When you want to get started as a freelance graphic designer, it’s likely that you don’t have a lot of capital for buying design resources meant for big-budget work.
Have to make the money to spend the money.
You know that you cannot steal those resources without getting into trouble and you can’t afford the prices they are asking for either. You want to pay for them but you also know that you need the next best alternative until you are making serious money.
Take the free route.
It’s there for you. Just waiting to be used. Now, most people have this perception that something wouldn’t be available for free if it was any good. However, look at the history of the Internet. Some of the biggest sites in the world are free to use and many of them have been that way since they started.
A quick look through your phone will reveal a few.
Now it’s time to think like a designer who needs a great portfolio. You need resources to be free, high quality and helpful in building your skills in graphics and understanding visual arts. Here are the top free resources for freelance graphic designers that we have found so far.
Design Inspiration
It feels like a classier version of Pinterest. When you want to get a mood board sorted before you get started, try Niice. Then feel ideas starting to grow in your brain.
Free Icons
Top notch icons to choose from. Just check them out and you’ll see something you like.
We love this site and often use design resources from here.
So many icons, so little time. They have superb collections and styles to suit everybody.
Seeing as how we like to work with vectors, we enjoy using this site for many of our creations.
Free Fonts
They have a great collection of free fonts and even a feature that allows you to upload a picture with text on it and then it suggests similar fonts for you to download.
If the name isn’t a good enough clue, the link provided here will take you the fonts you can use for commercial purposes.
What we love about this is the customisation of the fonts you can do on it. It has a wonderful user interface that we enjoy playing around with.
They have some amazing handwriting fonts that you just have to check out.
Free Stock Images
Have to admit, we use this site. We really like their collection and can’t get enough of their great stock photography.
There are some wonderful nature pictures here to use. Especially the nature ones, they’re lovely.
They feature photographers every week. High resolutions photography with some serious variety.
This is not too different from Pexels but you will still be glad you have this added to your choices when looking for images to add to your graphic designer resources.
Amazing UI and amazing pictures. Plenty of quirky images for you to play with.
The link we have provided here will take you directly to a list of free photography you can use in your projects.
Free Stock Videos
Really good stock videos here. We suggest just playing a few videos on loop because they look so calming.
From the people who brought you Life of Pix, this is the free videos version.
Free Web Design Resources
Everything you could need to build a website is here. They’ve made it really easy to search through their collection.
They have a really simple UI which results in a really good user experience when looking for design resources. Find code, PSD files, Sketch files, fonts and more.
This website is brilliant for those who love to play with shapes and colours even caters to non-graphic designers. They allow you to create patterns and play with colours. Click on one of their patterns and click on the button below the image that says ‘Color This Pattern’
Free Mockups
Get some of the best mock-up pictures here to place your designs on. See how your work looks on brand collateral without having to go and print it yourself.
Ok, you will get a lot over here but their mockups are just fantastic. That client pitch you have planned is going to look a lot better after you have this
Full Collections
You want a place to get everything. It’s here. From icons to mock-ups, from stock photography to fonts, from web templates to themes and codes, it’s all here.
A complete one-stop shop. This site isn’t short on anything. Go ahead, grab some freelance graphic designer resources from here and blow everyone’s mind.
Did we miss a site that you go to for your free design resources? Let us know by sending us a message on Facebook, Instagram or email.
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