There are a lot of great freelance graphic design resource websites out there today. From Smashing Magazine to Freelance Switch and everything in between. Enough said—these are indispensable web resources for freelancers. But is there too much information? I’d like to address the information-overload aspect of freelance graphic design resources.
UPDATE 7/2012: The Big List of Lists is now up and running. Keep reading, but do pay a visit dedicated to the graphic design list article format we all love to hate and hate to love, but in any case can’t live without 
I’m working on a concept for a trimmed-down, nuts-and-bolts, finite, curated, trimmed, laser-focused, and eminently-useful site for freelance graphic designers. What if there was a site that had the following characteristics:
- No extraneous or “interest” articles
- No general graphic design articles
- Disciplined focus on only the topics that matter to beginning and mid-career graphic design freelancers as opposed to graphic designers in general
- Topic pages, which are updated routinely with only the best links to the best resources
- Light on the eye-candy, heavy on the usability and searchability
- Curated links lists, not watered-down and meandering “list roundups” of vacillating quality and usefulness
- Once again, no extraneous or fluffy articles
- Community involvement to suggest edits and additions or subtractions to the lists
- No information overload. No lists of 500 things. Rather, lists of maybe 10 things.
- And so on…
IN CASE YOU MISSED THE UPDATE UP TOP 7/2012: The Big List of Lists (the site described in the bullet list) is now up and running. Keep reading, but do pay a visit dedicated to the graphic design list article format we all love, etc., etc.
Not that interest articles, template round-ups, Illustrator shiny-button tutorials, and brainstorming tips aren’t wonderful, useful, and necessary topics. They are! But they are not nuts-and-bolts, root-level, business issues. I’m thinking of a core set of topics freelance graphic designers face as fundamentals, not incidentals. How to bill a project is a fundamental issue for freelancers. How to use the gradient mesh in Illustrator is an incidental issue. What if a site focused only fundamentals, and left the incidentals, as wonderful and necessary as they are, to other sites that already have that kind of content mastered?
The idea would be that new blog posts are not new round-ups of the same information over and over, but rather, they would simply be announcements that a permanent page for a given topic has been updated or that it’s going to update soon with a prod for final community comments. The permanent topic page becomes a living document, not a disposable list with expiring and expired content.
Timely and relevant with a vengeance
For instance, what good is searching for “invoice software for freelancers” when the results are from a list made in 2008? Granted some of a 2008 list will still be useful in 2011. But, wouldn’t it be better to have a permanent page that gets revisions and incorporate comments, over time, until it’s time to simply toss out what is irrelevant? Imagine coming to a page of resources you know has always been updated with the latest resources in the last month or two.
Think of the community, coming together to help curate a list of the best of the best resources that always stays up-to-date, where your opinion (from the comments) can make it back into the official list, and not just remain buried in the comments? Imagine a little link juice for the effort, too!
Now, your input
That’s the idea. It’s a lot of work. Someone else could do it, but since we see the need for it and have a particular execution in mind, it’s something that we are planning on releasing, in whatever form we have it, before the end of 2010. We think we have a good idea, a great domain name, and are already well underway with our initial research to fill out “version 1.0″.
So if you have any thoughts, please comment below or send me a note! Now is the time to speak up .
Oh, and a random radio-controlled helicopter
Yes, that is one of them in the article picture above. See image credits down below. Pick one up for $15—you won’t regret it. The invoice can wait 8 minutes.
Finally an idea that stands out from the crowd!
I consider it very, very clever and useful for these days! As you’ve said, all the incidental websites that are around are necessary for some particular need, sharing thoughts, getting inspiration and so on…
A focused website only on the fundamentals of the graphic designer’s life, is something that pops up!
I’m with you guys! Thumbs up!
@ Unique Design: Well, I struck at least one nerve just now! I hope that’s an indicator of the validity of the idea!
This sounds great. There definitely is no shortage of information when it comes to freelance graphic design, but a clear and concise bit of information would be greatly appreciated. I really like the idea of keeping lists down to 10. Who the hell has time for anything more than that. I’m intrigued and can’t wait to see what you roll out.
Very good idea. Would definitely frequent this website. As long as there is not loads of those annoying ‘click through’ articles where you have to click view source on 5 different blogs to get to it, and not LOADS of ads that over shadow the content. I understand people have to make money off their blogs, but too much can really ruin it.
@ Dennis: I agree with you on the “no shortage” problem. We are not lacking information, but we are lacking clarity and more importantly time. I’m glad you are intrigued – we will have something sooner rather than later and view it as an evolution of content. I imagine after X number of topic pages, we just about cease adding them, and then simply update them, and let people know via blog, twitter, etc.
@ brad: Well, shoot. There goes my strategy
I couldn’t agree more – intrusive ads are a turnoff and I never second a site that pulls that on me. This would be straight, unadulterated content. I have some novel ideas for monetizing the site, but it’s not really been done to any degree. More on that well after we launch
But whatever we do, it will always be content and usability first, everything else a distant second. I want to build the very resource I want to use…
It sounds great!
Count me in if you concret the idea.
@ Pablo: Fantastic. I look forward to your input once it’s up!
Yes please! This is such a great idea. There is way too much information and a lot of nonsense, or at least useless info (to me). I was just thinking recently, who needs 50 this or that when 10 would be enough? And I really love the permanent topic page idea. Looking forward to this
(I was wondering what that blur was…)
@ Grace: I’m very encouraged to hear more of the same, that too much is just too much. How to cut through the nonsense is a problem that is overdue to be solved NOW, nevermind in a few years or decades from now. Editorialized content is the solution, I think, for many types of information on the web. We’ll see!
I think it’s a great idea. Most design sites/blog are overloaded with too much information and ads. Good luck!
@ Flavio: Thanks for your feedback, Flavio. The more I think about it, it’s not just the “too much information” aspect that makes many sites, and going to many sites, harder and harder. It’s also the “too much extraneous information” that adds to the confusion.
Now, I have no clear idea on how to monetize this website, but it occurs to me that if anything, there should be a one-to-one relationship between an ad and the context. If you are on a page of “top 10 webhosts” and there is one ad, it should be for the number one host on the page, etc., etc. I would personally find that useful. If I was on a page to help me make a decision, an ad that helps that decision along, in consort with the page somehow, just makes so much sense.
Interesting idea, Douglas.
I do doubt it would put an end to those kinds of posts (not that that’s necessarily your absolute intention; it would still be useful to those in the know). Unfortunately, the advertisers like the link bait articles, and they want the page views. This type of thing might significantly decrease pageviews if it replaced list posts.
Also, you mentioned that the lists would be relatively short. That’s fine and great, but you also said they would be updated occasionally. It seems, however, that it would take quite a bit of curating to keep the lists small while adding new content to each. Each old entry in each list would have to be continually analyzed to ensure that its inclusion/exclusion is justified. That seems like a lot of work.
Anyhow, great idea. These are just my initial thoughts.
@ Louis: The key to changing the format, or least, coming up with a viable alternative, is breaking the traditional advertiser link bait article + ad system. Decreased page views is not an obstacle IF you have hit a specific need with a specific product that alleviates problems for that specific need. Essentially, any advertising would be custom tailored to each page, or there will simply be no advertising on that page. That’s the though anyway.The small, curated lists would grow and be edited over time, and instead of having an immediately successful article that depends on community-viral success for staying power, it would be iterative, with the same permalink, so that over time, the article gains authority. Again, that is the idea over time.Finally, there’d be a finite list of topics, very tightly defined in scope. The community comments would be in large part what helps curate the lists, but it would primarily be our task. Again, with a finite scope of topics that at some point reaches a saturation point, this would be overall less work than constantly researching and writing new articles. As long as we refresh articles on some kind of minimal schedule, the content can always be considered “fresh”. Now, it does seem like a lot of work, but no more so than writing a regular blog. I know how hard it is come up with 3-4 solid posts a month, along with other projects and full-time work. But this seems to be less work overall, over time, than finding and writing about continually new topics.That’s the idea, anyway!
Well, after you last comment, Douglas, it seems even more a great idea! I really like your approach to how to provide information and share them with your peeps.
I think that your advertising model is not that bad. It could really work. The only thing that could brake the system is having the advertisers that doesn’t understand what the scope of the blog is, how the advertising works, and what are the really opportunity of advertising in such way.
I wonder if perhaps one way to go is to have certain discussions more or less “permanent”. Because certain design issues tend to remain more or less the same; it’s just the specific approach/tactic to solve them that changes. So you’d have certain areas/categories that would remain more or less constant, and keep aggregating knowledge to them as the times passes. And giving power to the cloud to come up with their own new articles within those (more or less) constant topics.
@ Unique: I’m much less concerned about advertising than making the site as plainly useful as possible. As far as advertisers go, I have some ideas there, but will have to wait until the site is launched to talk more about it!
@ Flavio: You are right on. I want to have a permanent page, but also and archive of each iteration, or “version” of the list. A major update to a list essentially would reset the comments for the page, but the comments and archive of the previous page would remain.
Well I was following others and yours thoughts about advertisement more than thinking directly to it.
In this phase advertising is the less important thing.
I’m looking forward to seeing this new site.
Yeah. I agree.
Good idea, but the challenge will be to consistently stand apart from the rest. Not having lists of 100 mediocre things or tutorials on how to resize an image in Photoshop CS6 is a nice start.
I’d love to see some more articles that really dissect trends in contemporary (web and offline) design, find out what makes ‘em tick, or why they’ll be gone tomorrow. Almost academic in scope (although better, because you’d still have your wit!).
And lots and lots of images of kittens… Wait, what?!
SlowX: Not having *any* mediocre content is the idea, which in a certain sense doesn’t make for sensational, fluffy, headlines. The challenge is going to be how become both compelling and mundane (read: useful) at the same time! Hopefully some user input and feedback will help push the site forward.
We tried to launch by end of December but couldn’t make it. We’ll launch in whatever form we have ready this month, and simply start to work it. I just need to tweak a few design elements. We have about 30 lists in the can right now to start…but we aren’t going to hype anything. We want word of mouth and SEO to do the work, not mediocre content hiding behind lame article titles.
I love that: Let your quality be your hype.
WIll stay tuned…
I just had to edit a legal agreement form from 2006. I was deleting words like dikette, and long distance phone call fees. I would love to have a site geared towards “The Biz” end of things.
Hi Folks:
BIG update time
I’ve been working on this when I can but it’s just about ready with a first big post.
http://thebiglistoflists.org
Essentially, it’s a BIG list post site with VETTED links. It’s going live very shortly. Maybe tonight
Ok, I just flipped the switch for the first article: 135+ Top Graphic Design Blogs for 2012 (Ranked and Sortable)
I’d love to get some feedback!
If the concept is good and useful, I’ll invest more time in it…I have a lot of ideas for the short term.
I am clearly coming late to this (comment) party, but was very interested in the concept. None of us have time to weed out fluff, your idea seems right on. And I was pleased to see your update that you’ve gone live at http://thebiglistoflists.org.
Unfortunately the link didn’t work. Maybe the URL is wrong? Or the server down?
We ran the site for a few months but got hooked on some other big ideas, so we put it on hold. We might resurrect it but for now it’s on hiatus. We have to weed the fluff out of own ideas, too!