Think Vitamin: 44 Web Designers to follow on Twitter
Matt Robin
· 9 months ago
An elaboration on why these particular individuals are worth following might be useful...(for example: I know there's a few mentioned who only seem to tweet about their cats!)
;)
Bryan Veloso
· 9 months ago
Hey. There's nothing wrong with kitty tweets, especially when you have 5 of them. ;)
Matt Robin
· 9 months ago
Bryan: You have five now!!!! :o
(Okay, okay, now following you...). I can't comment much on j-pop, but I once liked Utada Hikaru. That was years ago though ;)
Tim
· 9 months ago
Though I'm allergic to cats, if a designer is skilled enough (JSM), I am willing to withstand the e-symptoms of their KittyTwits in exchange for the tidbits of knowledge that come with following them on Twitter.
summersfall
· 9 months ago
I tend to tweet about my cat or what I'm eating. I'm amazed that I have some followers.
Cris
· 9 months ago
You should be on the list too!!
Jag (SEO) Follow
· 9 months ago
Good list but few don't have much updates, may be we can recommend to add more design tweets :)
And why don't you add a post on "Top SEOs to follow in twitter"?
Timmy Christensen
· 9 months ago
That's an easy list. It's all the same people @seomoz follows.
Sabrina Dent
· 9 months ago
I appreciate the pimpage but Twitter people, BE WARNED: You do not want to follow me. I mostly swear a lot and post no design links. (My mother would be so proud.)
Warwick
· 9 months ago
i followed you for that fact tho... makes for interesting twitter conversation ;)
Bryan Veloso
· 9 months ago
Make that two of us. I'm sure half the people that follow me today will unfollow me tomorrow from the mere mention of J-pop.
Alex
· 9 months ago
Paul has a twin in the pics at the top :)
ryancarson
· 9 months ago
Whoops! Thanks - I'll fix that now :)
Aaron
· 9 months ago
Quality list. From the names I recognize, most of the people listed do a great job of mixing personal, humorous, design, and retweet type tweets in their streams.
I extremely thankful you kept the size and quality of this list within reason. Heaven forbid you make a 100+ list and fill it with the dozens of "web developers" that just retweet everything and auto-follow everyone.
Yes, I just cleaned out about 100+ web design people from my following list so I know what I talking about. Haha.
Thanks again.
Martin Ringlein
· 9 months ago
Oh man, if only it were top 45, I know I would have made the list (is what I tell myself to sleep at night).
Michael Dick
· 9 months ago
It's top 45 now with Dave added....too bad, maybe next time buddy! :)
Leon Poole
· 9 months ago
Another great list of great web designers - thanks Ryan! Maybe one day I'll make the short list :)
Would have liked to seen some less common talented designers featured here. I think for all the new designers out there, following designers who may actually reply to tweets here and there could be helpful.
Bryan Veloso
· 9 months ago
While I can't speak for the others, I highly value Twitter as a mechanism for conversation.
I too shy away from users that seem to have an invisible brick wall up when it comes to @replies. I can say with confidence, at least for anybody that ever wants to ask me anything (might not be many, but yes, anything), that if you @reply me, 4 times out of 5 I'll reply back.
That's probably the reason why my tweet count is so inflated. :)
rmlumley
· 9 months ago
thanks, I've added the ones I previously wasn't following.
Well, looks good. All the good ones I know of are on there + many more ;-)
Jimmi
· 9 months ago
Followed 5 of them already, but let me just say thanks for this list. Now I have 39 members to follow.
Jodi
· 9 months ago
Great list. I'm definitely going to have to add some of these peeps. I am such an amateur designer but I manage to keep getting clients and love to keep learning.
José Carlos
· 9 months ago
I really think you've missed a great web designer: @nicepaul
Dennis Coughlin
· 9 months ago
Great list - thanks for putting this together Ryan.
Only thing I would say is a future list would benefit from having a short summary under each name. Maybe explaining where they work or why they are so well known.
Realise that's a bit more work of course : ) but just a thought.
Cheers Dennis
Pete Shaw
· 9 months ago
Boag isn't any kind of designer. He's so good he got Jon Hick's to design his own site right?
Paul Boag
· 9 months ago
Hey Pete. Jon did our corporate identity. I designed the sites. I am certainly not a logo designer. However, I do tend to agree. I WAS a designer, but I don't think I can claim to be anymore. I am now reduced to 'poncey' titles like 'consultant' or 'strategist' :)
Warwick
· 9 months ago
great list. a lot on their that i didn't follow and a lot had some sweet background :D
thanks for the post
joelsantiago
· 9 months ago
Thanks for taking the time to put this together. Just like the Web Developers list, this is an invaluable resource for other Web Designers.
Bradley Wright
· 9 months ago
This is nepotism and back-slapping at its worst. You should be ashamed of yourself.
ryancarson
· 9 months ago
Please back up that statement.
Bradley Wright
· 9 months ago
Sure: the title says "44 web designers that you should follow on Twitter". The list already stands at 45, which strongly suggests that you're doing this to please the right people, as opposed to making the hard decisions about who are *really* the right 44 to follow.
Similarly, the high number of entrants also smacks of appealing to the designers' egos.
Further to the appealing point, you then proceeded to "@username you're on the list lol" most of them on Twitter to notify them that they had been listed in this. It's brown-nosing, plain and simple.
Back-slapping comes into the fact that there are almost no "unknowns", who might be able to provide more value for their followers than already famous people with no time for the more personal approach that can be valuable over Twitter. This has been mentioned in other comments on this very page.
Bradley Wright
· 9 months ago
Just to further this statement: "Similarly, the high number of entrants also smacks of appealing to the designers' egos." - the high number smells a lot like you didn't want to leave anyone out of offend them. The very same thing happened with increasing numbers on the "40 web developers", which now stands at 44 after people complained either on the comments or on Twitter. Have some integrity about the way you choose people, please.
ryancarson
· 9 months ago
I actually had to whittle this list down quite a bit. The reason I was @replying them is because they wouldn't know they were on the list because WordPress doesn't do ping backs to Twitter profiles. A lot of people were saying "Why am I getting a bunch of new followers today?"
I'd say we put several 'up-and-coming' designers on the list actually. However, the whole point of the list is that these are the big names that are shaping the industry. They're *supposed* to be well known.
The reason why the list is growing is because I'm not omniscient. I didn't think of everyone when I posted it and I fully expected people to point new people out to me, which have been added to the list.
Bradley - instead of complaining, why don't you put together your own list? I'm tired of you spouting negativity (which you have often done both on this blog and Carsonified) without ever offering a solution.
Andy Bright
· 9 months ago
If you have a failing Ryan it's that you give the haters too much credit.
You gotta resist the temptation to engage with them and only offer the silence that their useless provocation deserves.
On topic though, thanks for the list. It would be great to see yoru pick of digital marketers who twitter in a future post.
ryancarson
· 9 months ago
Thanks Andy :)
Bradley Wright
· 9 months ago
> Bradley - instead of complaining, why don't you put together your > own list?
Because comments are for feedback on articles (as said in the page above this), and I have provided feedback.
Additionally, if I put together my own list, no-one would read it as no-one follows my "blog" or Twitter account. I'd rather try and improve the more public appearances of this kind of information than dilute the waters by adding extra noise on other sites.
And why is the onus on me to "(offer) a solution"? I'm not famous or well-known enough (except perhaps as a troll) to actually make a difference - I'm just a member of the same community as the rest of us who happens to be critical of fluff.
If you'd like constructive feedback (aka part of a solution), here's some: how about when you make your next list like this you provide a *reason* why these people belong here, rather than just listing them? This article (and the one previous) are essentially blog rolls with a wider audience. I'd like to see some real *writing* on this topic: why are they visionary? Why should we follow them? If we don't know them, what have they done we might know? That's the kind of article I expect on thinkvitamin - actual content.
ryancarson
· 9 months ago
Bradley, you're not commenting, you're being inflammatory: "Have some integrity about the way you choose people, please." That's not constructive.
"And why is the onus on me to "(offer) a solution"?" Simple: because communities pitch in together to find solutions. If you're not contributing to the community, then you're not a part of it.
You're what Caius Durling so kindly coined, a Soapbox Troll.
Bradley Wright
· 9 months ago
Fine Ryan, you may choose to ignore my constructive suggestion and the (rather kind, especially for me) words I had to say about this very website by quoting an earlier comment of mine somewhat out of context. Remind me again what we're trying to find a "solution" for? The age old problem of "who do I follow on Twitter"?
My point about content still stands - this article is particularly short on it, and I'd prefer to see something useful in my feedreader. I'll unsubscribe from ThinkVitamin, since it clearly just causes me to make inflammatory comments.
Martin Ringlein
· 9 months ago
I agree with Bradley. This is just a "who's who" of the "cool" in hopes that they Twitter, comment or further spread the article around (all a part of the ego'ness Bradley had mentioned).
Carson doesn't mention why any of the above mentioned are worth following and some of the above mentioned are actually not that active on Twitter at all and provide no professional insight -- mostly personal.
Carson just listed "hey, here are really cool people and their Twitter accounts" -- not much of an article to me. The "what" is easy, but where is the "why" or the "how" you got to this list?
I think the overwhelming Twitter plug on this is what is making me more and more agree with Bradley.
Ben Darlow
· 9 months ago
+1 for an explanation why these people are worth following.
What makes them worthy contributors to Twitter? The fact they're pseudo-famous web designers or the insightful commentary they provide on Twitter? I've previously followed and then subsequently unfollowed a few people from this list because whilst they might be good conference speakers or talented in their field, they don't necessarily say anything interesting (or sometimes, quite the opposite) on Twitter.
Tim
· 9 months ago
Mr. Carson took a minimalist approach to listing off the noteworthy designers. Many of these I already follow or have followed, so I know who is/isn't worthwhile -- to me. He put the Twitter profile links so you, the reader, could scan through their twits and decide whether or not they're worth following.
Bradley's suggestion (sans the bitterness) is a good one, considering a brief description of each person would be nice... but we all should be web savvy enough to research each of these persons and decide who we'd be best served following on Twitter.
Thanks for the list, Ryan! (not to brown-nose or anything!) Cheers!
ryancarson
· 9 months ago
Hi Ben
Ben Darlow
· 9 months ago
Hi Ryan!
Tim
· 9 months ago
Hi Ben and Ryan! That Bradley guy sho is angry. Let's group hug him on three. 1, 2...
Amy Mahon
· 9 months ago
w00t - Thanks for the mention! I love Twitter and connecting with others through it :)
Lee Simpson
· 9 months ago
What?! Good list but where is Gavin Strange (@JamFactory), Matt Hamm (@mrmatthamm) and Paul Burgess (@delarge)?!
abdusfauzi
· 9 months ago
i wonder, do i need a special twitter account for this. :D
Tim
· 9 months ago
JSM all the way down at 18? This is a travesty, a sham, and a mockery. It's a traveshamockery!
Great list.
ryancarson
· 9 months ago
The list is in no particular order :)
Andy Beaumont
· 9 months ago
@drcongo I once twat about my balls.
cancel bubble
· 9 months ago
I think Bradley the Troll makes some valid points.
Several of these don't really tweet about their craft, so I am wondering what the criteria was for this list?
Todd
· 9 months ago
Why isn't Eric Meyer on here? @meyerweb
Regards, @toddlibby
Chris Wallace
· 9 months ago
Not sure I would consider Eric a web designer.
ryancarson
· 9 months ago
He was on the Web Developer list - he's not a designer.
Dainis Graveris
· 9 months ago
very good list, already following several of these people!
Alana_Renfro
· 9 months ago
Thanks, Ryan! Much appreciated.
Andrew Ingram
· 9 months ago
I do object to the fact that, given I follow a good number of these people already, I had to watch Ryan fill my feed by tweeting at EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM to tell them they were on the list. Seriously, was this necessary?
There does need to be some context for why these people are so essential to follow, I appreciate the obviousness of choosing well-known web designers, but a lot of them say very little about web design. Sure, follow them if they're interesting or funny, but if they're not saying a lot about the web should they really be on this list?
I would say that out of all the web designers people I follow, Matt Wilcox (twitter.com/mattwilcox) is the most valuable (despite his endless rants) because he is pretty much singlehandedly pushing forward the best ideas about how CSS and HTML could be improved and why they're not good enough as they are.
ryancarson
· 9 months ago
Hey Andrew,
Apologies for the constant tweeting earlier today. I actually only tweeted around seven people, then realized it was annoying for all my followers - so promptly stopped.
I'll check out Matt Wilcox - sounds very interesting.
Best, Ryan
benbodien
· 9 months ago
While I'm not sure about the motives behind such lists, this one is blatantly suffering from a @maxvoltar shaped gap.
This list may be lame. But using the comments below this post to promote your own sorry ass that didn't make it to this list is taking lameness to a whole new level.
Andrew Zona
· 9 months ago
I look forward to Twittering these developers! I'm just now grasping the significance of twitter. I didn't think much of it at first, but it's a great tool for sure!
Andrew Zona
· 9 months ago
Twittering, taking over the world, one twit at a time =)
jama
· 9 months ago
haha this thread is hilarious
stair lifts
· 9 months ago
Thanks for the List. I am just getting into Development and find this very helpful !!
Ace Gamble
· 9 months ago
I look forward to doing some digging on these people. Thank you for the information. I will pass it along to some of my developer friends as well
jens
· 9 months ago
It would make more sence if i knew where they work or what they have done.. ie. Name, Work, Twitter-link
Shaun
· 9 months ago
This is great! I need to spend more time on Twitter.
Wow, I totally agree with everyone on that list! I just wanted to mention that there are probably a lot more people who deserve to be on there :P great job though!
Louis Gubitosi
· 9 months ago
These guys are a great resource for new design trends and information. I'm also a web/graphic designer... follow me: http://twitter.com/iBlend
Jon
· 9 months ago
Thanks for the awesome list, I will for sure follow a few on here.
Mike
· 9 months ago
Thanks for these great artist, there is a lot of talent.
Thanks for putting together that Quality list. I recognize some of those names.
Signupindx
· 9 months ago
Ah, this is a valuable post. Can you also make a post about software developers to follow?
kensri
· 8 months ago
Hope people on the list can give advice abount PHP on wordpress.
Azad
· 8 months ago
I've been following most of them already. Good list anyway. Cheers
Russ
· 8 months ago
I guess I dont get the whole twitter thing, like the one post says "why do I want to hear about his cat" The point of twitter is to say whats on your mind at that moment, well how often are people thinking and writing about things i dont care about,. I know their are people who thought like me and then got addicted to the whole thing, Im guessing I wont be one of them.
jojototh
· 8 months ago
I made a list of 50 webdesign blogs with highest Google PR and twitter accounts http://bit.ly/YoRZm
AllXClub
· 8 months ago
This is very helpful. I am always in the search for new designers. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Vitabase
· 8 months ago
Thanks for the list, this will be a lot of help. I will follow them in twitter. Hope they will follow me too. lol
SamBookman
· 8 months ago
I would say that out of all the programmer I follow, the most valuable the point of twitter is to say whats on your mind at that moment, well how often are people thinking and writing about things.We are involved in interesting projects .It will be use full.
Interesting list.. wish the reasons why they made it to the top were indicated though :)
Marek Jan | Webcentric
· 8 months ago
Hi, look.. not meaning to be forward, but why not categorize the "web designers" into areas of expertise. Sometimes I wonder what make a web designer, is it cos they have a cute Gravatar, or their portfolio website is amazingly wow.. or because they post to 1,000,000 blogs ? Many times you hear of so and so.. but I think its the work and skills which should proceed the designer, not because he is a "pop/web start" or good sales man. Or is it?
Mike
· 8 months ago
Web design is so incestuous. Kinda makes me laugh how the same old names come up time and time again. Yes, some of these people are excellent designers (some are not) but there are plenty of new faces that have come through who are doing work that is far more innovative and exciting than the majority of these.
kendy
· 8 months ago
I have problem following twitter on the web, anyone know any desktop software to to this ?
cashnetusa
· 8 months ago
An excellent way to connect on the web without using a full fledged service.
chicago web design
· 8 months ago
I know this is a massive list but we would love to be included in this page we can be followed @blueprintds
Lisää linkki
· 8 months ago
Thanks. Those are sure good inspiration to follow.
@DarynHobden - Award winning web designer. Have a look at my website portfolio and then decide if you want to follow or not. I generally tweet about Design, creative stuff and occasional funny anecdotes.
All Comments
;)
(Okay, okay, now following you...). I can't comment much on j-pop, but I once liked Utada Hikaru. That was years ago though ;)
And why don't you add a post on "Top SEOs to follow in twitter"?
I extremely thankful you kept the size and quality of this list within reason. Heaven forbid you make a 100+ list and fill it with the dozens of "web developers" that just retweet everything and auto-follow everyone.
Yes, I just cleaned out about 100+ web design people from my following list so I know what I talking about. Haha.
Thanks again.
@creativeworld
http://twitter.com/creativeworld
I too shy away from users that seem to have an invisible brick wall up when it comes to @replies. I can say with confidence, at least for anybody that ever wants to ask me anything (might not be many, but yes, anything), that if you @reply me, 4 times out of 5 I'll reply back.
That's probably the reason why my tweet count is so inflated. :)
Only thing I would say is a future list would benefit from having a short summary under each name. Maybe explaining where they work or why they are so well known.
Realise that's a bit more work of course : ) but just a thought.
Cheers
Dennis
thanks for the post
Similarly, the high number of entrants also smacks of appealing to the designers' egos.
Further to the appealing point, you then proceeded to "@username you're on the list lol" most of them on Twitter to notify them that they had been listed in this. It's brown-nosing, plain and simple.
Back-slapping comes into the fact that there are almost no "unknowns", who might be able to provide more value for their followers than already famous people with no time for the more personal approach that can be valuable over Twitter. This has been mentioned in other comments on this very page.
I'd say we put several 'up-and-coming' designers on the list actually. However, the whole point of the list is that these are the big names that are shaping the industry. They're *supposed* to be well known.
The reason why the list is growing is because I'm not omniscient. I didn't think of everyone when I posted it and I fully expected people to point new people out to me, which have been added to the list.
Bradley - instead of complaining, why don't you put together your own list? I'm tired of you spouting negativity (which you have often done both on this blog and Carsonified) without ever offering a solution.
You gotta resist the temptation to engage with them and only offer the silence that their useless provocation deserves.
On topic though, thanks for the list. It would be great to see yoru pick of digital marketers who twitter in a future post.
> own list?
Because comments are for feedback on articles (as said in the page above this), and I have provided feedback.
Additionally, if I put together my own list, no-one would read it as no-one follows my "blog" or Twitter account. I'd rather try and improve the more public appearances of this kind of information than dilute the waters by adding extra noise on other sites.
And why is the onus on me to "(offer) a solution"? I'm not famous or well-known enough (except perhaps as a troll) to actually make a difference - I'm just a member of the same community as the rest of us who happens to be critical of fluff.
If you'd like constructive feedback (aka part of a solution), here's some: how about when you make your next list like this you provide a *reason* why these people belong here, rather than just listing them? This article (and the one previous) are essentially blog rolls with a wider audience. I'd like to see some real *writing* on this topic: why are they visionary? Why should we follow them? If we don't know them, what have they done we might know? That's the kind of article I expect on thinkvitamin - actual content.
"And why is the onus on me to "(offer) a solution"?" Simple: because communities pitch in together to find solutions. If you're not contributing to the community, then you're not a part of it.
You're what Caius Durling so kindly coined, a Soapbox Troll.
My point about content still stands - this article is particularly short on it, and I'd prefer to see something useful in my feedreader. I'll unsubscribe from ThinkVitamin, since it clearly just causes me to make inflammatory comments.
Carson doesn't mention why any of the above mentioned are worth following and some of the above mentioned are actually not that active on Twitter at all and provide no professional insight -- mostly personal.
Carson just listed "hey, here are really cool people and their Twitter accounts" -- not much of an article to me. The "what" is easy, but where is the "why" or the "how" you got to this list?
I think the overwhelming Twitter plug on this is what is making me more and more agree with Bradley.
What makes them worthy contributors to Twitter? The fact they're pseudo-famous web designers or the insightful commentary they provide on Twitter? I've previously followed and then subsequently unfollowed a few people from this list because whilst they might be good conference speakers or talented in their field, they don't necessarily say anything interesting (or sometimes, quite the opposite) on Twitter.
Bradley's suggestion (sans the bitterness) is a good one, considering a brief description of each person would be nice... but we all should be web savvy enough to research each of these persons and decide who we'd be best served following on Twitter.
Thanks for the list, Ryan! (not to brown-nose or anything!) Cheers!
Great list.
Regards,
@toddlibby
There does need to be some context for why these people are so essential to follow, I appreciate the obviousness of choosing well-known web designers, but a lot of them say very little about web design. Sure, follow them if they're interesting or funny, but if they're not saying a lot about the web should they really be on this list?
I would say that out of all the web designers people I follow, Matt Wilcox (twitter.com/mattwilcox) is the most valuable (despite his endless rants) because he is pretty much singlehandedly pushing forward the best ideas about how CSS and HTML could be improved and why they're not good enough as they are.
Apologies for the constant tweeting earlier today. I actually only tweeted around seven people, then realized it was annoying for all my followers - so promptly stopped.
I'll check out Matt Wilcox - sounds very interesting.
Best,
Ryan
I am Essai Selvan, Just found you from twitter.
Find in twitter @EssaiSelvan (http://twitter.com/EssaiSelvan )
This list may be lame. But using the comments below this post to promote your own sorry ass that didn't make it to this list is taking lameness to a whole new level.
@strexy
:)
Great designer, terribly misguided character.
http://www.twitter.com/jianart
I'm a creative web designer.
Thanks.
Chris
Djembe Drums
I know their are people who thought like me and then got addicted to the whole thing, Im guessing I wont be one of them.
Just added everyone on the list.
You can add me at http://www.twitter.com/garethdaine
UK Web Hosting
Tony
IM Niche Formula
Those are sure good inspiration to follow.
:)
Josh Hemsley - http://www.twitter.com/joshhemsley
:)
Nice list Ryan!