When it comes to design and writing, it’s important to be authentic to your brand. But that doesn’t mean you necessarily have to reinvent the wheel – or, your budget.
Here are some examples of free creative resources to use for your design and writing needs.
Free Creative Resources to Keep Your Budget Happy
Icons: FlatIcon
Infographics are helpful at visually convey information in an appealing manner. Flaticon has all sorts of icons to help you convey your message in a style that fits your brand.
Photos: Pexels
A free stock photo site like Pexels is great for those times you just need a trendy shot of a healthy meal or a sprawling landscape. Be careful with how stock photo crazy you get, though. Too much “stockiness” runs you the risk of blending in with the sea of others who use free photo resources like this. Try to use authentic photos from your place of business with your own people and furnishings to portray your authentic company culture.
Colors: Adobe Color CC
Adobe Color Wheel helps you create color schemes based on various color rules like monochromatic, complementary, and shades. You can also throw caution to the wind and create your own custom color schemes or get inspiration from other users who have uploaded their own color schemes.
One thing to be careful with when designing a color scheme on here is the color models. Adobe Color CC only provides HEX and RGB onscreen color models, not CMYK or PMS for print. And if you read our previous blog on the subject matter, you already know just how important the differences are.
Writing: Grammarly
Few moments are more cringe-worthy than printing a thousand brochures only to find a typo after it’s too late. If you don’t have a team available to help proof-read your file before it goes to print, this tool is especially useful. You can upload an existing document to check for grammar, punctuation, contextual spelling mistakes, and more. It’s also great for writing online.
The Mixed Bag: Creative Market
This site is like the Barney Bag of design. It’s got all sorts of illustrations, photos, fonts, and templates just ready and waiting for your imagination – and in some cases, your credit card. But hey, sometimes your time and sanity is well worth the price tag of a quick purchase instead of struggling through countless tutorials and google searches to achieve the design you’re going for.
Luckily, for those times you’re not interested in breaking into your budget, Creative Market offers free weekly goods. Sign up for their emails and download the weekly freebies to build a creative arsenal.
Go Forth, Fellow Frugal Creatives!
This is far from an exhaustive list. With so many similar sites, an abundance of free resources are just a google search away.
Happy creating!
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