For a long time now I’ve been a fan of design*sponge, a design and DIY blog.  It is very eclectic and everything they write about is designed and photographed so beautifully.  I especially love their before & after segments which look not only amazing but almost do-able (you know, if I spent less time playing Scrabble on FB).

Over the holidays I discovered a list of fifty of the world’s best design blogs according to the Times online.  So off I went, investigating the list.  Based on a quick look at two or three pages and no criteria other than immediate interest (yay for attention deficit) I chose eighteen blogs to “follow” in addition to the two or three that I already look at now and then.

What I’ve discovered is that it is really really hard to tell these blogs apart.  Really hard.  They all have started to not only look alike, but it becomes clear that most of their content is lifted from the same places so you’ll see a beautiful room or object show up in four of five of these blogs in the space of two or three days.  It just circulates like a flu bug in a preschool classroom.

For example I was looking at a blog today and as I scrolled down I saw this post which I had also seen here not ten minutes ago.  Oh look, and here and over here too.  Even the ads running down the sides of these sites start to blur together.  And the favorite links lists are all the same, over and over.  (I noticed that most of these bloggers were all in Salt Lake City together last weekend, and apparently it was fantastic.  I have to think that a weekend of intermingling is not a good thing for this group.)

So if you have a design blog, think about a way to differentiate yourself from the pack.  Try stepping out of your apartment and away from your computer now and then.  Try doing some, well, some designing.  Just a thought.

I’m trying to put a positive spin on this post.  Here are a couple of sites that I like that are a nice mix and that I will continue to visit after I delete my design folder in my favorites list…

• How About Orange     A great combination of crafty goodness, graphic design, fabrics, time wasters and home design.   I love Jessica’s style, and obviously her keen color sense  😉
• Creature Comforts    This is a good mash up of fashion, DIY, freebie print-ables and lovely eye candy photography.
• Tea for Joy  This is a relatively new to me and from the Times’ list. I do like the mix of personal blog with design.