7 Free Design Tools
These websites have you covered for all your graphic, editorial, web, and identity design needs
There is nothing more exciting for a graphic designer than starting a project from scratch and creating all its visual elements. Sometimes, however, you need tools to kickstart your creative process.
Here is a list of free resources that will inspire you and help you during the research phase. We have also shared tools for downloading free vectors and images that will save you time when creating presentations for a client.
If you are ever have to create layouts that include maps, this site will help you. It contains maps from all around the world and allows you to download them with different styles.
For example, you can obtain high contrast maps in black and white, or with watercolor effects. You can show the elevation and vegetation of any given area... there's even a map of Mars! It uses the OpenStreetMap open license, so keep in mind that using the tool is free, but requires attribution.
Flat icon
On this site, you will find over two million free vector icons with many styles, created by hundreds of designers. You can download them in SVG, PSD, PNG, EPS, and icon fonts formats.
Once you choose an icon, you can customize the color you want to use. You can also access curated collections or search by author. To download the icons and packages, you only need to create an account and register.
If you're looking for inspiration or need to research to create logos, identities, or icons, this site is a great place to start. It contains information on millions of ancient and modern symbols, operating system icons, emojis, flags, and much more.
You can search the database by the degree of symmetry, shape, color, curvature, of the iconsand by whether the lines intersect or not. For each symbol, you will find a little history and related items. You will also learn what uses have been given to the same sign in different contexts or brands.
This is one of the best reference sites for branding and identities. Designers from all over the world share their creative projects, regardless of whether they are students or work in large agencies.
You can search by type of project, country, year of creation, packaging materials, and categories such as beverages, books, food, health, jewelry, or electronics, to name a few.
This site is ideal for digital and web design research or just for inspiration. It features a new website that stands out daily. It also has a list of the best sites by month or year, and categories for special mentions, nominees, and mobile sites.
Searches can be filtered by tags, categories, countries, and development technology. If you want to submit your design for consideration, you must pay a fee.
This interesting resource is the idea of illustrator Pablo Stanley. Instead of charging you for access, you name the price you want to pay to use the illustration pack for commercial and personal projects.
The platform allows you to mix and create your own characters that can accompany any of your designs or proposals. You can choose their hairstyle and clothing style, as well as the poses and accessories. The files are available for use in Sketch, Figma, Studio, and Adobe XD, as well as in SVG and PNG formats.
This site gives a spin to the concept of stock photos, and it is an ideal resource for certain projects that require mockups or brainstorming. It allows you to choose between different options for models, elements, and backgrounds to create a new composition. You can save your photos once you register so you can refer to them later.
After creating your mix of elements, you can download the image for free (in high-resolution PNG format). To access a version with editable layers in Photoshop, you need to pay a monthly subscription.
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