 2009, we decided that it only made since for us to relaunch Media Militia as a free design resource site and drive revenue by selling ad space. We took a huge hit in revenue because of the change but it was well worth it.  Giving back to the community by providing free resources is a lot more fun and exciting.

3. What have you learnt now about blogging which you didn’t know before you started your blog ?

: We learned that it takes a lot more time and dedication than we originally planned on. We spend at least 40 hours a week designing, promoting and coming up with new and creative ideas.  When it is something you enjoy and love though time flies by.

4. Whats been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:It’s really hard to say what our proudest moment was. Every single day there is something that puts a huge smile on my face.  It makes me think how awesome it is that we have such a great website that people can rely on and use.  I love seeing our design elements being used in advertisements. The first time I saw our Paint Tossing images in an ad was overwhelming exciting! We just got our freebies published in 7 design magazines which is really neat to see as well.

5. Thanks for answering the questions and what can we expect to see from your blog in the next 12 months?

:Our top priority in the next 12 months will surely be redesigning our site. We rushed the relaunch as we were so excited to make the change and get our feet wet. We will be posting more design articles and pushing more innovative and useful freebies. We will be working with more artists to give away free exclusive design packs. I am really excited to see what happens!

Circle box (Callum Chapman)

Blog:

Twitter:http://twitter.com/callumchapman/

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

:I’m Callum Chapman, I live in a small town near Cambridge, UK, and I’m a freelance graphic designer trading under the name Circlebox Creative – but I’m more known as a blogger! Circlebox Blog is the other half of my company, and it’s where I post design articles, tutorials, free resources (such as textures and vector packs) and run the odd giveaway now and again. On top of writing for my own blog and completing the occasional freelance design project, I write for some popular design-related blogs such as Smashing Magazine, Six Revisions, Design Bump Originals, Tutorial9 and the Tuts+ Network; they all keep me very busy!

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:I originally started with a personal blog back in mid-2009, purely as an experiment to see what I thought of the whole blogosphere. I really started to get into it, and when leaving college after finishing my A-Levels, and the frequent updates on the news how 16-20 year olds are really struggling to find work, I decided to take it more seriously and open my company, Circlebox Creative – I opened my blog at the same time. Since then, it has brought me many opportunities such as writing for some of the popular blogs mentioned above, as well as an invitation to be featured in the popular French design magazine, “Advanced Creative” – you can see me in that in the special Illustrator edition being released on the 31st of December (please note it will be in French – so I can’t even read it myself!).

3. What have you learnt now about blogging which you didn’t know before you started your blog ?

: Before starting my blog I pretty much didn’t know anything about it! It was my first time using the WordPress interface and my first time writing specifically for the public. I like to think I now have a good knowledge of blogging, after only 6-7 months. I also didn’t know that you could earn such a great living from blogging, or how many emails I would receive from readers telling me to keep up the great work – I’ve even had a few donations, so I guess I learnt there are still some great people scattered around the world!

4. Whats been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:I have a few, getting over 1,000 unique hits to my first ever web design tutorial within the first hour of it being poster, receiving an email asking if one of my tutorials can be translated to French and featured in a magazine and being contact by some of the greatest design bloggers out their asking if I would like to write for them!

5. Thanks for answering the questions and what can we expect to see from your blog in the next 12 months?

:Lots! Whilst writing this (22nd November ’09) Circlebox Blog is going through a complete redesign. Although I love the current theme, it needs it’s own design! The new design is going to make it easier to find the content you’re looking for, a cleaner, more minimalistic design, and, in general, pretty sexy! A long with the new theme, you’ll be able to expect better quality posts much more frequently, by me and some great guest authors. Oh, and my portfolio/company site will have a redesign to match! Thanks Creative Nerds for giving me the opportunity to talk about myself! Keep up the great work!

Design Informer

Blog: http://designinformer.com/

Twitter:http://twitter.com/designinformer/

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

:My name is Jad Limcaco and I live in sunny Southern California. I have a full-time job as a web designer, I freelance part-time, and I run a blog called Design Informer.

Design Informer is a web design and graphic design blog. We feature freelance articles, tutorials, freebies, resources, and inspiration posts. While there are a lot of design blogs and communities out there, the purpose of this blog is still the same: to inform you about the latest in greatest in web design and graphic design, hence the name, Design Informer.

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:Well, there were several reasons. First of all, I wanted a way to share my knowledge with the community, so I decided that a blog was a perfect way to do that. Also, because I wanted to improve my writing skills. Blogging has definitely helped me to do that.

I wrote an article entitled, “Why I blog about design.” This explains the reasons behind Design Informer.

3. What have you learnt now about blogging which you didn’t know before you started your blog ?

: I have learned many different things since I started blogging. In order for me to write about a certain topic, I need to be well-informed about that certain topic, so I do a ton of research before writing an article. This has helped me to gain as much knowledge as I can about that certain topic. I also learned that the design community is very close-knit. I have had plenty of other bloggers and designers help me in promoting my blog. They have also given me much needful advice in regards to any questions that I had about blogging.

4. Whats been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:Hmm… My proudest moment? That’s a good question. I would say that the proudest moment of my blog was when a few of my articles were tweeted by Smashing Magazine, Abduzeedo, and Web Designer Depot. They have also been featured in some round-ups in the community. This was a great moment because I never thought that as a new design blog, that any of our work would be mentioned by these top design blogs.

I would say that the second proudest moment of the blog is when I got featured in this article. Thank you! :)

5. Thanks for answering the questions and what can we expect to see from your blog in the next 12 months?

:There are some really exciting things that’s in store for the Design Informer. More great and informative articles, lots of excellent tutorials, a ton of free giveaways, and a new redesign is in store for the Design Informer. Thanks again Timothy for featuring me. Keep up the great work with Creative Nerds.

Ai Monkey

Blog: http://www.aimonkey.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/aimonkey

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

:At this moment our team is composed from just two members: Ciorba Ilie and  Siminitchi Alexandru. We are good friends, both from Republic of Moldova, Chisinau and both self-taught freelance designers. Our blog is mostly about vector graphics, Adobe Illustrator tutorials and freebies but we’re planing to add web-design related tutorials soon.

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:Our main purpose is to give possibility to masses to improve their knowledge about vector graphics and design. I came up with idea to start this blog at the very beginning of October 2009, on 20th October it was already up and running.

3. What have you learnt now about blogging which you didn’t know before you started your blog ?

:Blogging was a new sphere for both of us. The hardest thing about blogging was getting in contact with our readers, everyone needs to feel you real presence and they get that from your comments and letters. We both learned to pay attention to details understanding that the information we’re writing will be read by thousands of readers later. Another new principle of blogging that was new for us was “The more you give, the more you receive” what means that your blog success depends not just of the quality of your posts, but also their quantity. Every blog is like a hungry animal that needs to be fed and more food you give him, the bigger it gets! And that’s great! We a had a nice and valuable experience with this blog and we really appreciate it.

4. Whats been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:We are really proud of feedback that we receive from our readers, we receive feedback letters almost every day since we’ve started the blog and we haven’t received any negative feedback letter. People do like our tutorials, that is what makes us proud  and keeps our ship floating in the ocean of design.

5. Thanks for answering the questions and what can we expect to see from your blog in the next 12 months?

:Our ambitions are great! We are planning to become one of the greatest resources of high-quality Illustrator tutorials on the Internet, make our voice heard, raise our quality standards with every new post. Lots of new, exclusive tutorials, articles, interviews with designers and much more other stuff to come to aimonkey.comThanks again for your invitation!

Little Box Of Idears

Blog:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/LBOI

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

: My name is Sneh Roy. I am a designer and content developer from Sydney, Australia and own a small design studio which I manage along with Nick, my husband and business partner. The LBOI Blog’s main focus is design and development related content for other designers, freelancers, students and design connoisseurs. The articles tend to lean heavily towards logo designing, vector illustrations, typography and the principles and basics of design. One very important and well received section of the blog is elaborate interviews with designers and developers from around the world, where they share their techniques and processes freely and generously. We also watch and track budding designers and feature them in our Artist Spotlights to give them that extra push into this big bold world of design freelancing.

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:I recently started working full time again after a sabbatical of almost 5 years and a lot had changed in that time. I was learning new things at an exponential rate, everyday and there was a lot of thought process going on. The blog started out to channel all that information and creativity surging through me at the time, a means of sharing what excited me creatively, with other designers. Later, it also became evident that the blog was also a log of my design experiments and a way to connect with other like minded creatives.

3. What have you learnt now about blogging which you didn’t know before you started your blog ?

:It is not easy. When I started out, I knew it was a crowded space where all designers/bloggers have to fight hard to produce quality content to stay ahead. But I didn’t realize that it was a bit harder than I thought. With the explosion and oversaturation of every imaginable thing in this world, if you were one of the early ones, you caught the worm, or else you went hungry. Just producing quality content [which is hard in itself] is not enough, it doesn’t spike your traffic or bring in the bucks. It is a slow process [albeit a very sweet, satisfying one] and you should be prepared for endless days of no increase in your subscriber counts, no comments on your blog and virtually no income for all the hard work you put in.

4. Whats been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:One thing that sticks out is a few weeks ago Collis Ta’eed of the Envato Network fame tweeted my blog to his followers saying “Came across a nice little blog!”. That was pretty sweet .

5. Thanks for answering the questions and what can we expect to see from your blog in the next 12 months?

:Thank you Tim In the next 12 months we plan on bringing in the development aspect of our team onto the blog [right now it is mainly design], we plan to have articles and tutorials on css, jquery, AJAX, php. We also plan to have awesome guest posts and more exciting freebies and tutorials to make everyday design learning a breeze.

The Webdesign Blog

Blog: www.thewebdesignblog.co.uk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/philmatthews

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

: My name is Phil Matthews (www.twitter.com/philmatthews) and I’m a freelance web designer from the UK. I recently setup The Web Design Blog (www.thewebdesignblog.co.uk) in August 2009 as a way of sharing news, articles, tutorials and interviews about web design and development. It’s been an exciting few months!

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:I kept having lots of little ideas for articles that I wanted to write but I had nowhere to publish them. I’d had the domain name “thewebdesignblog.co.uk” for quite a while but never had the time to do anything meaningful with it. I started the initial designs for the blog in the summer and it has snowballed from there! I’ve been lucky enough to interview some great designers and developers for the website which has been very insightful as they’ve shared some fantastic tips and stories.

3. What have you learnt now about blogging which you didn’t know before you started your blog ?

:I’ve found that once you start a blog you need to keep going and try and build on the momentum and keep your readers and subscribers interested. I didn’t realise how much time it would take to write, revise and publish an article to a standard I was happy with but I now set aside more time each week to develop my writing skills so I can provide content that I hope people will want to read. I feel I’ve learnt a lot in the last few months but I’m well aware that there is still a huge amount to learn!

4. Whats been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:Although the blog is only about four months old there have still been several moments that have made me proud. Seeing the comments of people thanking you for writing an article or designing a free download makes it really worthwhile. Another moment that was a lovely surprise was being featured on the home page of which helped bring lots of new visitors to the site.

Freelance Review

Blog:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcconnelldesign

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

: Freelance Review is a design blog ran by Chris and Candice McConnell of C McConnell Design. What makes us different from other freelance blogs out there is that we cover what matters most to freelance designers as opposed to freelancers in general. We have all the basic things you’d expect from a design blog like amazing inspirational galleries, mind-blowing interviews with designers and entrepreneurs, fun contests and giveaways, tutorials, advice and tips. We also have a health-conscious and eco-friendly focus.

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:We originally established Freelance Review as a channel to showcase our work and to educate clients. As the blog progressed we decided to expand and Freelance Review become a resource for the global design community (which is now read in over 130 countries). We’re also very interested in entrepreneurship and startup companies so we enjoy the thrill of making a success out of something new.

3. What have you learnt now about blogging which you didn’t know before you started your blog ?

:We’ve learned that it’s fun. It’s great getting positive feedback on the stories we write and seeing them spread across the internet through Twitter and other means. We’ve also learned that it takes a phenomenal amount of work – but the rewards are definitely worth it

4. Whats been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:I think the proudest moment so far is getting asked to do this interview since we’ve been doing a lot of interviewing but haven’t been interviewed as of yet. Other moments include getting accepted as a publisher on Buy Sell Ads and being able to get to know people from Google, Adobe, large ad agencies and other great companies.

5. Thanks for answering the questions and what can we expect to see from your blog in the next 12 months?

:The next year is going to be incredible. We’ll be adding some exciting new features (it’s a little too early to reveal specifics just yet), doing some exciting collaborations with other great design sites and increasing the overall “wow” factor of our articles.

Cheth Studios

Blog:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cheth

1. Tell us who you are and what you’re blog is about ?

: I started it off as more of a personal blog in late 2008 dropped the idea and later revamped it to a complete design and web design blogexactly on January 7th 2009. And re-branded as ChethStudios.Net October 2009.

2. Why did you set up your blog ?

:Earlier before blogging, my web design skills were limited to freelancing. And after stepping into the world of blogging I’ve got chance to meet some top notch designers and get featured on their websites in their round-ups. The Quest for getting noticed became an obsession and made me realise that Web designers SHOULD have a professional blog too!

3. What’s been your proudest moment so far on your blog ?

:The Proudest Moment on my blog has to be the day when I woke up midnight to check out my page-views and then realise that 1.3K+ people were online bookmarking and reading my design roundup. Yeah that record is broken many a time, now but honestly it was the best ever moment of blogging for me. And of-course its a proud moment each day as the blog keeps growing; thankful to designers like Creative Nerds who had featured my designs before :)