I view my inbox as a sacrosanct place. Today I thought I’d share with you the design newsletters that make it past my junk-mail filter and onto the sanctity of my safe recipients list.
- Contemporist. This is by far my favourite resource for architecture. Te content is predominantly buildings but it also features art and other types of design. Each e-mail typically has two or three projects with large images and some description. If something catches my eye I will ‘click through’ to see additional images which will inevitably end up on a Pinterest board. The descriptions are not always great as many are written by architects who, in my opinion, often resort to overly pretentious drivel.
- Dezeen. Dezeen also feature art and design alongside architecture but have a less frequent newsletter. They are a London based company and seem very good at curating their content. My favourite thing about this website is that it has comments enabled which make for an entertaining read. They often have great Japanese housing (a personal favourite) and you can guarantee there’s a health and safety warrior ready to chip in with a quip about handrails. The copy alongside the projects is also carefully written and often linked to current issues.
- Design Sponge. This might not be for everyone as the newsletters have a wide range of content. It’s usually a mix of some business advice/interviews with small artisanal business owners in the design industry, irritating craft projects, quirky, eclectic interiors, essays, and phenomenally good city guides. I particularly like the interviews with the uber cool hipster types which I find interesting and inspiring, my favourite parts are where they describe their mistakes which helps you to realise that you can’t get everything right, every time.
- Smashing Magazine. This one is a bit random and the one I actually read the least of. It’s aimed at web designers but I find there is a strong crossover with my graphics work. I usually skim read this one as it’s not that regular and just read the articles that are applicable to me. I let this one through the filter as I really feel it helps to broaden my industry knowledge which is important where there is a large crossover between the design professions. For example I read an excellent article on preparing SVG’s (scalable vector graphics) for handover to animators and web designers.
What design gems do you allow into your inbox?