This article has been contributed by Lulia David.

Are you interested in learning about the most recent design news coming from the startups in Silicon Valley?

Maybe a quick design trend update could be the difference between a good design and one that gets you a new client or some recognition in the industry. Regardless, everyone needs a reliable designer news resource, since these online magazines, databases and aggregation engines ensure that you stay up to date with the market and keep up with the information that everyone else is reading.

After all, what if an interview from your favorite designer is released. How are you going to learn about it? Maybe a company shares a designer startup toolkit for a fraction of the price they usually sell it at. This could potentially help your design career, or company, quite a bit.

Without an online news resource, you have no way to learn about these trends and industry updates. That’s why you need a reliable designer news source, and we put together a list of our top options.

WIRED

WIRED is a mixed bag of business, entertainment, gear and science, but if you click on the Design tab at the top of the page, this sends you to one of my favorite places to find news and information about the design market. For example, you may read an article covering a new Apple TV and take some design pointers away from that. The thing I like about the WIRED Design page is that it covers all sorts of design, from photography to music, web design to robotics.

UXMag

The UXMag website is a solid place to start, since it has a beautiful area for job hunting. This is a huge benefit when learning about the ins and outs of the business. The typical UXMag articles cover interviews with industry experts, tips for improving your designs and inspiration to put you on the right track with your own digital designs. Along with event listings, and product reviews, the UXMag website serves you rather well, so I would highly recommend signing up for email updates.

Medium

Medium is also a place where you can find a broader compilation of news stories, but a simple search for “web design,” “design,” or “UX” leads you to a list of great content to read. Medium also allows its readers to submit stories, so if you’d like to get your name out there or lead people back to your own designs, feel free to submit a story that users may want to read.

Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine is one of the most popular design news resources online, and it should always be placed in your arsenal of web designer resources, since the magazine is packed with goodies. To start, Smashing Mag provides consistent freebies and discounts from companies that sell or giveaway items like themes, typography packs, buttons, icons and more. Smashing Magazine has a job board and plenty of Books for you to bundle up and read on your couch. The homepage is managed rather nicely, since you can click on the categories to the left for anything from coding to design or from WordPress to graphics.

UX Movement

The UX Movement resource is all about focusing on improving your overall user experience with testing and minor tweaks. UX Movement provides a quality community of designers, and you can subscribe to the email list to receive the best articles when they come out to the public. Overall, this resource is great for those interested in wireframes, content, buttons, navigation and forms.

Fast Company Design

You may know Fast Company as a resource for business people and entrepreneurs, but the magazine provides a wonderful design branch, which covers everything from photography to web branding. You can subscribe to the Fast Company email list or have the magazine delivered to your tablet or front door. We enjoy this web design resource since it doesn’t simply put a focus on design. Rather, it combines the importance of design with business, showing how design actually works in the real world.

Creative Bloq

The Creative Bloq site provides an intuitive look into webdesign, 3D work, digital arts, graphic design, typography and more. The website has various social media channels for you to truly choose how you’d like to interact with the company. Not to mention, the YouTube channel has some solid videos for all levels of experience. With tutorials, interviews, videos and deals, Creative Bloq has become a mainstay in the designer community, and you can even write you own opinion pieces to share your thoughts on the market.

I Love Typography

It sounds weird to say that you love typography, but if you’re interested in making your fonts pop, (and what designer isn’t?) this is the place for you to start. Covering unusual topics like optotypes and fifteenth century fonts, the blog is a refreshing take on a part of web design that isn’t always that exciting. Many of the articles are extremely insightful and in-depth, and you’ll notice that each one is complimented with beautiful imagery, quotes and research.

WPMuDev

The WPMUDEV blog isn’t for everyone, but it’s nice for those with an interest in designing through the WordPress platform. They don’t necessarily cover industry news, but the articles are rather helpful for those beginner designers and developers who need a boost with where they should go for things like plugins and themes. From tutorials on how to add a forum to your WordPress site to tips on working with a parallax design, the WPMUDEV blog is one worth bookmarking.

Over to You…

Now that we’ve had a chance to explore the hottest news and trend resources for web designers, feel free to drop us a line in the comments section below. Let us know if you use any of these resources and whether or not you follow any other news sources for designers online.