Advance Your Web-Design Career With These Online Resources ~ Designer's World

When your career involves working in the creative field, it's a good idea to keep sharpening those skills and make sure that your career is moving forward. When it comes to creativity, there's no such thing as knowing too much, being too proficient or too experienced. Like a living thing, your career needs to be always growing, always evolving, into something greater than it was when you first started off.

Sounds like a lofty goal, doesn't it? And if your career involves web-designing or something along those lines, you have competition out there that is no doubt spending time honing and growing their skills. Fortunately, our friend the Internet has many ways to help you achieve and sustain this sort of growth. Being able to accomplish this on your own schedule is just one of the advantages to getting your web design degree online. Here are some useful resources, no matter where you are skill-wise, be it beginner or seasoned professional.

Source: http://hongkiat.com

Hongkiat.com

This is a design weblog geared to designers and bloggers. It's a good place to find tutorials, tips, tricks, and other things that may or may not begin with "t". Hongkiat is a nifty resource for articles, maybe an icon or two, and a whole lot of inspiration.

Source: http://inspiredm.com/

Inspired Magazine

Did someone say something about inspiration? With over 45,000 subscribers, Inspired has daily articles and resources targeting web designers and developers. It started off in 2009, and has grown into a good resource for creative types to get, well, inspired. It also doesn't hurt that Inspired provides some good content dedicated to social media, which as we all know is the big thing today.

Source: http://www.webdesignshock.com/

Web Design Shock

Do you want icons? Do you want WordPress themes? Oh boy, have you come to the right place! Web Design Shock also offers a decent range of articles, with a lot of them offered in an easy to digest list format. They have a large pull down menu of categories, everything from Blogging to Web Design, and even some chuckle worthy humor pieces such as "Interview With A Photoshop User Who Actually Bought A License! Yes, A License!"

DesignersCouch

Sounds cozy, doesn't it? Unfortunately, like a real couch, space is limited and you have to be invited to sit down. DesignersCouch is an online designer community where you can upload your portfolio and have it critiqued by your peers. Fortunately, there's a good batch of articles and design collections available for your perusal while your name works its way up the waiting list. As an aside, if you want to find a community that's easier to get in while you're waiting for an opening in something more exclusive such as DesignersCouch, check out LinkedIn.

1stwebdesigner

Pay attention to this one, because it's really a solid resource. It's a design blog that gets 1.5 million hits a month and is geared towards web developers, freelancers, and bloggers. You can find some concrete skill advancement stuff here with tutorials and articles, but if you want to go the extra mile, you can pay for a Premium membership ($9.95) and get exclusive content. This is a blog whose mission is to teach people how to become freelance web designers and developers. If the tone of the site is indicative of anything, it shows that the guys behind are passionate about web design but also enjoy having fun. That's a pretty good combination, don't you think?

DailyTekk

This one needs to be seen to be believed. It's a list of the 200 best graphic, app, and web design tools and resources. This thing is massive! The 200 are split up into various categories, including "The Big Four Online Design Networks/Empires", "Vectors, Icons, Bundles, Brushes and Deals", and "Mobile App Development Tools and Resources". Seriously, this is one amazing collection of informative links to all aspects of web design.

Graphic Design Degree Hub

For those who want their growth in web design to be along more traditional educational lines, there's the Graphic Design Degree Hub. The site is dedicated to giving people information on the best places to get a graphic design degree, and that includes getting an associates or bachelor degree via an online curriculum. This the perfect one-stop resource for any web designer that wants the educational chops to go along with whatever experience and talent they have. They include articles on top online degrees, the most affordable programs, even information on graphic designer salaries.

This list should be enough to get you started on the road to a better-rounded web designer skill set. You owe it to yourself to be the best web designer you can, and these online resources can play a significant part in helping you realize that goal.

Designer's World