Resources and tools
Here are some links to useful creative tools that can help you get started with your project and enhance your creativity.
Placeit
Offers A Number Of Different Design Templates. Very Easy & Fast, Customize Your Logo in a Few Steps Price: Free.
Canva
Create amazing visual content with no design experience. Start by yourself, or invite others to collaborate. Price: Free. See site for premium
Room Sketcher
Easy-to-use room planner software. Design a room layout in minutes. Create professional floor plans and stunning 3D visuals - perfect for home design projects. Price: Free. See site for premium
Lunacy
This app is designed for vector graphics and is particularly useful for creating user interfaces, designing web pages, and enhancing user experiences. It features a range of built-in graphics such as icons, illustrations, photos, and UI kits. Additionally, it includes helpful artificial intelligence tools such as a background remover, image upscaler, avatar generator, and text generator. The app allows users on different platforms to collaborate in real-time on the same design. Price: Free. See site for premium licensing.
Adobe Creative Cloud Express
With access to a vast collection of royalty-free photos, you can easily achieve the look you want with a variety of effects, filters, textures, and overlays that are simple to apply. You can even remove backgrounds and resize or reflow content to fit various platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, banners, flyers, and more. Best of all, the basic version of the tool is completely free, while the premium version is available for just $9.99 per month.
Font Squirrel
A site for free, quality commercial fonts for download. Use the Font Identifier tool to upload a text image and identity the fonts that are the closest match. Price: Free..
Vectr
Vectr is a free graphics editor that allows you to create 2D graphics for logos, icons, website mockups, presentations, and more, without blur. You can easily collaborate with others in real-time by sending them a Vectr document. The best part? It's completely free! Premium plans start at $7.99 per month.
Pixlr
Pixlr is a free, easy-to-use photo editing tool with an extensive library of effects. Use the smart cutout tool to remove background objects with one click. Apply unique overlays to add dimension and texture to visuals. Inject fun into images by adding stickers or icons. Liven up a layout with decorative texts. Use Pixlr on your mobile device, too. Price: Free. Premium plans start at $4.90 per month.
SketchUP
SketchUp is a free 3D modeling application that runs in your browser. Access user-generated and manufacturer-produced models to give projects context and life. Access 10 gigabytes of Trimble Connect cloud storage to share your projects and collaborate with your team. View 3D models on your mobile device with the SketchUp Viewer app. Price: Free. Paid plans start at $119 per year.
Foundation
Foundation is a family of responsive front-end frameworks to design beautiful websites, apps, and emails for any device. Access handy HTML templates to get started. Foundation for Sites provides HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to prototype quickly. Foundation for Emails helps navigate HTML for email and provides tested patterns that work with major email clients. Price: Free.
Resource Boy
Say hello to another Resource Boy exclusive, this time their stunning pack of shadow overlay Photoshop brush, the most inclusive one ever existed. 100 Shadow Overlay Photoshop Brushes. Price: Free
Burst
Burst is a platform of free stock photos that is powered by Shopify. The library includes thousands of high-resolution, royalty-free images taken by a global community of photographers. All photos are available for commercial use, with no need for attribution. Price: Free.
Remix
Buffer's Remix feature allows you to convert your links, tweets, and articles into shareable Instagram pictures that can be customized and made more attractive. With Remix, you can transform any link to an article, tweet, or review into a social media graphic that you can personalize with your choice of text, colors, and background. Once you're happy with your creation, you can share it on Instagram or schedule it for later using Buffer. Best of all, this feature is completely free to use!
GIMP
GIMP, which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a completely free and open-source tool that is widely used for creating high-quality images and advanced photo retouching. With GIMP, you can easily produce icons, graphical design elements, and art for user interface components and mockups. The best part is that it's completely free of cost.
Krita
Krita is a comprehensive digital painting application that comes with a wide range of features. It has an impressive collection of over 100 professionally designed brushes perfect for sketching and painting. These brushes include stabilizers that are useful for freehand inking and assistants that help create complex scenes. Krita also has a distraction-free canvas-only mode that allows artists to paint without distractions. In addition, it includes clone layers, layer styles, and filter and transform masks for non-destructive editing. Krita supports all popular formats, including PSD, and the best part is it's completely free but accepts donations to keep improving development.
Pexels
Pexels is a website that provides free stock photos and videos that can be downloaded for personal or commercial use. Additionally, Pexels offers an API that is connected to its entire photo and video library, which can be used to power a website or a product. The best part is that all of these services are completely free of cost.
Dribbble
Dribbble is an online community where creative professionals can share their design work. It is a great platform to find inspiration, free commercial resources, and design tutorials. You can also access Dribbble's job board and marketplace of digital assets to find the perfect designer for your project. Additionally, Freebbble is an exclusive section of Dribbble that showcases thousands of free assets available for commercial use. And the best part? It's completely free!
Webflow
Webflow is a website design platform that lets you structure, style, and launch your website without the need for coding. You can drag in unstyled HTML elements for full control or use pre-built pieces for complex elements like sliders, tabs, background videos, and more. You can directly work with content-management data and ecommerce products to build your website with real content. You can easily build flexbox and grid layouts and style every element to perfection. You can start building your website for free, and add a site plan for more pages and a custom domain when you’re ready to launch. The basic plan is free, while premium plans start at $14 per month.
InVision
InVision is a platform that provides tools for digital design and prototyping. Whether you're starting a new project or activity, such as wireframes, mood boards, business plans, or events, you can use a Freehand collaborative whiteboard or choose from a variety of templates to jumpstart your work. You can also use the design structure matrix to keep your team in sync. With InVision, you can design, prototype, and animate your work through Studio. The platform offers a free version that allows up to three documents and unlimited freehands. If you need more advanced features, you can upgrade to a premium plan starting at $4 per month.
