Newsletters for Designers
Staying inspired in 2021
Staying inspired over the last 12 months has been an interesting challenge. Working from home, limited social interactions, closed galleries, and postponed conferences have made finding day-to-day inspiration at times a methodical and calculated past-time. Pre-COVID, my inspirational sources sprung from a multitude of places and people, most of which were serendipitous.
These days I’m a little more proactive. I have to force myself to seek out inspiration in moments when creative-block and procrastination have seemingly taken a death-like grip on my productivity.
Cue email newsletters.
Even though the medium, delivery mechanism, and the consumption experience hasn’t changed or evolved in years (they’re literally still built using table based html and inline css), email has become strangely relevant again. From personal updates to weekly curated digests, email newsletters have now become a strange obsession!
Personally, I’ve subscribed to 100’s of email newsletters over the years; some of which provide regular inspiration and insight into the many facets and subcultures of the design world, while others I’ve unceremoniously unsubscribed from with instant buyers remorse.
That being said, I thought i’d share a list of mycurrent email newsletter subscriptions that have inspried me in one way or another over the last year. Here goes…
📱 Product Design
In an increasingly competitive and saturated market, it’s sometimes hard to stay on top of the ever-evolving world of Product Design. But, lucky for us there are some highly curated sources for doing just that…
Designer News
Hey Designer
Ideo Blog
Product Hunt
🖖 UX Design
The UX community is as diverse as it is vibrant, and its thriving! I use these email newsletters to stay on top of the latest UX trends, news, and people who are crushing it!
UX design weekly
Smashing Magazine
Inside Design by Invision
💡Creative inspiration
Im the first to admit that immersing myself soley in UX related articles is a sure bet for killing my creativity. I also find that staying connected to the broader creative community inspires me in new and unexpected ways.
It’s Nice That
Fresh Fonts
The Design Kids
🤓 People
I aspire to join this list of designer email newsletters one days. Until then im perfectly satisfied with these four :)
Another design newsletter by Pablo Stanley
Dense Discovery by Kai Brach
Lenny’s Newsletter
The desk of Van Schneider
💎 Objects
For lovers of well designed objects (functional or not) these email newsletters are for you!
Ode to things
Opumo
Minimalismo
📰 News
Keeping on top of the latest news and current affairs can be difficult if done through lens of a Facebook or Twitter Algo. I get me news from a variety of sources including email!
New York Times
Vox
NPR
🎨 Galleries
Every major gallery around the world has some form of email newsletter subscription. And while it might seem cruel to subscribe to an email newsletter about galleries in the middle of a pandemic, I for one dream about the day I can visit my favourite galleries. Until then ill stay inspired (and safe) from my laptop.