It doesn't matter if your budding new designer or a seasoned veteran with years of cranking out designs under your belt. You always have a use for some
quality free design assets. With literally thousands of free and/or premium vector, type, and stock photo sites out there on the internet separating the quality from the questionable can be a daunting task. With this in mind, we thought we'd share a curated list of free graphic design resources that we like.
Free Vectors:
As a designer, I prefer to work with vector graphics over raster graphics. They can be scaled, modified, manipulated with a lot less of a hassle, and no loss of image quality. Of course, this is not always possible, but whenever I can keep my designs 100% vector I do. So when I search for stock graphics/elements to use in my designs I usually search for them in vector format.
Here are some great free vector sites:
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Retro Vectors: This site has an awesome selection of vintage stock art that is very useful in designs that require a vintage throwback look.
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Vecteezy: A kind of catch-all site, search for what you want, and it'll come back with hits for both free and premium vectors. Not everything is usable, but many are with some alterations.
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Flat Icon: An awesome tool for finding vector icons. Many different styles to choose from and you can find almost anything on there.
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Freepik: Much like Vecteezy, another catch-all vector site.
If you want to learn more about vector vs raster artwork, design resource
Design Shack has a great article explaining the differences. Click
here to read.
Free Type/Fonts:
Keeping a well-curated type arsenal is very important to a graphic designer. Although premium typefaces are awesome, free ones can often get the job done. Below is a list of some free type sites:
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The League of Moveable Type: One of my favorite sites to check for nice fonts. It's super curated and I love almost every typeface on this site. Great job y'all ^_^!
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Lost Type Co-Op: Another awesome curated site, the fonts are solid and look great! They are free for personal use, but you can donate to support their cause!
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Font Squirrel: Many different fonts to choose from. This site is not as curated, but you can find that "one off" crazy typeface that just seems to fit certain projects.
Free Stock Photos:
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Unsplash: We use this site, has a lot of great shots of nature, people, and young feeling stuff that are useful in many different projects! I would actually go as far as to say I LOVE it!
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Gratisography: Another very nice resource for finding stock photos! There are some really great shots on this one.
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Pictography: A wider range of stock photos on this site, they are initially a little less hip looking, but with some processing they are fantastic!
Free MockUp Templates:
When you finish your design, 99% of the time showing it to your client on a nice mockup helps you seal the deal. Mocking up your design on the product takes away the need for your client to use their imagination to picture the final product. It's easy to find free sub-par mockups templates, but the really nice ones usually need to be purchased. Here are a couple of sites that have nice quality free mockup templates:
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Graphic Burger: Great quality mockups when you can find your product. Definitely, a place I check for mocking up designs.
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Behance: Another option for finding free mockups created by designers.
Design Inspiration:
The last thing I thought would be useful is some design inspiration. Before starting a project or when stuck, looking at some inspiration is key to creating a good relevant design. Below are some of our favorite design inspiration sites:
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Adobe Color Wheel: A great tool for finding the right color palette for your project!
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Awwwards: Although it focuses on web design, it's a great tool to reference for creating layouts and seeing different design aesthetics in action.
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Dribbble: Awesome resource for good design, only invited designers can post.
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Pinterest: Love to check Pinterest. So many good ideas!
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Behance: Surf millions of professional designers portfolios. Although not as exclusive as Dribbble, still a great place to get some inspiration.
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Typophonic: A cool site that only posts the typography on old album covers.
Are we missing a site that you think should be on this list? Or do you run an awesome blog or site that offers one or more of the services listed above send us a link and we'll check it out!
For more information about Free Graphic Design Resources, Print Peppermint, Design, or to get your hands on some samples contact us at info@printpeppermint.com or visit us at
www.printpeppermint.com
