Free GRAPHIC
DESIGN THINGS
Finding free shit isn't easy, until now.
Find graphic design elements to help you up your graphic design game. Here you’ll find software recommendations, the best phone for photos, the top 3 places to find graphic design freebies, and the general places we go for graphic design elements like a brush stroke, or smoke brushes, or vector icons.
Learn More about Visual Strategy...
This post may contain affiliate links.
Instead of waiting for 3rd party ads to load, you get a list of hand-picked ads that I manually link to and make a small commission if you purchase from that link at no extra cost to you. I also link to other places I don’t make a dime if you buy. Don’t buy anything you don’t want.
Read more about it here: Affiliate Disclosure
Graphic Design Software
I’m going to mix paid and free together here. These are what I recommend as a blogger and graphic designer.
For the desktop..........
The design software most professionals use, and it’s been this way since the 80’s, is Adobe products. But it comes with a price and a learning curve. I highly recommend going this route if you plan to be a professional graphic artist, video game designer, or professional animator.
For most bloggers, Canva is ideal for blog post images, social media images, and free optins like an ebook. It’s main purpose is to put text and other overlays over images.
Adobe Spark works in a similar way with a less feminine and more professional appeal in their templates.
Pic Monkey is similar to Canva and Spark except it allows you to do more actual photo editing like change exposure, smooth skin, change hair color, clone, mask/clip, etc. This is where I’m an affiliate.
GIMP is 100% Free Open Source software that is similar to Adobe Photoshop.
For the phone..........
Vector Software
To make scalable graphics. Most of these are free.
Recommended Phone... Google Pixel
As far as photography is concerned, the Google Pixel takes better images than everyone else. The Pixel 3 takes slightly better pictures than the iPhone 11 pro, and honestly, with the exception of size of images, it takes better pictures than the Canon Rebel as far as point and shoot is concerned. It’s like the perfect companion for a blogger.
Graphic Elements
These are places to find graphic design elements that are not usually free, though they do offer some free deals here and there.
Creative Fabrica, I personally like the monthly subscription because they have a lot of things I need regularly like brush strokes. I also like their license agreement. They also have a bar on one of the floors in their office building in Amsterdam, for their employees, and Friday is usually spent there, and I think that’s one awesome business model… I’m an affiliate here.
Creative Market, I’m not too keen on their license EXCEPT their add-ons. But their addons are glorious. Gold Rush is highly recommended. I’m an affiliate here.
Design Bundles often does this Dollar Deals on a regular basis, and you can get some obscure but trendy fonts usually on the cheap. But they also have patterns, textures, illustrations…
Free Graphic Design Element Places
Double check the licensing. Hearts on my favorites.
♥Brusheezy has some of the best quality textures, brushes, patterns and shapes. They also provide backgrounds in various file formats including png. The license information is included with each piece, but the common Brusheezy License is use with attribution.
Obsidian Dawn has a lot to offer the world of Photoshop, but she has some stipulations. For commercial use, you must link back or give credit; however, you can purchase a commercial license to not have to do that.
Arbent offers free brushes for personal and commercial use.
My Photoshop Brushes has some free for commercial use, but most offered are free for personal use only. The license is stipulated with each graphic element.
WebTreats has personal and commercial use photoshop elements, including backgrounds.
♥Vecteezy provides really amazing vectors and eps files, including backgrounds. The license information is included with each piece, but the common Vecteezy license is to use with attribution.
Searching for something in particular? The best way to find what you are looking for is to use a search engine, and search the specific brush or pattern you want, for instance, “Photoshop Brushes Ice,” and then research the options for licensing purposes. This is pretty much the only way I do it anymore.
Free Social Media Icons + Font
Watercolor and Glitter Icons. Regular and Color Font. Motion GIF icons. A lot to choose from. Free. Designed by me (outside of the social media part). No email required.
Pin the Glory!
