Our Designers’ Favorite Design Sites
Nov 15, 2023 | Mike McKenna
In the very earliest days of Shotgunflat, I spent as much time reading/consuming design sites and blogs as I did working on client work. I can still remember the time I spent getting blown away by the work seen at k10k, Newstoday, Coudal.com, Netdiver, and lots of other places. Inspiration is a very important part of the vocation of design, and many times the stream of amazing work online helped me create new ideas and even push through when the creative cupboard felt bare.
That was 2002. 22 years later, we still love being inspired by the great work of others. Here are a (just a) few of the sites that our design team likes to check out for fun, inspiration, and motivation:
Sally McCarthy: Eye On Design
Eye on Design is an editorial platform that explores what it means to be a designer today. It covers the issues important to the global design world + elevates the voices of contemporary designers as a way to build a more engaged design community.
Jeff Costa: Httpster
Httpster is a showcase of website design, curated and categorized. It features good typography, and effective, unpretentious design. "In short, simple ideas executed perfectly," as they put it. While they aim to showcase excellent development as well, they also have apologized in advance for including any poorly coded sites, which they'll do "if it just looks so damn good."
Megan James: Fireball Printing
"This is a printer in Philadelphia that the small press/indie illustrator community uses and the artists & projects they print for are all sosososo cool." Fireball Printing started in 2008 with a single copy machine, making prints for artists, bands and bars. Today we are one of the biggest printers in Philadelphia, serving clients all over North America...we are basically able to make almost anything you want printed possible.
Ali DiNapoli: Dribbble
Dribbble is the leading destination to find & showcase creative work and home to the world's best design professionals. We've seen some of our own stuff pop up in here from time to time...more to come on that soon.