Top 29 Blogs for Industrial Design Freelancers and Firms | Cad Crowd

You have the Internet in your hands. It has always been on
your side, carrying an extensive power of knowledge for you to harness and
utilize. There is virtually no shortage of information to help you become more
creative and productive in whatever you do.

Just about every profession in any industry takes advantage of the Internet to improve performance or extend the range of capabilities; industrial design services providers are no exception. Professionals of this industry are required to excel at finding new perspectives in an otherwise old, long-accepted standard of product designs, applications, packaging styles, architectural approaches, prototyping, and the process of design in its entirety.

Industrial designers are highly sought-after professionals, yet they are in an exceedingly competitive job market at the same time. The Internet – as the world’s largest repository of information – is one of the most useful tools in every designer’s pocket for when it is essential to stay updated with the latest news and developments in the industry, take a glimpse at the current trends in the design world, get inspired by the works of others, and hunt for new ideas.

But the Internet is only as good as the user. You can either browse relentlessly for hours without much of a result or head straight to the best industrial design blogs filled with must-read content, general design suggestions, inspirations, or niche-specific ideas, as listed below.

Top 29 Industrial Design Blogs

1. Core77

It has been more than two decades since Core77 became an inseparable part of the design industry as a whole. It does not matter if you’re a 3D modeling freelancer or in a design firm, the website offers some of the world’s best resources for industrial designers regardless of their specific niches.

Filled with news, articles, job listings, and a massive database of design companies from all around the world, it’s safe to say that the website has just about everything you may need to stay competitive, and then some.

Even non-designers are aware of Core77 and its capacity to influence the future of the industry. The website has been mentioned by big-name publications such as The New York Times and PC Magazine. It is the best place to find fresh ideas and inspiration for any design project you’re thinking about.

2. Yanko Design

Let us begin with some numbers. Yanko Design started in 2002; so, it is much younger than Core77, but as it stands today, the website has over a million monthly unique visitors and more than three million monthly page views.

At first, Yanko Design focused on the work of design students for a while before it transformed into a publishing company of international scale, covering news and ideas from all sorts of design categories including household products, architecture, automotive design, and technology.

With an abundance of images and reading materials, it’s like a one-stop-shop to look for some of the most inspiring design ideas. Submission is allowed; getting your work published by Yanko Design will help catapult your reputation in the design market.

3. Product Design Hub

The first thing you notice about Product Design Hub is the seemingly outdated website layout. It seems a bit strange considering the website is relatively young, as it only started in 2004.

The content has not been updated for more than a year, but the available reading materials are still relevant to the market and development of the industrial design profession. The layout is like a personal blog—straightforward, and easy on the eyes. From the website, you can head directly to Product Design Forums, where industrial designers of many different specializations share their thoughts, ideas, and projects-in-progress, as well as finished designs.

4. Industrial Design History

What you have here is a collection of inspiring stories in text, audio, and video about some of the best industrial designs the world has ever seen. Unless you are a true professional industrial designer, the website may not look that appealing to you.

RELATED: Big Trends in Industrial Design Technology in 2020

It is not as attractive or intriguing as Behance or Design Milk, but the content you can read and digest in Industrial Design History is hard to find anywhere else. You can also read the latest news aggregated from a few other websites.

5. Behance Industrial Design

This is a website that needs no further introduction to the industrial design community at large and consumers alike. Whether you are professionals looking for inspirational projects and fresh design perspectives or enthusiastic hobbyists, the Industrial Design gallery on Behance offers a seemingly endless list of creative concepts and ideas to enjoy.

Underneath every image posted, there is a story to help you understand more about the product engineering freelancer, client, and motivation behind the creation. Behance also has an extensive job board and live videos talking about all design-related topics.

The Industrial Design gallery is exactly what it says: a collection of impressive product designs to give an instant boost of creativity anytime you need one. The gallery is good-looking, easy to navigate, and widely varied.

6. Industrial Design Sandbox

Never judge a book by its cover, the old adage says. In this case, you cannot judge Industrial Design Sandbox by what appears at a glance. It is a blog by Jason Morris, a professor and director of industrial design at Western Washington University.

The blog doesn’t have the most comprehensive collection of design examples submitted by thousands of creative professionals, but it has arguably the highest quality reading materials you can expect from an esteemed educator of the industry. There is no specific categorization; the blog features random yet inspiring content that broadens your horizon to a great extent.

7. IDSA News

This is where you will get the latest news and upcoming events coming from IDSA (Industrial Designers Society of America), one of the largest and oldest membership organizations for industrial design professionals. Although it is not actually a blog in the traditional sense, IDSA News still gives you the insights and ideas you can expect from its more conventional counterparts.

When you are on the page, don’t forget to visit IDSA’s designRewind too. You will find some of the most iconic historical industrial designs from the past that became the inspirations behind most of the things we know, use, and love today.

8. Dexigner

More than just a blog about industrial design, Dexigner is one of the better online portals about the design industry and its development. Not only is it filled with inspirational creative projects compiled from a broad range of sources all across the web, but it is also loaded with news of upcoming competitions and events you can join or attend.

The content covers a broad range of disciplines including but not limited to 3D design, advertising, engineering, fashion, design management, branding, illustration, interior, landscape, packaging, retail, lighting, graphic, exhibition design, and much more. You can also visit the directories to get in touch with hundreds of design firms from all over the world.

9. Design Observer

Most of the content posted in Design Observer is about architecture and industrial design, but you’ll be pleased to stumble upon reading materials related to those topics from the world of politics, criticism, popular culture, social innovation, and urbanism.

Since 2016, Design Observer has been collaborating in a joint venture with AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts), resulting in a new page called Design Observer Podcast Network. The good thing is that Design Observer remains active in publishing essays and articles about the design industry and its impacts on society.

Once again, there is also a job board to help you find creative opportunities or new experiences through internship programs with major companies and firms from all across the United States and beyond. It is constantly updated with the latest news from the design industry, aggregated from many reputable sources.

10. Design Milk

Filled with hundreds of posts from a broad range of topics such as interior design, art, style, and architecture, Design Milk is a reliable source of ideas and inspiration that every industrial designer should find easy to swallow.

All content is carefully selected from the work of global 3D product modeling designers and brands to help you stay relevant with what the market wants today. Design firms will also appreciate how the blog is integrated with an online shop offering a large variety of household products and fashion accessories.

Design Milk is not specific to industrial design discussion, but the creative designs featured and actually available for sale here have a more than high enough dose of nutrients to keep your design-minded lifestyle in great shape.

11. Noupe

Never forget that a website is also a product created through a lengthy process of development to maximize function without sacrificing aesthetics; this is why user experience pretty much resides in the context of industrial design too.

Unlike most of the websites and personal blogs listed here, Noupe exists mainly for website designers. It comes in a simplistic yet stylish layout that is enjoyable to browse and read.

Content covers various topics related to website development, for example, graphics, typography, CSS, web design, and more. Noupe is a fun place to study all facets of website creation as well as app development, thanks to the easy-to-understand tutorials and links for further information.

12. Designophy

It has been a while since the site received its latest update, but this does not mean the information available lacks any relevance to today’s industrial design landscape.

Almost everything is outdated including the news log and design competitions schedule, so if you are looking to receive new content, this is not the place for that. One of the best things about the blog is the “Designpedia” portion, loaded with simplified resources regarding designers and their classic product designs.

Every post in this section comes with a link that takes you to the official store where you can learn more about specifications and the people behind the product. Don’t expect to get an insight into new design approaches here; it is the place where you can go back to history and learn from product designs of the days gone by. Designophy also has a number of interviews with popular designers from all around the world.

13. Creative Fluff

This is a modern blog featuring modern product design ideas. Creative Fluff is not a massive blog, which means you can probably consume everything in a week or two. It covers various topics such as packaging, fashion, illustration, culture, and film.

There are also interviews with recent designers talking about their best creations yet. Creative Fluff focuses on covering new designers and artists who have not received the mainstream recognition they deserve.

Freelance concept designers and new design firms can use the “Submit Your Art” function to get their work covered and discussed at length. You too are welcome to contribute, as part of your budget-friendly marketing strategy to gain more online exposure. Remember that Creative Fluff is small; it is better to just browse through everything rather than using the search bar.

14. designboom

A web magazine covering a broad range of topics including industrial design and art. Claiming to be the world’s first digital architecture and design magazine, designboom is now an internationally recognized publication based in New York, Beijing, and Milan.

The website itself welcomes more than 3.5 million visitors on a monthly basis. The online magazine features several categories including design, art, architecture, technology, watches, and more. This is the blog to visit and follow to see what is new in the world of design regardless of your niche.

You will find everything from plastic-free toothpaste to high-tech yachts; from a simple dining chair to a 3D-printed neighborhood. You can also publish your work here or purchase creative products in the integrated online shop.

15. Tuvie

First things first, Tuvie is pleasing to browse. Although the layout is not the most mind-blowing, it is straightforward and easy to navigate. The blog features futuristic, innovative, and sometimes imaginative product designs from the world of architecture, automotive, fashion design services, and technology.

Tuvie has more than a thousand reading materials to help you understand more about the thinking process behind every design or product featured. It is like an intense injection of daily inspiration, whether you’re established professionals with years of experience or beginners in the industry. Similar to most industrial design blogs, you are encouraged to submit a design or even request a review to get wider online exposure and ease your way to lucrative job opportunities.

16. Cool Material

You can tell just by taking a glance that Cool Material is geared toward end-consumers instead of designers, but this does not mean you cannot make good use of the blog.

The products listed here are among the most unique and creatively designed. Cool Material started as a small hobby blog and now it has become a great destination for both buyers and designers to look for inspiring designs. All items are meticulously curated from various popular brands.

What makes it different from any online shop of the traditional sort is that the blog also delivers in-depth information about some of the products in the “Features” section. The blog is all about product designs that stand out from the crowd that buyers and designers can equally appreciate.

17. Develop3D

Industrial designers are required to understand the engineering and manufacturing processes behind every product they want to create. Develop3D gives you deep insights into emerging technologies and helps you pick the best resources to bring product concepts into reality.

The blog provides a smart analysis of both software and hardware utilized for product creation. Not only will you find discussions about new trends in the manufacturing technologies, but also many popular designs being reverse-engineered.

Every single post in the Features, Profiles, and Reviews sections is worth taking a deeper read, and the Interviews category gives you a comfortable peek into some of the best minds in the industry. All in all, Develop3D is a serious online publication about industrial design; downloads are available for registered users.

18. Fast Company’s Co.Design

Each time you hear about Fast Company, the first thing that comes to your mind is budding entrepreneurs running their small businesses with effective creative marketing strategies.

What you may not know is that the website has created a separate section for the designer community called Co.Design. Everything here is about making a seamless blend between the worlds of design and business into a single unity as well as how they should co-exist and affect each other.

Co.Design is loaded with educational reading materials and images from various design-related disciplines, including but not limited to product designs, architecture, technologies, freelance gadget designers, eco-friendly methods, and history. With Co.Design, you will not run out of new conversation pieces to think through and design ideas to try.

19. Inhabitat

Founded in 2005, Inhabitat came to the surface at just the right time, when the vast majority of the world’s population became more seriously engaged in the process of rethinking whether their product choices are good for the environment or bringing more damage instead.

This blog gives a balanced portion of environmental news and fresh design approaches. Sustainability is the key, but Inhabitat presents an undeniable argument that being eco-friendly does not mean having to sacrifice design creativity and vice versa.

Take a look at handbags made of recycled plastic bottles, wearable accessories crafted from abandoned festival tents, solar-powered charging ports, modular housing, wristwatches with climate monitoring functions, and much more. Go to the Innovation section to have a look at upcoming sustainable design trends.

20. Six Different Ways

You need to use the search bar to find posts specific to industrial design topics in this blog, but then again, there is nothing wrong with looking for inspiration from other disciplines either.

What you get in Six Different Ways is a friendly discussion about various products and why they are considered good. Don’t be surprised if you come across some posts talking about foods and recipes in this blog; just skip to the next post instead. Most of the design-related content is on topics such as 3D architectural visualization services, lighting, decoration, and furniture.

Many items discussed here belong to household product categories; these are the products people actually use and love in their daily activities. Designs discussed here range from the most simplistic to luxurious styles. Six Different Ways celebrates modern living and how good design can improve the quality of life and happiness.

21. The Dieline

In many cases, product packaging requires a design process of its own, yet it must remain in perfect harmony with the actual product wrapped inside. In the modern market, packaging design is an integral part of the goods offered.

The Dieline relentlessly pushes that idea toward designer communities and consumers at large. Thus far in the list, The Dieline is the most specific blog, featuring content about nothing but packaging design.

Established in 2007, this blog is now one of the leading online publications in the niche filled with in-depth discussions of innovative designs, behind-the-scene stories, concept packaging, news and trends, advice, tips, and packaging highlights. Freelancers and design firms can take advantage of the Explore Directory and Explore Jobs sections to reach out.

22. 3rings

Part of the Designer Pages website, 3rings focuses heavily on architecture and decoration designs. The blog comes with a huge collection of design samples by the world’s best firms and professionals. Categories include 3D furniture rendering, Surfaces, Lighting, Outdoor, Kitchen & Bath, and Accessories, with each of being further divided into more specific listings.

Despite its seemingly daunting website size, 3rings has managed to keep everything simple and user-friendly. Every post comes with a summarized explanation, but you are encouraged to visit the original source to get more information about the featured product or design.

What you get from the blog is a dense summary attached with several images to inspect; think of the content as an introductory portion of a more complete story you can get by clicking the provided links.

23. 2modern

It is clear from the first glance that 2modern is actually an online shop. Founded in 2003, the blog is a retailer of architectural designs including furniture, lighting, and decorations.

For industrial design freelancers and firms, the product images in the shop can be – at the very least – good examples or even sources of inspiration. In addition to selling architectural products, the 2modern blog has separate pages for information content such as How-to Tutorials, Design News, and Trend Reports.

You may want to visit the Editor’s Pick section too. You will not find anything typical, and that is a good thing if you love creative, functional designs implemented on everyday objects.

24. Eureka Magazine

This is a blog that specializes in the technology and engineering design services and parts of the design. There is just so much you can learn here. It is the place to get spoiled, with a fascinating blend of engineering applications, innovations, and technology stories from some of the best designers and firms in the world.

The actual blog portion is relatively small, but you can always browse through the main website to get all the information you need. Eureka Magazine also sells products in various categories including Control/Automation, Design Software, Fastening & Joining, Materials, Power Systems, Rapid Prototyping, Sensors, Test & Measurement, and more. Visitors can download some of the latest issues of the online magazine (in PDF file format) free of charge.

Freelancers and design firms will appreciate the blog’s job listings and supplier directory. It is based in the U.K. so most (if not all) job opportunities and firms listed are also based in the country.

25. Tokyoflash Japan

If The Dieline is specific to packaging design, Tokyoflash Japan is all about watches. You don’t have to design bulky items to be recognized, because a small item like a wristwatch is potentially as tricky and complicated as machinery, jewelry, or circuit boards (if not more so) especially if you have a non-conventional approach to time instruments.

Most watches featured in the blog come with unique, original designs. Some products are merely concepts; you can also share your ideas and discuss them with other watch enthusiasts. Currently, there are more than a thousand watch designs posted on the blog. Some watches are available for sale in the shop as well. Any of the designs posted can be the inspiration for your next Kickstarter project, if you can actually bring them to reality.

26. Bicycle Design

Although no longer active, this blog has a lot of posts to fulfill your interest in bicycles. It started in 2005 but there has been no update since 2015.

In case a bicycle – or any other human-powered vehicle – is in your next project, the blog offers plenty of inspiration to get you started. It has everything from bicycles of utilitarian design to high-end roads and mountain bikes. As you would expect, it also talks about frame designs, materials, gear mechanisms, tire pressure, and basically all the engineering portion of cycling.

To like this blog, you need to be either a hardcore bicycle enthusiast or a serious industrial designer. Since 2015, updates have been posted to @BicycleDesign on Instagram.

27. Humblefacture

The idea behind this blog is to push forward or explore the possibility of making small-scale manufacturing infrastructure without sacrificing functionality. Low-volume local production is often associated with a high price tag, but it does not have to be that way.

Humblefacture offers a lot of talking points about sustainable designs too. The blog is clearly a work in progress; some of the categories are actually still empty, but the available posts can be the start of a major conversation in the design community. It is great for students, freelance consumer product designers, and small design firms who are seeking to come up with a design breakthrough.

28. Plastics News

This blog is owned by Crain Communications Inc, a big company that also owns various other publication media including Plastic & Rubber in the U.K., Advertising Age, AutoWeek, Automotive News, and Tire Business.

Despite the global attempts to scale down the use of plastic, the world still cannot properly function without it. Many things we use today still require plastic to make. Your product designs may need an amount of plastic to produce them as well.

Whether you are on the main website or the blog section, you’ll come across plenty of interesting and sometimes troubling stories about plastic waste to inspire and encourage you to become an active industrial designer who takes part in the global attempt to tackle the plastic crisis in creative ways.

29. Minimalissimo

You can tell by the name that this blog is all about minimalistic design. It even has a very simple homepage with many black & white images. Minimalissimo offers a lot of ideas and inspiration on how even complex objects with a lot of features and functions can be wrapped inside a minimalistic design.

Categories include Architecture, Industrial Design, Package Design, Photography, Furniture, Fashion, Arts & Illustration, and Graphic Design. The minimalistic form factor is always an interesting design approach, and most likely suitable for new professionals in the industry. You are welcome to submit your minimalistic design too; if the design is indeed worth posting, the blog promises to give you the exposure you deserve.

Industrial design is not necessarily all about products or technologies created for industrial or commercial applications. In fact, industrial designers are almost exactly the same as product designers with just a tiny difference; the former covers all things that require good design process including the manufacturing and marketing of a product, while the latter focuses on designing consumer products alone, according to the IDSA (Industrial Designers Society of America). You could even say that product design is just one of the niches within the scope of industrial design.

If you are an industrial designer, you can comfortably say that the profession also involves designing a product, and that is why you can basically draw inspiration from just about every single design sample available on the net, from online shops, personal blogs, digital publications, and more. The aforementioned websites and blogs are a mere fraction of all the online references at your disposal.

Cad Crowd Is Your Industrial Design Hub

If you are looking for industrial design inspiration, Cad Crowd’s blog has a vast amount of tips and other resources.

In addition to that, we have an extensive database of freelance industrial designers from all over the globe. You can use their services if you feel stuck and need help with your design project. Check out how it works.