19 Must-Know Resources for Email Designers

We all know the internet can be a little overwhelming, especially when you're on your own as a freelance or contract designer. It's time-consuming to track down what you need when you need it to work quickly and efficiently. That's why we've rounded up some of our favorite resources for email designers to help with collaboration, organization, and inspiration.

Work smarter

Keep your design knowledge and skills sharp by tapping into great resource aggregators: email design blogs. These blogs cover all things email design and routinely put out inspiring, useful content.

1. Really Good Emails

The name says it all. Really Good Emails is a go-to resource for finding hundreds of inspiring emails all in one place (though Pinterest is great too). The archive is searchable by keyword and category, plus the site has a resources section with posts on email marketing and design.

2. FreshInbox

FreshInbox creator Justin Khoo says he created the FreshInbox blog when he realized that email is finally growing up and starting to adopt cooler new capabilities such as media queries and interactivity. The blog has tons of in-depth goodies for email geeks, from responsive roll-over images to CSS animations.

3. The Better Email

Litmus project manager Jason Rodriguez is the mastermind behind the Better Email, a blog and resource destination for email designers, with a resource list that includes a treasure trove of links to email design tools, courses, blogs, and more.

4. Litmus

There's no question Litmus is an email industry giant. From the Litmus Live conferences to webinars to the blog, Litmus is a valuable place to keep up with the latest in email.

5. Emma

The Emma blog is a great place to find email marketing tips and strategies, plus plenty of fun email examples to draw inspiration from.

Work together

When it comes to pulling off a great email marketing campaign, collaboration is critical. Designers need to coordinate with developers, project managers, art directors, clients, and others. Here are a few favorite resources for staying on top of project coordination and communication.

6. Trello

Trello is a free and easy way to keep track of what you're working on. Designers can use it to prioritize to-dos, set due dates, and manage their workflow, and collaborate with others on the move with the mobile app.

7. Google Drive

An incredibly easy, intuitive place to create, share, and store docs, spreadsheets, presentations, and more — a powerful resource for storage, creation, and collaboration.

8. Slack

Slack seems to be everyone's favorite communication tool. It's free and intuitive to use, and it integrates well with Trello and Google Drive, giving you a powerful combo of team organization and communication.

9. Workfront

Agencies and enterprises often opt for a robust cloud-based project management tool that can be used across teams. Workfront helps teams collaborate and work better with visual calendars, custom dashboards, and time-tracking features.

Work faster

What about the tools to help you work faster and better when it comes to actually making good design? A few categories worth exploring: font, icon, and stock photo tools; photo editing tools; GIF and meme tools; prototyping and video tools; and chart, graph, and survey tools. Plus, a few apps designers particularly like: Sketch (a design toolkit) and Coda (an HTML editor), and there's even more to discover at DesignResources.Party.

Think bigger

The design industry is huge and amorphous, with email design occupying one particular niche. Occasionally, email designers need to tap into the bigger picture for perspective and inspiration, by listening to great voices in the design industry on a few fantastic platforms:

15. AIGA

Conferences, job boards, conversation, meet-ups — when it comes to design thought leadership, AIGA has it all, having earned the claim of being the oldest and largest professional membership organization for design.

16. HeyDesigner

HeyDesigner has hundreds of posts and resources on everything from typography to mood boarding to product design and beyond. You can opt to receive their newsletter on a daily or weekly basis to keep your finger on the pulse of all things design.

17. Skillshare

Need to brush up on your design skills? Sometimes a YouTube tutorial just won't cut it. Skillshare offers a huge selection of classes you can take from home at your convenience, including design courses aplenty.

18. Adobe

No designer can do their job without coming into contact with an Adobe product, from Photoshop to InDesign to Spark and more. You can find tutorials, guides, and instructions for any of their products on the site, plus a wealth of info on their digital marketing blog.

19. Dribbble

Dribbble is "show and tell" for designers. But it's more than a website: don't miss design expertise shared via its podcast, blog, or in meetups.

Share your go-to resources

The design universe certainly stretches to the far reaches of the internet, but we hope this is a valuable starting point for your must-have email design resources.