Top Ten of the Top Ten Design Lists…For those too lazy to open multiple tabs

 Lists are all the rage. From the 38 Signs You’re a Basset Hound to the 20 Best Smells from Childhood, unproductive information has entered into the modern media. There are even lists of unnecessary lists. Sources like BuzzFeed, Thought Catalog and countless Tumblrs, blogs, and websites have revolutionized the art of procrastination. Not all of these lists are created equal, however, and some actually hold incredibly useful information for everyday life “hacks” and information on the preferences of consumers and creators in the digital age. The latter category of course is referring to the endless top 10, top 11, top 20, top 100 lists created for designers telling them everything from what fonts to use to what blogs are best for inspiration.

Few industries have been as directly impacted by this listapalooza as that of creative design. Someone would be hard-pressed to find a list of the top 17 investment banking tricks for 2013. But if you need to know ten tips for expert kerning…it’s waiting for you at the click of a button. Being in the creative industry, we are always looking for ways to innovate while still staying true to the consumer. So these lists are helpful in understanding what current culture is looking for and staying on track with the trends. But the tremendous influx of these countdowns makes it almost impossible to follow.

So to keep everything a little clearer, a little easier to trudge through, we’ve decided to create the top 10 of the top 10’s. A compilation of the definitive best of the best that every designer should know. The official Top 10 of the Top 10’s*. So here they are—broken down by category for easy access. This is everything you need to know. Here’s to an inspired, resourceful and productive 2014!

Fonts & Typography

1. 100 best free fonts
2. More 100 Best free fonts
3. Even more Top 10 fonts designers love
4. …and more the best fonts
5. Five pro kerning tricks
6. 10 Typography terms every designer should know
7. 10 typography tricks every designer should know
8. 10 tips for improving your web typography
9. 15 top typography resources
10. 10 Iconic Fonts and Why You Should Never Use Them

Design Inspiration:

1. Top ten resources for design inspiration
2. 17 sites for web design inspiration
3. Top ten sites for designers
4. Top 10 favorite inspirational websites
5. Top ten graphic design books you should check out
6. 50 books to buy a web designer this Christmas
7. 10 Books for the Creative Soul
8. 21 Inspiring Minimalistic Web Designs
9. 98 sites for design inspiration
10. 50 best sites for web inspiration

Print: paper, packaging, business cards, etc.

1. 25 Beautiful Examples of Paper Art
2. Top Trends in Print Design
3. 20 Business Cards you won’t forget
4. 20 Uniquely Brilliant Business Cards
5. 30 unconventional business cards
6. 10 Most Creative Packaging Designs
7. 11 Packaging Design Resources
8. 30 Creative Print Ads
9. 20 Creative Print Ads
10. 10 Tips to choose the right paper

 

Apps & Software

1. 100 Best iPad Apps for Designers
2. 15 Free Mad Apps for Graphic Designers
3. The Best in Web Design Software for Common Designer Needs
4. Top Ten Best Graphic Design Software Programs
5. 55 Best iPhone Apps for Designers
6. 11 Best Portfolio Apps for Designers
7. 20 Business Apps for Freelance Designers
8. Top 10 Logo Designing Software
9. 6 Best Logo Maker Software
10. 10 Best Content Management Systems for Designers

 

Social Media Management and Creative Presence

1. Top 10 Social Media Management Tools
2. 5 Superior Social Media Management Tools and Techniques
3. 8 Creative Uses for Twitter you’ve never tried
4. 35 Design Agencies to Follow on Twitter
5. The 21 Most Creative Instagram Accounts of 2013
6. 10 Twitter Accounts Everyone Should Follow
7. 10 Most Creative People on Twitter
8. 6 Small Businesses that are Killing it on Social Media
9. 9 Creative Ways to Use Social Media to Launch a Product
10. 14 Social Media Tools Used by Marketing Pros

 

Web Design- WordPress themes, SEO

1. Ten Best Paid WordPress Themes
2. Ten Best WordPress Themes for 2013
3. The 40 Best Free WordPress Themes
4. Top 5 Leading SEO Indicators
5. Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Google Rankings
6. Top 10 Shameful SEO Mistakes
7. Top 10 Most Popular Programming Languages from 2013
8. The 4 Best Platforms for Building Websites
9. The Elite Eight Programming Languages to Learn
10. Top CSS Tricks and Snippets

Resources

1. 10 Best Resources for Designers and Developers
2. 11 Brilliant Resources for Logo Designers
3. 99 Graphic Design Resources
4. 50 Useful Tools and Resources for Web Designers
5. 20 Resources for Learning Web Design and Development
6. 12 Amazing and Free Stock Photo Resources
7. The 12 Best Places to Find Free Stock Photos
8. The 11 Best Places to Find Free Vector Art
9. 18 Things Everyone Should Start Making Time For Again
10. Top 10 Most Overdone Trends In 2013

 

Creative People, Places & Things

1. 20 Graphic Designers You Should Know
2. 25 Graphic Designers to follow on Behance
3. 100 Most Creative People of 2013
4. 16 Most Creative Countries in the World
5. America’s 20 Most Creative Cities
6. 15 Unbelievable Office Spaces from Around the World
7. 12 Stimulating Office Spaces to Stir the Senses
8. Top 10 Most Unusual and Creative Buildings
9. 21 Masterfully Creative Resumes
10. 10 Great Infographics for Graphic Designers

 

Tutorials

1. 20 High Quality Photoshop Web Design Tutorials
2. Top 10 Responsive Web Design Tutorials
3. 17 Best CSS3 Tutorials for Web Designers
4. 10 Hand-picked Tutorials for Beginning Web Designers
5. The 20 Best Free Beginner HTML Tutorials for Students of Web Design
6. 50 Brilliant WordPress Tutorials
7. 8 Tutorials for SEO Beginners
8. 95 Amazing Adobe Illustrator Tutorials
9. 10 Kerning and Tracking Tutorials
10. 60+ Beautiful Logo Design Tutorials and Resources

 

Non-Design Things that Help Fuel our Creative Side

1. 5 Ways to Fuel Creativity
2. 50 Songs to Listen to at Work
3. 20 Most Caffeinated “Drinks”
4. The 8 Most Caffeinated Coffee Drinks
5. 29 Ways to Stay Creative
6. 20 Tips from Psychology for Boosting Creativity
7. 6 Best and Worst Foods for Energy
8. 5 Creativity Exercises to Find Your Passion
9. 11 Ways to be Productive and Happy at the Same Time
10. The 23 Absolute Best Quotes to Boost Your Creativity

So that’s the list. 100 great links and resources. Now we realize there are likely 100’s more that are deserving to be on this list. So, we will be amending this list in time to reflect your suggestions in the comments below. Enjoy!