What has happened to these 10 great graphic design blogs and their bloggers?
Ok, now that you are here I’m going to tell you upfront I’m not actually going to publish a list of annoying graphic designers. Instead, you are going to publish the list! In your head!
Hey, you already started but you haven’t gotten the instructions yet! Wait up!
I want you to read the following bullets and see for yourself what names appear magically in your minds eye and project it onto each line below:
Top 10 annoying graphic design bloggers (from the depths of your subconscious):
- ________
- ________
- ________
- ________
- ________
- ________
- ________
- ________
- ________
- ________
There, you admitted it to yourself. You let yourself in on the truth. Now it seems so obvious! What happened to these bloggers? Try to put them in order from the most annoying to the least most annoying now. Who is number one on the list. Ouch!
(Psssst! Hey you, Number One on this list, you might know who you are as you read this! Uh-oh!)
(Pssst again! Did you really think your name might have been on an actual list like this? Yikes, you need to keep reading, mon frere…)
Now dear reader, why do you think you feel this way? Why do you have any of those bloggers in your RSS feed, and why do you feverishly check them over and over for “new” content? Perhaps we’ve been hoodwinked! Is it possible?
Yes, it’s possible. And it’s a trend! But let’s dig deeper.
Now for a tougher question: What do all these ageing-design-rock-star bloggers on the list you just created have in common? Why did you subconsciously list out a few of them so easily? Let me suggest a few reasons:
- You discern a pattern of shallow content at one point you thought was exciting.
- You were hoping their mojo would rub off on you, but now you realize maybe you don’t want that mojo.
- They borrow a little too freely from other sources. You know that feeling – “…didn’t I read that before somewhere?”
- You can tell they kind of cut corners. You can’t tell exactly how, but you get the sense a lot of work didn’t go into this or that post, but that post somehow – in the title or the stock images or the scant text – tries to come off more original or content-laden than it really is. How’d they do that?
- You sense the blogger revealed, crack by crack, that the blog is really all about them and that the “giving” either has stopped or waned. Honestly, it looks like their best content is behind them.
- You feel slightly duped.
- They have posted several 3 sentence posts in the last few months that simply state something obvious and then ask for your opinion.
- They make list after list of freely available content. You are hooked, and now it turns out that about 1 in 10 lists they post are the result of actual work, not surfing and collecting the most obvious and easy content. They don’t add any value or insight to these kinds of posts. You think to yourself, “hey, I could have done that…”.
- It’s not clear to you what the point of their content is anymore.
- You know, their posts just aren’t showing craftsmanship or desire or creativity.
- You read their latest post and immediately thought “They made a post about what? Are you kidding?”
- At one point, they had a really unique voice and a made distinguished contribution to the graphic design community on the web. Now, for some reason, their voice is gone and all we have left is the vague memory that this blog was cool at one point.
- And on and on…
From scrappy upstart blog to doltish sales-pitch drivel-holder
This tranformation from exciting blogger to something less design-worthy will be a phenomenon for several major design blogs this year. Blogs that move in this direction are becoming like…magazines. Or worse, they become little more than ad platforms that serve up lackluster content and along with an ad for an e-book or some affiliate link to a WordPress theme disguised as commentary.
How often in the past, for those who have been around a few years, did you rush out to get the new issue of this-or-that design magazine only to realize it was 95% fluff, mostly ads, and the one article that was most promising from the hype actually turned out to be kind of shallow? And you felt kind of robbed of your $7.95, though you did willingly fork it over.
Well, I stopped buying those magazines. When blogging came along with the rising tide of the net, many of those magazines evaporated because economics simply revealed the truth of what they were – a rip-off – and people stopped buying them.
It’s expensive and time-consuming to come up with quality content. That is why magazines will base an entire issue on one or two good articles and fill the rest with drivel. It makes economic sense to hoodwink readers at the newsstand. And this reality is slowly dawning on some better-known graphic design blogs. You know it’s true. Sad, really. But what to do?
How to rescue your favorite graphic design blogger from utter blog-destruction
I hope some big graphic design bloggers (you KNOW who you are!) out there find their way to better, more honest and verdant content pastures this coming year. Have you lost your first love, love? Pastures where real work and real creativity and originality come back and take the place of quick-burn flashy titles and cheap rehashed content and pointless lists. Lists can be great, don’t get me wrong. But enough shallow, goofy list posts and content cleverly scrubbed and disguised from other blogs and sources already! Go back to square one and learn to give again!
The next time your blogger-hero posts a lame article, just lovingly suggest you know they can do better. Be kind, be courteous, be constructive. Be positive, but be real and don’t let them get away with it. Remind them of why you subscribed way back when in the first place!
P.S. My two favorite foods are in fact Marshmallow Fluff and Marshmallow Peeps, I must mention. Next favorite would be Circus Peanuts and Licorice, but I digress.
Additional Resources
- The Top 50 graphic design blogs – David Airey
I’m agreeing with you on this.
The quality of the fluff content is just really lacking. For every 1 really great post that goes in depth of the subject, there are 10 roundups.
Sometimes these roundups are extremely lazy as well – nothing but screenshots. If you’re going to make a list, at least give me reasons why you chose them, ya know?
Anyway, keep it up!
You know what really gets my goat, Doug? Those scraper blogs that steal content from design sites, then rank on the first page of Google with the exact same headline.
existingvisual.com is one of the worst, stealing content from a host of popular blogs, hotlinking images, using their bandwidth. Google doesn’t seem to want to know about the problem, either.
Muxx: I agree! Enough *useless* roundups. Roundups can be good when the thing that is rounded up is *actually* hard to find. But how hard is it to find “20 inspiring pictures of trees”? What did that take all of 23 minutes on Flickr? Yes, anyone can make screenshots and attach a snazzy headline too them. But when magazines start relying on doing that, they end up going out of business! Good riddance!
David: That really gets me too. I like to see well written content rank highly – it sets the bar for all of us. But when these schlock bloggers play black hat SEO and or simply steal it’s outrageous. And yes, they get top rankings. What also gets me is the rip-off “logo design services” type places (not all are bad) that must have a entire fleet of SEO optimizers to squeeze legitimate content right out of the top 50 search results.
I take small comfort in the short term know that that sites like exisitingvisual.com don’t really have a reason to exist. The financial remuneration for stealing content can’t, in the long run, be all that worth it. I can imagine logging on to davidairey.com in 20 years to read “design trends of 2030”, but I can’t picture logging on to existingvisual.com except to find “this domain is for sale…”.
And hey, keep up the great work! The new book is great. I got a mangled one in the mail (box was CRUSHED and retaped by a small monkey) but Amazon immediately sent a nice, not-crushed version in it’s place. Ahh…a book with REAL CONTENT!
Great! Glad you received my book okay (eventually). When you’ve had a chance to read it, I’d love to know your thoughts. Thanks very much for picking it up, Doug.
It’s in the “read” pile, but I’m planning on doing a review and posting it as an article.
I totally agree with you Doug! It seems that recently everyone has to have his own blog. And since there are so many design blogs out there, just grab some content, modify it a little and post it.
It’s really annoying!
Keep up the good work!
Hi m.keller: The idea of everyone having a blog is just grand. The more the merrier. But for all things good and lovely I hope we see the death of this “cut and paste” approach to blogging. Blogging should primarily be about a personal voice, which is the value add to otherwise droll and undifferentiated data. Why are these 49 nature pictures inspiring? How do these 38 black and white minimal websites design correlate? How did you find 63 Photoshop filter tips? Why are you motivated to present 92 hi-res grunge backgrounds?
That is what I’d like to read about. If you don’t inform me, at least entertain me! But don’t bore me! 🙂
Wow. How amazing that you and I had the same list of annoying bloggers. Freaky. LOL. I guess design blogging is not much different than some’s approach to designing in general…find a design and simply copy it verbatim. Thanks for sharing
@ Jeromy: Well I hope we can rekindle the flames of good content for some of our blogging heroes 🙂
Great post Doug! Found it in Google ranked at #1 under ‘annoying graphic design clients’ while doing some research for a post. You bring up some good points. When I started my blog a few months ago I had the vision of being as successful as many of the popular design blogs like Just Creative Design and David Airey. I like to elaborate or share some of the knowledge I read on other sites, but at the same time, offer my own seed to the community of readers. Running a quality blog takes a lot of commitment. You can only skim by for so long. Keep up the good work, and I’ll be sure to stop by from time.
Hi Blake. Both David Airey and Jacob Cass comment here from time to time. What’s so cool about their blogs and them personally, is that they both make a great effort to be personal and respond to each comment on their blogs. I started this blog back in Sept 2009, so it’s still quite wet behind the ears. But, I think after 60 articles, I realize that the type of success both David and Jacob have procured for themselves is going to be very elusive to repeat. There is a bit of “perfect storm” combined with unusual focus and dedication on their part that has served them quite well. Not that I’m discouraged from blogging – it’s loads of fun – but if you look at, say, the archived entries of either David’s or Jacob’s site, they had relatively quick and large success. I loved reading David’s old articles. He seems to have kept every single one. Same for Jacob. You can track their progress. They are a hoot to read, and are one of the main reasons I decided to give this a whirl.
I’ve learned so much in the last five months from doing this, and also from both of them along the way. They both will say too, that nothing beats great, original content. I might add that the “perfect storm” they both seemed to have benefit from is the advent of the “super list post”. I’m not sure if they invented it, but they certainly perfected it in regards to graphic design for many topics. My one bit of advice would be to find a particular niche topic within the broader topic of graphic design and simply own it. A series of well done articles on something that hasn’t been beat to death with go a long way towards getting you some subscribers and bringing you up in the ranks.
Good luck – and do stop back!
Hi Doug,
I didn’t invent the list post, no doubt about that. Copyblogger and Problogger were preaching the benefits long before I launched a blog.
Lists served me well back in the day, but I tend to steer clear of them now, due to the huge amount of regurgitated ones you see elsewhere.
As for popularity, maybe I just hit the ‘design’ niche at the right time, on the cusp of blogs becoming relatively mainstream. Still a long way for me to go, though.
Thanks for the reply to my DSLR recommendation ‘tweet’, by the way.
Douglas,
Upon looking back on my old articles I can see I how much I have learned along the way. I wouldn’t call it a “quick & large success” though. The day I started my blog, I didn’t even know what social media was (Digg, SU, etc) so it was a totally new learning curve… I even got caught spamming forums for stumble upon thumbs up for traffic (oh how new I was).
Though I quickly learned about the intricacies of social media through sites such as DailyBlogTips, Problogger and Copyblogger and yes, list posts were highly recommended. List posts are always going to bring in the traffic and you probably should have a few of them, though in the long term you need to decide what sort of traffic you want to bring in. For this reason, I have tried to steer away from these list posts and focused more on quality / original content with an occasional list post thrown in for good measure.
On the other hand, websites such as Vandelay Design do very well on providing purely list / inspirational posts. Yes, blogs are posting more and more the same fluff, but I also appreciate some of it, especially when looking for inspiration (I find myself coming to Steven’s posts so often). I think it depends on the blog’s ultimate goals.
But like you say, “A series of well done articles on something that hasn’t been beat to death with go a long way towards getting you some subscribers and bringing you up in the ranks”. The trouble is finding and writing these articles… you’re definitely on the right track Douglas.
It’s timely that you bring this up as JCD is about to undergo a major change this month (or March), including much more emphasis on selling ad space, that will allow us to pay writers for quality content. I’ve chosen to go in this direction as I now have a full time job and have much less time to focus on my own blog / work.
I guess what I am trying to say is that once you know what you want to achieve out of your blog, you set the strategies in place to make it so… it’s an ongoing process.
There seems to be more and more articles on graphic design blogs about how to write articles on writing articles on making money writing articles on design blogs…. or sites listing the top ten lists on the top ten sites where you can find lists about making lists.
Do you think there is (or would ever be) a “critical mass” or saturation point for the design blogging community, and if so, has it been reached yet? It certainly seems possible… Especially if more and more freelance designers are spending more time blogging and making lists than they are actually designing anything for a client?
Dear Douglas,
I am agreeing with you too, it very nice topic to write about.
I just want to say, I think you are forget some important points about how we can make a great blogger and blog fromm these annoying designers? I knew the internet has a lot of of shallow content as you said.. but we can make something unique by suppourt,tips,comments and feedback.
Thanks again Douglas
Hi Jacob: I would qualify that “quick & large success” is a relative term 🙂 By quick, I mean some decent visitor stats inside of 12 months. That’s what I was thinking anyway. I thought it was so cool to look through your archives and see some GA charts. Those long charts show the nice ski-slope increase in numbers – and it didn’t take 5 years. Kudos!
I think list posts are great – they just need to evolve into 1) niche material and 2) very interesting, article oriented lists. 10 examples of “cool coffee mugs” might not cut it, but “10 fascinating textile designers and their profiles” might do better. The first example takes about 45 minutes of work including Photoshop and twittering. The second example might take a good 10 hours of research and writing. Not that blogger have 10 hours for individual articles, but if it’s important to the audience you are going after, it might be worth the effort.
It will be very interesting to see what you do with JCD. Are you taking a Smashing Mag approach?
Hi David: Looking through your archives, I noticed you used to post more about blogging, but not so much anymore. Would you say your knowledge has reached a certain saturation point? I would venture your readers would like to read about what you’ve learned about blogging. Also, perhaps blogging about blogging (at least in your niche) has become less interesting and hence no posts? It seems that to absorb a good 90% of useful information about blogging (platform, best practices, content writing tips) takes less than a year, but to really get to the next level requires a more exponential effort. It’s like getting that A+ instead of B perhaps. I was always that kind of student that could get the B+ without breaking a sweat, but getting to the A required about 5x as much work. I have quite a few B+’s along the way. I did graduate from college with a 4.0 however 🙂 I’m thinking more of my high school days :/.
Well, if you had the gumption, I’d love to read a “David Airey blogging roundup” that sums up your blogging thus far. How long has it been for you? 4 years?
Thanks for stopping by – always a pleasure!
I wouldn’t say my knowledge has reached saturation point, Doug. Particularly as there’s always something new to learn.
October ’06 was when I started a blog on davidairey.com. Prior to that I had a static portfolio that wasn’t getting me anywhere.
The blog roundup ‘so far’ is a nice idea. Leave it with me.
Douglas,
Yeah, I was pretty addicted to the stats back then, now I hardly look at them. Good points about the list articles, though I find soon as you put a number into the post title it subconsciously goes into your mind that it’s just another list post.
As for JCD, it won’t be as fast paced as Smashing Mag but hopefully one high quality article a week and then we’ll see where we got from there. I’ve already done the design however I am waiting for the developer to put it together… they are quite busy atm so it may be around March. I am excited to see it come out and the reactions people have to it.
I can also relate to you with the extra effort of going the next step in blogging… it really takes a lot of commitment and hard work. Though it does pay off in the end, people like Walter (Web Designer Depot) and Vitaly (Smashing Mag) are great examples of that.
FOUL!
(Clever nonetheless.)
We should all agree that we pupils have surpassed that which we once considered to be masters. We can’t learn any more from them; we can take that torch and light the same kind of fires in noobs that they did for us. We can also say, “Thanks, Abduzeedo, PSDTuts and Smashing Magazine!”
It’s not their fault that we’ve graduated.
Doug, This post really struck a nerve with me. In a good way…
I think it is time for readers to start getting real with bloggers. I see far too many weak posts followed by a stream of 30+ comments with nothing but praise for the author. I believe that this “need to please” in the online design community is simply destructive as it hinders what we all learn from – constructive conversation.
I have just made a post on my bog on this very topic titled “How Can We Improve the Design Community” and would love to hear your opinion.
In hindsight, I probably should have titled it – “How can we SAVE the Design Community.”
Great post mate, will go down as one of my favorites for 2010.
@ Duane: On another post I did about “top graphic design blogs” last year, I went through some of the lists that other blogs had compiled. Some of the “favorites” on the lists had not made a post in over a year. One blog I won’t mention because I don’t know the circumstances, was rehashed as a favorite on quite a few lists, though the blogger had not made a post since Jan 2009. I did my research in October or November. It clear that many bloggers had not even bothered to check the source. It appears now the site is offline.
Makes me wonder.
We are going to see some meltdowns this year for sure. The “graphic design blog dot com bubble burst of 2010” is in the making. People try, which is good. No penalty for failing, I suppose. It’s a little painful to have to forget certain favorite places. But if you are going to tank your blog, just be 100% up front. I’ve come across that on a lot of sites that are now defunct that have a last post like. “BYE! I hate blogging” or “I’ve moved on” or “I got a different job”. I’m strangely fascinated by those kinds of posts. I think they have a lot of real integrity, and the blogger never seemed so real as in their last post. Their swan song posts are the heralds of new beginnings.
I can think of several other list-favorites that have slowed way way down, and now post apology posts instead of content. Which is fine, but why the false expectations? Just publish what you can, teach us what you can, and give us a bit of a laugh if you can!
Yes, we could all use a lowering of expectations and just enjoy blogging, enjoy design, crack a Guinness and have a good laugh. It’s just graphic design anyway! 🙂
Duane, post a link to your article here – it’s excellent and very timely.
Doug, I agree. It is amazing how “real” some of the posts get when a blog is coming to an end. Eventually, these bloggers get tired of pretending to be something they are not. I guess these final posts are a release of some sort.
The ironic thing is that if they had of kept it real from the beginning they probably would have had a much better chance of succeeding…
I certainly hope that the graphic design blog bubble is about to burst. Bring it on. Survival of the fittest 🙂
As requested, here is the link to my post.
How Can We Improve the Design Community
@ Duane: Nicely put. Avoid “blog bubble” = be real.
One thing about blogging I’ve learned so far, for sure, is that you can’t build anything worthwhile or sustain such by “blogging beyond your means” as it were. Nobody is breathing down anyone’s neck looking for that next great post. For those that think someone is waiting just for them, they are probably just going to burn out.
It seems like it would be better, amidst all the noise of the internet, to simply post several good articles a month, maybe a few light one here and there, and not to worry about a slow month here and there. They’ll be months where you can crank out 3 articles a week for 4 weeks straight, but then there will be the 3-4 articles in a month months. No biggie. Set a pace, don’t burn out, keep it real. Nobody is THAT desperate to read ANYONE’S blog, I’m quite sure, so don’t worry!
Survival of the SLOWEST perhaps :).
Thanks for posting your article!
Good article Douglas, I’d be interested to know how everyone’s top 10 compared and if the same old names cropped up. I’ve recently started my first blog and have yet to do a top 10, 20, 50 or 100 list, but will at some point as they do seem to be very popular. Personally I hate lists that have no explanation from the blog’s author as to why each item in the list has been included. Sure, I don’t expect each list to be original, but at least make it personal to you.
Hi Paul: I think lists can be really great. Time has proven that they work. But if you want someone to visit your site again, you need a twist, even if it’s just your commentary. There is always a new an interesting way to frame the same old facts while adding something new that is truly entertaining or informational. Find a different angle and run with it.
Excellent post Doug. You are a true voice for the design community. Keep on preaching and it’s great that you are trying to get people to stand up to the big lazy design bloggers.
@ Lucas: I’m trying to motivate myself more than anyone! I have bills to pay 🙂
The following sentence from the article contains a misspelled word:
‘…hope some big graphic design bloggers (you KNOW who you are!) out there find there way to better…’
You’re Welcome!
@ Grammar Nazi:
I actually wrote a spoof song about 15 years ago that paid homage to my lack of editorial skills. My favorite self-deprecating line was:
“I with grammar not to be.”
‘nuf said 🙂
I fixed the error! Thanks for pointing it out. Feel free to find more 🙂
Doug, actually, I used to buy fashion magazines *for* the ads, because so many of the ads were better than the content.
Thanks for your Top 19. I’m about to spend a nice evening working with Myriad and Minion (provided Fontdeck or Typekit handle them, haven’t checked yet). I’m teaching myself the rudiments of design, so I can better outsource it later.
@ Dave: LOL, the ads in most magazines have more thought put in them than the content – I couldn’t agree more! Typekit just got an influx of Adobe typefaces. I don’t have the list in front of me but hopefully you’ll find something there that works great for you.
I just added both Myriad and Minion from Typekit.
Now to go hash everything up. Learning is so much fun!
I hope you don’t mind me sending a bunch of bloggers over here. The mood in the blogging community is to learn a lot more about design, and that includes type.
@ Dave: That’s great that Myriad and Minion are in there! Fantastic. Post back if you get something up we can see.
As far as visitors go, the more the merrier!