Newly Discovered Art + Design Blogs

Have you noticed all the little tweaks to Perfect Laughter in the past two months? Behind the scenes, I’ve been taking a class on blogging led by the very kind and wonderful Holly Becker. As the writer of decor8 and one of the pioneers of design blogging, I knew she’d have a ton of expertise to offer us. I imagined my classmates and I emerging from her course with shiny, perfect blogs, ready to tell the whole world about them.

Instead, I got something much different out of the class. Holly didn’t even ask us to write anything at first.  Instead, she asked us to name what we were passionate about and focus on how to write about that subject in a unique way. This took me by surprise and was not easy to answer. I mean, when was the last time anyone asked me what I was good at, or what I loved to do?

I’m not kidding, this assignment was life changing! All of a sudden, I had a crystal clear mission for what I wanted to do with Perfect Laughter. Overnight, blogging changed from a daily task I needed to complete into a vehicle to talk to people about what I love. On the way, I found some things to encourage me. I love this video of Ira Glass talking about why beginners think they suck and give up. (A: Because your taste level is higher than your ability right now, and the only way to equalize this is to keep working.) Another motivator has been The Art of Nonconformity blog, about a guy who has always been self-employed and is fulfilling his dream to travel to every single country in the world. As of today, he’s been to 107 of 197 countries and has rightfully written a Guide to World Domination.

My old man nerd-crush, Ira Glass <3

Now the class is done, and thanks to Holly, there’s 200 new bloggers out there who have something to say. I think it’s pretty exciting. Our last homework assignment was to choose five blogs that we discovered in class. Well, I found 58 (or at least, that’s how many I subscribed to!) I decided to stay on topic, especially since my faves are about the very unrelated subjects of getting married and cooking vegetarian. And so, here are six brand new art and design blogs that you might not have heard of yet. Go visit and be one of their first loyal readers!