Did you know that there are almost 350 million Tumblr blogs? And yes, while 50% of those might just be reposting GIFs from TV shows, that still leaves plenty of room for blogs on more helpful topics.
So if you’re looking for some design inspiration, Tumblr has it in droves…if you can find it. My goal is to help you find it. And to that end, I’ve collected some of the best Tumblr design blogs that you can use as inspiration for your work.
To help you drill down and find the most helpful Tumblr blogs to follow, I’ve divided these blogs into a few different categories:
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- General design inspiration: A sort of catchall for design inspiration blogs that are hard to stick into a specific category.
- Typography: Blogs that dedicate most posts to typography.
- Web design: Blogs dedicated to web design, user experience, and more.
Because design is subjective, my only real criteria for this list is that the Tumblr blog is still active at the time of posting (though I did make a couple exceptions that I’ll note).
Let’s dig in…
General Design Inspiration
This is a catchall because many of the most popular Tumblr design blogs are rather eclectic in the content that they feature. They might jump from photography, to typography, to illustration…all in one package.
1. Gura Fiku
Gura Fiku is a Tumblr blog from designer Ryan Hageman that surveys the history of graphic design in Japan. This blog is great because, if you’re living in the West like most of our readers, it can expose you to completely new design styles.
It’s also interesting because it includes historical pieces. For example, one post may be a piece from 1954, while the next design is from 2015.
2. Designers of Tumblr
Designers of Tumblr is a group blog where anyone can submit their work to share it with the blog’s 160,000+ followers. Because it’s open to submissions from anyone, you’ll find a huge variety of styles and uses.
T-shirts, illustrations, animations…expect it all.
3. Design Cloud
Design Cloud is another eclectic compilation from a variety of different designers. It covers everything from painting to graphic design and product design.
If you want a mix of styles and mediums, Design Cloud will immerse you in just that.
4. Curioos
Curioos is full of “wall art of the digital age.” Like the other Tumblr blogs in this category, it covers a whole bunch of mediums. Right on the first page, you can see t-shirts, illustrations, and more.
With over 285,000 followers, the blog is quite popular. Curioos itself is a marketplace for designers to sell prints, shirts, and more, which is where the designs are pulled from.
5. Design Everywhere
As the name implies, Design Everywhere features graphic design works from all around the world. The blog collects a variety of styles and mediums. The first page alone contained signs, posters, works of art, books, and more.
The blog is curated by Preston Tham.
6. Wrap Magazine
Wrap Magazine features primarily illustrations and magazine covers. Compared to many of the other Tumblr blogs, the style is quite unique. Take a peek at the screenshot above to see what I mean!
7. We and the Color
We and the Color is an art and design blog. While their main blog features more text pieces, their Tumblr blog puts the focus more on visuals. You’ll catch all types of graphic design here, from fonts to illustrations and lots more.
8. Design Clever
Design Clever features a variety of, well…clever designs. On the blog, you’ll find product design, posters, fonts, and plenty more. You can also submit your own work if you’d like to be featured.
Typography
All of these Tumblr blogs are, more or less, focused specifically on typography in both the real and digital worlds.
9. Type Worship / 8 Faces
Type Worship comes from 8 Faces, a typography magazine. It features “inspirational typography, beautiful lettering, reviews, interviews with leading designers.”
Some of the typography is absolutely stunning – it’s definitely one of the best Tumblr typography blogs.
10. Typophile
Typophile is, as the name suggests, a blog for those who love type. It features typography from all mediums. You’ll find illustrations, magazine covers, signs, and more, as well as a variety of different styles.
At the time of writing this post, Typophile hasn’t updated in about a month. But that’s a short enough time that I’m hoping it’s only a temporary hiatus, not a permanent shutdown.
11. Typostrate
Typostrate focuses on “graphic design, lettering, typography, calligraphy.” What’s neat is that sometimes they’ll round up inspiration for specific topics, which gives it a more curated feel than some of the more eclectic blogs.
12. Anagrama
Anagrama is just one infinitely scrolling feed of typography inspiration. No accompanying text, no titles – not even an about page!
If you want to dig into typography without any distractions, this Tumblr blog is for you.
13. Chromeography
Chromeography has a neat take on typography. All of the images are pulled from chrome auto badges. The photography is excellent and makes for a fun way to get inspiration for other uses.
14. Beautiful Type
In its own words, Beautiful Type is “typography inspiration.” It’s updated every few days with anything typography related – no matter the medium.
Web Design
These blogs focus mostly on design as it applies to websites or interfaces. You’ll find full websites, UI elements, and more. This was the hardest category to populate, so there are a couple of inactive blogs here. I made the decision to still include them because they have a full back catalog of inspiration.
15. UXplore
This one hasn’t been updated in a year, so it doesn’t meet my “active” criteria. But I thought it was too cool not to share. It’s a whole Tumblr blog dedicated to UX and UI design inspiration. And even though it isn’t being actively updated, there’s still a massive back catalog of posts that you can check out for inspiration.
16. The Perfect Grid
The Perfect Grid is a Tumblr blog dedicated to websites, apps, and UI elements. You can filter by each category if you’d prefer to limit what you see.
17. Inspire My Web
Inspire My Web features complete websites, usually with minimalist styling. It covers a variety of uses – I spotted hotel websites, personal portfolios, and others. But like I said, the common thread is definitely minimalist design.
18. Science Fiction Interfaces
Like Chromeography, this one is niche specific and a bit “out there”. It’s an entire Tumblr blog dedicated to showcasing interfaces from, or inspired by, science fiction works. It’s definitely a neat concept that might help you gain some inspiration for your own interfaces.
19. Web and UX Design
Like UXplore, this blog is, unfortunately, no longer updated. But it does have a deep back catalog of web design and interface inspiration.
Again, I’m breaking my rule here – but I think there’s still plenty of inspiration there.
Wrapping Things Up
Before I totally wrap things up, let’s end with a fun blog that doesn’t fit into any of the above categories…think of it more like anti-inspiration. It’s what not to do with design:
20. WTF Visualizations
A fun look at illustration gore, sometimes from major institutions that should know better. If you find yourself designing anything that might end up on this blog, I suggest you reconsider!
And with that, my list is finished. I hope you enjoyed these blogs. And if you have any Tumblr blogs to add that you think are worth following, please share them in the comments.
By the way, did you know that you can easily share and embed Tumblr posts on your WordPress website? It’s easy using the WordPress Tumblr embed block. So if you are a fan of any of these tumble sites, start sharing!
Article thumbnail image by Zaur Rahimov / shutterstock.com
Interesting to know about the design inspirations by tumblr. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Nice blog and thanks for suggesting. Because I was about to start posting on Tumblr. I will try to improvise design of my post too.