5 Free Graphics & Images Resources for Web Designers
If you are a web designer, you know that good graphics and images can help a site look even more professional and polished. And when your clients don’t come with brand photography or brand elements, it can sometimes be a challenge to find cohesive, well-designed graphics and images to use. Here are five free resources I use myself:
1. Creative Market - new free goods every Monday
Each Monday, Creative Market offers 6 free goods. These can be hit or miss, but it’s worth subscribing to their emails to grab the free gems. Depending on the week, you can find patterns, backgrounds, icons, illustrations, fonts and more.
2. Moyo Studio - 50 free images
Get 50 free styled stock photos and mockups by signing up for their mailing list. These lean feminine with neutral colors and can work on a wide range of sites. They also offer a great Designer Bundle with 5 scene creators plus 11 bundles of complementary photos and mockups for just $99. I used images from that offer on my website until I was able to afford a brand photoshoot.
3. Canva - blog thumbnails & backgrounds
I use Canva to create blog post thumbnails, website section backgrounds, and Instagram posts. It’s a lot of fun to play around with their elements, frames, and photos. Even though they offer starter templates, it’s easy to create something unique. There’s a free version with some limitations, but you can also try Canva Pro for 30 days at no charge. I’ve upgraded to Canva Pro and I use it almost every day for both my own work and work for clients. (If you need more templates than the ones provided by Canva, you can try Wepik. It's another online design tool which offers more templates and layouts, as well as a free plan that lets you create an unlimited number of projects and access to all their desktop tools.)
4. Blush Illustrations
Blush allows you to customize incredible illustrations from artists around the world. Choose a style, customize the art, then download an .svg or .png to use on your website. The free plan allows for unlimited downloads and saving up to 5 designs for reuse. Upgrade to the Pro version for more illustrations, high-res .png downloads, and one-click color customization.
5. Pexels
If you’re looking for photographs and want something a little different than the built-in Unsplash integration, I love Pexels. Start a search by keyword and then refine by searching for color - just enter in a hex code and Pexels will show you images that contain that color. It’s a great way to keep your photos on-brand across your website and social media. If you use photos for blog thumbnails, this is a great way to choose those for a cohesive look.
