Design Team Resources

Created by Drew Wilson | Updated 1/29/24

Design YouTube Channels

• Satori Graphics: https://www.youtube.com/@SatoriGraphics
• Satori is very thorough, and gives a lot of information about typography and layout design. His more recent content is a bit more on the trendy side, but he gives a lot of practical tips for becoming a successful designer, like building your portfolio and how to get clients.
  
  
• The Future: https://www.youtube.com/@thefutur
  
• Probably where I owe most of my success to. This channel actually sparked my initial interest in design. Chris Do provides extremely practical advice for the business side of design. (How to handle objections, pricing, time management, etc). But there is tons of content specifically on layout and logo design that is amazing. I purchased some of the paid courses from The Futur and they helped me get a lot better a lot faster. 
  
  
• Spoon Graphics: https://www.youtube.com/@spoongraphics
• Chris Spooner is a master at illustrator and photoshop, sharing a ton of little tidbits for how to achieve different styles. His strong suit is showing you how to blend or morph or attach certain textures to things in Photoshop to make your designs stand out. He also has some Kittl tutorials. :) 
  
  
• Bring your Own Laptop: https://www.youtube.com/@BringYourOwnLaptop
• If you need to learn the in's and out's of any Adobe Product, Dan is your man. Also known as Adobe Dan, this guy will walk you through at an extremely comfortable pace to make sure you're comfortable using the tools in each program. I took pretty much all of his Skill Share courses when I was first starting out. Watching his videos was how I built my first fake portfolio and landed my first full time design job.
   
• Will Paterson: https://www.youtube.com/@willpatersondesign
• Will is mainly a hand-letter that turns his sketches and lettering into logo design, but has recently got into some of the web design side of things as well. He also gives practical tips for working in illustrator, but I think his most profitable content is his videos on what makes a logo design good or bad, and what to do to fix it. 
  
  
• Detour Shirts: https://www.youtube.com/@DetourShirts
• Juna is a good friend of mine and an absolutely beast at t-shirt and apparel design. I honestly don't know how he does it, since he has a full time job, but then has like 10 POD shops AND does YouTube on the side. He's incredible, and his pace is very slow, which is great for those trying to get an extremely detailed explanation of how he is putting a design together. He uses so many different design tools to make sure he covers a wide audience, no matter what program they are using. And he also does a ton of Kittl tutorials :)
  
  
• PiXimperfect: https://www.youtube.com/@PiXimperfect
• Undoubtedly the master of Photoshop. If you need to figure out how to do something in Ps, he's probably got a tutorial for it. He specializes in correcting things, specifically photo and other imagery, which is vital for if somebody sends you over a pretty poor quality photo. 
  
  
• Nobu Design: https://www.youtube.com/@nobudesign/videos
• Another excellent Adobe tutorial channel, specifically for niche styles, patterns, and effects to make your work stand out. 
  
  
• Brady Shearer: https://www.youtube.com/@prochurchtools/videos
  
• While I don't fully agree with everything Brady says, he has some excellent tips on incorporating more visuals and creativity into the church. He has tutorials on everything from church social posts to getting better photographs. He also has a ton of templates that can be helpful. I would say the content is more on the practical informational side than it is design tutorials. 
  
  
• Envato Tuts+ https://www.youtube.com/@envatotuts
• This channel is extremely helpful for learning how to incorporate different principles of design. Just keep in mind that a lot of times they will be working with examples or assets that have been downloaded from Envato, obviously. 
  
  
• Kittl: https://www.youtube.com/@Kittldesign
• The channel where I teach graphic design, along with Graham and Duda. Even if you don't want to use Kittl, the principles for layout will help you create a variety of designs. But you should also just use Kittl cause everything you need is in there already. :) 

Design News Websites

• Medium: https://medium.design/
• Great place to stay up to date on design news. It's kind of like a sudo-collection design blog. 
  
  
• Under Consideration: https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/
• You can read some stuff here for free, but I think the subscription is like $10 for the year? And they'll even send you a newsletter about new fonts, free resources, and other stuff.

Christian Artists/Designers To Follow (Instagram)

• Edward Sun: https://www.instagram.com/edwardcreates
• Taylor Penton: https://www.instagram.com/taylorpenton
• Daniel Neuman: https://www.instagram.com/daniel_neuman
• Arron Jackson: https://www.instagram.com/northofcopper
  
• Cory Romeiser: https://www.instagram.com/coryromeiser
• Christian / 1924us: https://www.instagram.com/1924us
• John Zurowski: https://www.instagram.com/zurowski_designs 
• Georgy Roy: https://www.instagram.com/georgycreates
• Zeke Tucker: https://www.instagram.com/zeketucker
• Josh Whiting: https://www.instagram.com/brightcoal
• Pro Church Media: https://www.instagram.com/prochurchmedia
• Peter Voth: https://www.instagram.com/petervoth
• Reuben Rohard: https://www.instagram.com/designbyreuben
• Brady Shearer: https://www.instagram.com/bradyshearer
• Ash Ulmer: https://www.instagram.com/ashulmerdesign
• Skyler Stiggy: https://www.instagram.com/stiggycreative
• C.J. Amaya: https://www.instagram.com/c.j.amaya

Outside of Pro Church Media and Christian (1924us), pretty much all these peeps will respond to you if you ask a question. So don't hesitate to DM them on Instagram if you see something they did and want to know how they did it. A lot of these peeps I interviewed for my book, and they are super solid, super nice people. Edward, Daniel, C.J., Georgy, and Zeke are good friends of mine, so if they don't respond to you I'll give 'em what for. 

Design Books

These are my go to design books, meaning ones that I own, or at least what I was studying as I continued to grow and get small design jobs. Fair warning, some of them are a bit pricey. They make great gifts, so maybe ask for one of these on your Birthday/Christmas, that's what I do haha. This is a collection of both practical principle books and references/inspiration books. The links below are affiliate links to my Amazon Associates account, so if you purchase any of the books through these links, I will get a small percentage of the sale, but of course you don't have to. :) 

I believe this first one on the list is a must have for everyone. 

Typography Books

• Type Matters: https://a.co/d/3Oze8lw
• Thinking With Type: https://a.co/d/gHtEyEZ
• Junk Type: https://a.co/d/gsw7JBy
• Vintage Graphic Design: https://a.co/d/6KDnV8X
• Typographic Design: Form and Communication: https://a.co/d/iArk4Ye

Lettering Books

• In Progress: https://a.co/d/6hMvis3
• Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy: https://a.co/d/eRwwflz
• Scripts: https://a.co/d/0b5NO6g
• By Hand: The Art of Modern Hand Lettering: https://a.co/d/ff310df

Graphic Design / Logo Design Books

• Brilliant Logo: https://a.co/d/eLDdAga
• Layout Essentials: https://a.co/d/bbfWJKz
• Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: https://a.co/d/1hH8Skh
• Brand By Hand: https://a.co/d/9LaZ7qR
• The Story of the Bauhaus: https://a.co/d/1t6yL0U
• Steal Like An Artist: https://a.co/d/5YcKkWC

Sketching / Drawing / Painting Books

• Mindful Sketching (Peggy Dean): https://a.co/d/dz0LRey
• Secrets To Drawing Realistic Faces (Carrie Stuart Parks): https://a.co/d/aCDkLXP
• Prints & People (A Hyatt Mayor): https://a.co/d/2YJsoUg
• Florals By Hand (Alli Koch): https://a.co/d/2haHGJk
• Creating Celtic Knotwork (Cari Buziak): https://a.co/d/gDBwPZx
• Viking and Slavic Ornamental Design Vol. 2/3 (Triglav): https://a.co/d/c0g1gcA
• Norman Rockwell's America (Finch): https://a.co/d/1LQHA0w

Business Of Design Books / Entrepreneurship (Getting Clients/Work)

• The Win Without Pitching (Blair Enns): https://a.co/d/2Sh9TK7
• Start With Why (Simon Sinek): https://a.co/d/gUMsq7k
• The Brand Gap (Marty Neumier): https://a.co/d/3FN1ON9
• Don't Call It That (Eli Altman): https://a.co/d/itIHDOa

Christian Creative Books

• Creative Church (J. Scott McElroy): https://a.co/d/9wv1W2g 
• Art & Faith (Makoto Fujimura): https://a.co/d/czh521n
• Art & The Bible (Francis Schaeffer): https://a.co/d/fud01ma