On the occasion when I have to turn away a potential client project — usually due to time constraints, but really for any reason — the client almost always responds with the question, ‘so which designers would you recommend we contact instead?’

Up until now, I feel like I’ve done a pretty bad job of answering that question. Usually it involves me searching through my sent mail for the last time I answered it, only to find that I didn’t answer it very well that time either. And that’s if I can find such an email; if I can’t, I usually cobble together a very short list of anyone that comes to mind at that particular time. In doing so, I’m doing a disservice to the client — because there are probably many more people I could recommend — and to my designer friends — because I could probably be sending a lot more work their way.

So, this post is an attempt to change that. It may see edits over time, but I’m intending it to be a place I can send clients who ask that question. One simple link. Nice and easy.

I also hope that it might become a semi-useful (albeit slightly biased) resource for anyone else out there looking for designer recommendations, especially as these recommendations are personal ones. A personal recommendation is infinitely better than a cold search around the web, isn’t it?

Disclaimer 1: Before we get to the list, I’m going to freely admit that the vast majority of the people I’m recommending here are friends; many of them close friends. To the naysayers who will inevitably moan about this blatant favouritism, I say this: of course I’m going to recommend my friends. It’s human nature. But also it indicates that I know what they’re like as people, and that can often be more important than actual design skills.

Disclaimer 2: Please note that for those designers employed by day at companies, only those who still freelance on the side have been included on the list below (which makes me a bit sad — there are many former freelancers I would’ve loved to put on this list). I’ve also omitted independent designers who create products rather than do client work. Oh, and if they’re part of a studio, they’re probably in the ‘studios’ list a bit further down.

Disclaimer 3: Feel free to leave a comment if you’d like to recommend someone for the list, but please bear in mind that I will probably only add them if they also happen to be a mutual friend or if I absolutely love their work, and can see that they’re consistently good across a number of projects.

Sound good? Right, here we go then:

Solo designers / art directors / consultants

• Able Parris
• Chris Armstrong
• Christoph Zillgens
• Dan Cederholm
• Dan Rubin
• Daniel Howells
• David Parsons
• Ethan Marcotte
• Frank Chimero
• Jack Cheng
• Jason Santa Maria
• Jessica Hische
• Joel Helin
• Jon Gold
• Jon Heslop
• Jon Hicks
• Kyle Meyer
• Laura Kalbag
• Matthew Anderson
• Matthew Smith
• Mike Kus
• Mike Macadaan
• Naomi Atkinson
• Ole Martin
• Paddy Donnelly
• Robin Richards
• Ryan Essmaker
• Ryan Taylor
• Sarah Parmenter
• Stefan Nitzsche
• Stefan Weyer
• Tom Muller
• Tyler Galpin
• Yaron Schoen

Small-ish design (and development) studios

• Brian Hoff Design
• Cactuslab
• Ecliptic Labs
• fffunction
• Happy Cog
• Huge/KingCoyle
• Idea Junction
• Information Architects
• Mark Boulton Design
• Metalab
• Paravel
• Riot
• SuperFriendly
• Teehan+Lax
• Weightshift

I’m sure I’ve missed some folks, so please expect some revisions. Either way, I hope this proves useful. I’m thinking of doing a ‘developers I would recommend’ list as well. In fact, how about illustrators, writers, speakers, etc.? If you’d like to read them, let me know.