Starting a blog these days is not as complicated as it used to be. There are several very high quality online services to choose from and some are even free to use. Tumblr is one of the more popular options and with close to 100 million blogs in service it is not wrong to call it highly popular. Tumblr is a micro blogging service with some social network aspects. This makes it ideal for publishing creative material such as short updates, photography content, design artefacts etc. and you can find many cool templates to set up a professional blog in a snap.
If you are planning to start a blog, one of the most essential aspects you should pay attention to is getting the design right. Look and feel of course comes after delivering great value and unique content. The blog design should match the target audience and make visitors fell they arrived to the right website. However, finding a template that suits your taste and meets your requirements is not easy at all. Looking through collections of some the best Tumblr themes available is often a good source for inspiration. Another thing you can do is to check out existing Tumblr blogs. Before you choose Tumblr however, make sure you check out the other options as well. The most popular platform for blogging is without doubt WordPress, bit as hosted and self-hosted. With self-hosted WordPress your have a bit more work up front to get the site set up, but on the other hand you get the most powerful blogging platform. In addition, WordPress is by far the system with most blogging themes available.
In this article, we have compiled more than 50 great examples of Tumblr blog designs that I am sure will inspire you.
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Quirksville – MORE INFO
This blog is owned by creative graphic design and illustration twosome Naomi Ray Studiopixie) and Justina Bailey (Just B). The blog itself is pretty interesting with contents like art, music, fashion, etc.
The World of A Graphic Designer – MORE INFO
As you would assume, this site is filled with wonderful graphic designs to inspire students and new designers. You’ll also find here some relevant links for tutorials and inspirations. The site itself is a delight to see. This blog is a site for every designer around the world. “Everything you need to know about the life of a graphic designer” is the tagline of this blog. Here, you can ask any questions related to graphic designing and will also allow you to submit any posts of which one will be chosen as the best blogger and can officially participate in their blog. It focuses on delivering numerous designs, artworks, illustrations and other remarkable posts of different artistic blog designers worldwide.
Startup Quote – MORE INFO
This is one of the cutest, refreshing and unique tumblr blog designs. If you want to get a kick start to your day, visit Startup quote and read up on daily inspirational quotes from successful people in the creative industry.
Typography Feed – MORE INFO
Typography Feed is a great source for typography inspiration. It has a clean design, which effectively showcases the content. The layout has a left sidebar and four columns for photo thumbnails. It highlights interesting feeds of images and words that comes from the brilliant imagination of the contributors. It is very simple yet elegant!
Pratt – MORE INFO
Pratt is an impressive collection of art and design by Jeff Rubio. The layout is a collage of his works. Each thumbnail has a few descriptions and though you see the content closely positioned, it’s still surprisingly organized.
Photojojo – MORE INFO
Photojojo is one of the tumblr blog designs that will pique your interest. It’s a blog by Photojojo, a store for modern photographers. The blog features some awesome photos taken from around the globe.
Beautiful Type – MORE INFO
Francis Choquet and Aurélien Foutoyet, to showcase typography formed this quaint blog. It features books and links that will inspire typography designers. They’ve managed to create a one-stop blog for all things typography.
Prettify – MORE INFO
Prettify is a blog that has a collections of stunning down-loadable icons and wallpapers for your computer and gadgets. The layout is pretty simple but the icons make up for the background’s lack of color.
Nice Things We Like – MORE INFO
This is one of nicest tumblr blog designs. It certainly lives up to its name. The blog is designed particularly for nice creatives. Find inspiration for font, graphic design and illustration here. It also has a very neat layout.
Art In My Coffee – MORE INFO
Art in my coffee is one of the inspiring tumblr blog designs. This is a fun site for coffee lovers. Anyone can send in their entry of coffee photo art and indicate their name and location so it could be credited to the respective owners.
Jina Bolton is the founder and curator of this creative blog and was originally designed by Meagan Fisher.
We and the Color – MORE INFO
We and the Color is one of the tumblr blog designs that could give inspiration to designers. It was built to showcase exceptional graphic design, illustration and art inspiration. You’ll find creative concepts from various fields.
Gary’s Real Life – MORE INFO
This is an example of a well-made customized tumblr blog design. Gary is, according to his profile, a professional imaginary friend. Apparently, he usually wears a suit to work. It’s fun and playful. Gary’s Real Life is a great example of the best design blogs with a light blue background and a cartoonish design portraying his own self since this blog is all about him. He is also into photography.
Doug Neiner – MORE INFO
This is a personal blog by Doug Neiner, a senior designer and front-end developer. His blog has everything from his professional to personal life. His blog’s design is unique and attention grabbing.
Clients From Hell – MORE INFO
This is one of the simpler tumblr blog designs but is eye-catching nonetheless. It’s a collection of anonymous client horror stories from designers. If you’re a designer, chances are you’ll be able to relate to one or more of these funny stories.
Kevin Nuut – MORE INFO
Nuut.co is a great design for a blog containing articles, images and media. The layout has only one column with a right sidebar for ads and followers. The upload dates are clearly visible on the side of the content.
Steven Beelen – MORE INFO
This blog was designed by Steven Beelen and features music from various artists. The latest posts are presented in a collage of thumbnails. It’s a great hangout place for music lovers. This is one of the creative blogs that displays variant videos and audio clips of different genres from classic music, country, heartbeats, electro to remix.
TypeToy – MORE INFO
This is another one amongst the inspirational tumblr blog designs we’ve found on the web. The blog has several graphic designs, typography vintage packaging and print designs, and lots more. Type Toy has a blatant statement that diverge its identity from all other blogsites. The compilation of typographic design comes from a vintage packaging to contemporary branding which makes it more alluring and very striking. This blogsite is curated by Aaron Elland and all the items found in this blog are sporadically cited.
ReformRevolution – MORE INFO
ReformRevolution is a clean looking blog that gives emphasis on the content. The posts are all arranged in a neat collage right from the homepage so you don’t need to go elsewhere.
BaubauHaus – MORE INFO
Baubau Haus gives inspiration for creativity, whether it is design, illustration, fashion, photography and lots more. The layout design is very interesting as well. It has a fixed black heading which goes on top of the scrolled page.
Esquire – MORE INFO
This is a free tumblr design by Matthew Buchanan. It draws inspiration from the art direction of Esquire magazine. The colors are striking and the design is neat and easy to navigate.
HrrrThrrr – MORE INFO
This is a customized and personal blog of Heather, a designer and creator in LA. Her blog’s design is refreshing and colorful but clean and simple at the same time. Color blocks are what make the design stand out.
Bookshelfporn – MORE INFO
This is a blog for bookworms and booklovers. It’s a collation of the best bookshelves from different countries. The blog has been chosen as one of TIME’s 25 best blogs of 2012. The design is clean and simple. Bookshelf Porn is the dwelling place for book lovers. It is a photoblog created by Anthony Dever, which showcases the anthology of the best bookshelf images all over the world. It is a visual indulgence for people interested in books, libraries, bookstores and even bookcases. This blog was selected as one of the Time’s 25 best blogs of 2012.
Vertetbleu – MORE INFO
Vertetbleu is ideal inspiration for photo blogs. It’s one of the most artistic, funky and absolutely engaging tumblr blog designs. The photo thumbnails are arranged neatly in five columns. The design has character and texture.
Chopan – MORE INFO
Chopan is a personal blog of Carlos Garcia or Chopan. It has a colorful design and a dark wood background. The menu and the header have a nice handwritten font. The content has one column and a right sidebar.
Perfs – MORE INFO
Perfs has a simple yet textured design. The colors are mostly gray and white but the layout is very easy to navigate. The content are all in one column with tabs that contain the date and description.
Little Big Details – MORE INFO
The Little Big Details is a useful site for developers and creative programmers. But it’s also one of the most well thought out tumblr blog designs. Though simple, it has great user interface.
Opinionated – MORE INFO
Opinionated is the blog of Marco van Hylckama Vlieg, a designer web developer, photographer, husband and dad. His blog’s design is unique, much like his content and opinions. It’s creative and one of a kind.
Karen Abad – MORE INFO
Karen Abad Design is a personal journal and blog of Karen Abad, a photographer, animator and editor. Her personality seems to reflect the design of her blog, which is bubbly and colorful.
Matthew Buchanan – MORE INFO
This is one among a couple of Matthew Buchanan’s tumblr blog designs. It is clean and simple with great user interface. It has one column with a right sidebar containing relevant links.
UX Rave – MORE INFO
This design is built with ease of use in mind. It ahs two columns with each content having featured subtitled tabs. The clean design and easy to read fonts are advantages for the visitor.
Unhappy Hipsters – MORE INFO
This is a blog about architecture and design. At first glance, it seems uneventful and boring but the captions beneath each photograph are witty and imaginative. The design is clean and simple but still enticing. Unhappy Hipsters contains the best tumblr pages with entirely different vibe to go along with a radiant and a dead-pan-caption for each featured photographic images. It showcases a modern art and architectural design with a story in it. Followers and visitors can discuss their opinions and ideas about each of the images making it more interactive and personal.
Simple Bits – MORE INFO
Simple Bits has a clean, textured design. Translucent boxes divide the content and the background provides an escape from the monotonous white background. It has one-column and right and left sidebars.
Gary Vaynerchuk – MORE INFO
Gary Vaynerchuk is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best selling author. His blog design is feature-rich and easy to navigate with all the latest posts on the home page.
Eat Sleep Draw – MORE INFO
Eat Sleep Draw is one of the most appealing tumblr blog designs with its wonderful graphics and animation. The bold graphics sits well on the textured background and the large images are given more emphasis and depth.
Inspire Me Now – MORE INFO
Inspire me now is one of the most popular tumblr blogs for unconventional thinking and design by blog designer Szymon Blaszczyk which was created in 2007. This out-of-the-ordinary blog site will definitely get you thinking outside-the-box with its eccentric concept and style from quirky product design to superior illustrations.
NYC Type – MORE INFO
NYC Type is all about the streets of New York City covering all five boroughs with every colorful expansion of every kind of typography. Luke Connolly is behind all this creative blog with only his Nikon D700 clicking every fancy print and fonts he could ever capture while walking around the neighborhood and the busy streets.
The Made Shop – MORE INFO
The Made Shop comprises 5 talented designers Marke Johnson, Kimberly Johnson, Adam Blake, Nathan Johnson and Zachary Johnson, generating the most innovative work of art around the world from photography to branding to illustration of film art direction. Currently, they created a one-off fire-engine red Volume Chair for Denver’s Design After Dark charity auction.
Allison Weiss – MORE INFO
Allison Weiss is a singer-songwriter behind this contemporary music blog that you don’t want to miss following on tumblr. This is not inspired by fame and money like most musicians but simply by sharing her story to everyone. Weiss’ candid, catchy, folk-infused power pop engrossed loyal fanbase for the past couple of years. With her confidence and natural online marketing strategies, she was able to spread her music to new audiences with two successful campaigns in Ney York Times and Wired Magazine.
The Aldas Project – MORE INFO
The Aldas Project was created by artist Kirsty Modarelli a year ago to raise money for her three charity organizations such as 826 National, The Schoerke Foundation and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The 388 Drawings for Good is a year-round endeavor creating an original drawing made of archival materials on a daily basis and sell them for $100 with $25 going to the buyer’s choice of three charities. Aldas (pronounced as “ull-dosh) is a Hungarian term for “blessing.”
Designers for Tumblr – MORE INFO
Designers for Tumblr is a designer’s hub displaying and sharing their work to its followers and the rest of the world. You can get the most spectacular images and up-to-date and top design blogs, themes, illustrations, minimal posters, crafts, and branding. It is run by Elliot Mariess with his assistants Zach Inglis and Katie Le Tissier.
Losing Shadow – MORE INFO
This is one of the fascinating 3D blog sites on tumblr created by a little girl from Hong Kong named Bun Bun. This was her final year project at the university that features her sketches and video animation. It is definitely a must watch blog site and we hope to continue seeing more of her works.
Wrap Magazine – MORE INFO
One of the most popular tumblr blogs is Wrap Magazine. It is a design and illustration magazine based in UK that features the best images from the print publication coming from the people that they like and talks about their inspiration of their art and design.
Gura Fiku – MORE INFO
Graphic, pronounced by Japanese as gurafiku, is one of the best tumblr blogs that is dedicated to the history of Japanese graphic design. It aims to expound the Japanese graphic design throughout the international market. This blog was established in 2009 by designer Ryan Hageman lifting language barrier and associate the differences between eastern and western approaches to graphic design.
Pop! Tech – MORE INFO
Pop! Tech is all about solidarity and novelty towards a positive change. It is a global community composed of outstanding people, extraordinary conferences, vigorous ideas and innovative projects. Here, you can find a range of inspirational designs for your blog that will surely make you wonder how all these things been conceptualized.
The Design Blog – MORE INFO
The Design Blog started out as a very simple inspiration board. Ena Bacanovic, the founder of this blogsite, started her passion for graphic design when she was in elementary doing an Art class. Mostly, the audience is catered among young designers and the works they have produced. They introduce the top picked high quality inspiration of blog designs all over the world and select the best every Sunday for the Designer of the Week, Cover of the Week and Quote of the Week.
Slapdashing – MORE INFO
Slapdashing is another one of a kind inspiration blog for graphic designers. It is known to be one of the best tumblr blogs because of its slick format with multiple astounding images and posts focused on typography, branding, illustration, photography, architecture, food and beauty. It is a collection of art tripped from random corners and crannies of the interwebz carelessly and hurriedly posted. The end result, you will be surprised. It is not too messy at all!
I Heart My Art – MORE INFO
I Heart My Art is the storage area for art, music and other items of great interest taken from all over the web for visual feast. It is one of the best tumblr blogs that you can find online because of its extraordinary, eerie and out-of-this-world art collections of videos, vintage photography and a whole lot more. I Heart My Art is run by Canadian artist and graphic designer Blair Prentice.
Baubau Haus – MORE INFO
Baubau Haus is your home to great works of art for your daily inspiration. You can get the best design, illustration, photography, fashion and anything art-related. With their amazing and superb content, you will surely be inspired and entertained visually. Behind this one of the best tumblr blogs are two Romanian designer Stefan Lucut and Andrei Don.
Laughing Squid Links – MORE INFO
As the online source for interesting art, culture and technology, Laughing Squid Links is indeed accurate and meticulous about its content and design. Awarded as the People’s Voice for Best Cultural Blog in 2012, it has maintained its reputation as one of the top tumblr blogs that you must follow. It was founded by Scott Beale in 1995 and has continuously produced an array of interesting videos and images to feed your inspiration.
Visva – MORE INFO
Visva is a fashion statement in web designing and blog content. The stunning display of photography, fashion, print design and branding is a manifestation of elegance and substance. The rosters of featured shots are carefully chosen to fit the ambiance of this creative blogsite. Hence, it is an umbrella of design inspiration full of diversity and promising concepts.
More Than This – MORE INFO
More Than This reflects on the continually evolving role of design as it continues to develop into a largely recognized, extensively deployed problem solving tool for the benefit of the public audience. Manage by Everyday Institute, MTTB documents the focal points be it in education, professional practice and even in our daily life experiences. They often posts more questions and provides all the answers you need.
Field Study – MORE INFO
Keenan Cummings is the brain of this utterly unedited and personal blogsite that tackles about the works in progress. Field Study is an ideal approach into the life of aspiring and working designers looking for a scale of inspiration, interviews and openly honest commentary. Cummings is a product designer, illustrator and an aspiring front end developer based in New York City.
House of Buttons – MORE INFO
House of Buttons accommodates a variety of UI buttons randomly spotted in the wild. This creative blog showcases clickable images of gadgets or any types of multimedia applications. Anyone can also submit their entry. This blog is curated by Jason Long, an independent front-end developer and UI designer based in Columbus, Ohio.
Alex Naz is a professional writer with a proven track record. He is a creative blogger who is passionate about web design, SEO and web development. He is also a family man and has a passion for the outdoors.
Thanks! some very inspiring stuff here!