Drawar Thread: Design Leaders

Design Leaders

designative — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:49:21

Here are some of the "old school" stuff:

- Design is Kinky;
- Half Project;
- Digital Thread;
- Kaliber10000;

P.S: What I mean by "old school" is anything that've lasted more than 5 years (Kaliber's been out there for 7!)

Design Leaders

thame — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:06:59

Thanks Tyme!

My big five are people who consistently innovate in a bunch of different areas:

Snook - for doing everything well.
Shaun Inman - he has a very distinctive style and I love it.
Injection - whoever this genius is.
Bartelme - for some amazing icons.
Greg Storey - I love this portfolio

There are more I'm sure, but these came to my head first.

Design Leaders

Alan — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:07:36

Here's something cool: a parallax scrolling effect.

Design Leaders

mrad — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:57:37

It may sound corny, but I'm honestly inspired by the sheer amount of talent on the web these days. I think designers are making some modest gains in terms of innovation, and their peers are moving at a breakneck pace to catch up (and often do). My guess is that we'll see things on the web move at this pace for awhile (not that what's on the web right now is boring by anymeans), but there will be another explosion of cool, inspiring stuff in the not too distant future.

Design Leaders

Tyme — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:32:44

Thame never disappoints. He mostly writes about Philosophy but his designs and skills as a designer are on point (IMO).

Design Leaders

Scrivs — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:06:00

Yep.

Design Leaders

shadowsun7 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:59:38

I'm not sure, but I've always loved reading ideasonideas, which thinktanks design. Anybody else reading him?

Design Leaders

Scrivs — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:29:19

Is it necessary to have constant leaders in design?

No, but it's only natural for some to rise above the others.

Design Leaders

elliothere — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:18:49

Jeff Croft has always inspired me with his constant need to step outside the box.

However, nowadays most of my inspiration doesn't come from big designers so to speak, but rather creatives and innovative groups of people. The Vimeo guys (even just stuff like jake and amir), Jakob Lodwick (ex Vimeo guy), SkinnyCorp (Threadless guys), etc.

Design Leaders

leliathomas — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:37:17

Is it necessary to have constant leaders in design? I can't say I've ever followed anyone with any dedication, not even Smashing Magazine, which I think is pretty cool.

Design Leaders

Scrivs — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:27:41

@Mike: Your stuff was more just design galleries, not really design leaders who push limits by example. Cool stuff however

@JPhill: That's what I was worried about.

Where are the leaders in the niche?

Design Leaders

JPhill — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:58:55

Aside from Smashing Mag, there aren't many sites that I visit on a normal basis that fill that void of being leaders in the industry. I feel that I haven't been inspired in a long time.

Design Leaders

RightOn — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:35:54

Dude, that 2nd link, (Injection portfolio) is simply mindblowing. I wish I had cash to hire him to revamp a site I run. He's probably mucho expensive.

Not to mention he's not for hire at the moment ;)

Design Leaders

Mike — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:12:46

I've got a lot of great portfolio sites and "inspiration" sites bookmarked, but as far as new designers on the scene with great blogs, pushing the boundaries of web design, I don't find much of that nowadays. Here's a list of some sites I've recently bookmarked but they may not be blogs:

DONE - Daily Design Workout
Newspond designer's great portfolio site
Bombia Design, great icon designers
Dave Gorum's portfolio
Faveup logo gallery, from our friends at Flashden and Freelance Switch

Design Leaders

designzillas — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:51:46

So true, So true... here is my list of my daily reads:

1. 9rules
2. Smashing Magazine
3. Wired
4. Smiley Cat
5. Life Hacker
6. Particle Tree
7. Hackaday
8. Uncle Grandpa - hehe

Design Leaders

Scrivs — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:08:54

Last month my arch-enemy, Adam Howell, asked what happened to the blog design community and where was the excitement and innovation that we saw in 2004-05. The web has changed quite a bit in such a short period of time. Those who were big are no longer so and the people who used to be pushing the envelope have seemed to fade away.

I wish I had the ability to track everyone that was great on the web, but I can't so maybe you know of the new leaders in the design world that are taking it to the next level. Where is all the excitement at? I don't mean people you like to read because you like to read them. As much as I love Zeldman he isn't a pusher anymore and he doesn't need to be.

For me sites like Smashing Magazine have upped the game quite a bit. Initially I was put off by them, but now they seem to have hit a groove with the amount of time and research they put into each article. Some great stuff comes from them.

So if you know any then let us know.