1. http://www.swimchick.net
– Detroit based Designer studying at the College of Creative Studies who focuses on photo manipulation using a wide variety of techniques with brushes, textures and lighting. Been following her since the age of Neopets. Generally simple website with the menu at the top. Aimed at a resource site while her blogs are filled about life with comic relief. While her resources are good and the layouts generally reflect her design style and she definitely has the creative flux, her arrogance regarding her work is unbelievable. The overall usability is user friendly with the resources all categorized.

2. http://www.doedeereblogazine.com
– New York City based makeup enthusiast, entrepreneur, fashionista & self-proclaimed Unicorn Queen. She is a model who gained herself a portion of the spotlight. She has a small makeup company that has been featured in many beauty magazines across the globe featuring brightly colored makeup with a rainbow futuristic concept and was recognized in the magazine, “self made” as the top 100 independent entrepreneurs of 2010. She is a lifestyle blogger who changes her personal fashion style every year or so ranging from gothic, futuristic to indie fashion styles. Her blog is relatively simple with a favorite photo from photoshoots as the header and a right column menu with a biography at the beginning. Her posts are categorized in separate categories. Many people call her fashion style ‘childish’ as she loves Unicorns and bright colors, but the way she presents herself has an adult charm.

3. http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/
– The blog is a joint effort and collaboration between leading designers around the world which contribute a wealth of expertise on all fields of design, such as coding, typography, Photoshop tutorials and more. The overall presentation I personally find rather misleading. It features a brightly colored header with vector graphics and a deep red as the main color. At first glance I feel like this website is geared to graphic tutorials and graphic designers rather than web designers and web developers. The right column menu is far too cluttered. The main navigation is far too down and can be often overlooked. The link to where the posts are categorized are simply called “Categories” whereas on the doedeere blogazine the categories are just listed under a section rather than listed on a separate link.

4. http://www.design-newz.com
– Design-Newz is a site that features articles, resources and tutorials written by designers and developers. The one thing that I dislike most about this site is that when you click on a new newz article, it opens in another window, and if you have a bajillion tabs open and the design newz website is at the beginning it opens a new window at the very end so you end up kinda lost… the overall design is very nice though. It uses the container feature to separate and organize information. It uses an easy scroll pagination as well as classic Bauhaus inspired color scheme. It doesn’t feel “corporate” yet it keeps a professional look and feel. Concept of the website is very interesting as well since it picks other newz articles rather than rewriting them in another blog.

5. http://www.instructables.com
– Instructables is a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others. The seeds of Instructables germinated at the MIT Media Lab as the future founders of Squid Labs built places to share their projects and help others. The site uses a bold playful gold yellow as well as a top navigational menu. When you click on a section of the menu the page opens up to reveal a secondary navigation underneath for subcategories. The website is fantastic for finding creative inspiration for projects but is a bit suffocating and overwhelming, it could definitely use some breathing room.