Branding Michelle

Every designer must have a great graphics library. A well-stocked library of images, icons, tears, textures, and objects will help out when trying to make deadline, or even when you’re lacking inspiration. These elements can help pull together a final composition that would otherwise be lacking that “certain something”.

While in college I discovered this fact, but I also had very little money to build a decent graphics library. So I composed this collection of resources to use during times of little money, or none at all.

The content of your graphics library is open to interpretation and content should be compiled at your discretion, for your own needs. However, here are some general guidelines for how I organize my library. (Note: Within each main folder I separate vector and raster graphics into their own folders and then begin to organize by category within those folders.)

Here are the main folders within my library:

Objects
Paperclips, balloons, stickers, electronics, coffee cups, trees, airline tickets and other common objects can spruce up a design.

Brushes
Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop brushes come in handy when you need to create grungy textures (such as dirty up an image of clean paper), or when you need to create a beautiful starscape using a scattered brush.

Effects
Effects are great for cloning away unwanted objects in an image. You can stock up with things such as clouds, grass, and wood for just this purpose. Using shattered glass, rips and tears can also add depth to a composition.

Fonts
Although fonts aren’t graphics, it is good to have a quality stock of diverse fonts. Handwritten fonts can be used for catchy headers to add a sense of realism, or technical fonts can be used to back up a very mechanical layout.

Type
The Fonts folder is for electronic typefaces (True Type Fonts, Open Type, etc). In comparison, the Type folder is for images of lettering such as, wood or metal type, scrabble letters, and computer keys. These elements can add something unique to your design or layout.

Framing
Polaroid frames, distressed photos, torn posters, old books, post-it notes and gold frames make perfect frames for text, images, or layouts that really need to stand out.

Photos
Keeping stock photos that you’ve purchased previously is great to have on hand for a quick placeholder, background element, or to simply tweak with.

Textures
Keeping photos or scans of quality textures can add life to your work. Stock up on textures such as denim, wood, metal, rust, concrete, corkboard, paper, paint, water and brick.

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Graphics Libraries take some time to build upon, but you can always find free resources online that can help you get started. I’ve compiled a large list of free resources that will help jumpstart your graphics library in no time. If you know of any more free resource sites or other sites that belong on this list please let me know and I would be happy to include them.

Free Resource Tips:

• You should always save the elements you create when designing other projects. You never know when you may be able to reuse them. They will come in handy!

• Most stock sites offer a freebie monthly. Sign up to download these free items and also to be part of their newsletter so you’ll remember to grab the freebie while you can. Such sites include VectorStock.com, iStockPhoto.com and Crestock.com, but there are many more.

• You can submit your work to most of these freebie sites to be distributed freely if you would like the publicity. Also, a lot of sites in the pay-site list you can actually make money by submitting your photos, vectors, etc.

• Most government organizations do not copyright their photos because they are not a commercial entity. For example, you can use photos from the NASA website with no worry of repercussions. There is a full list of governmental resources at Wikipedia (see link below).

Free Vector Sites:
vecteezy.com/ Large library of quality vectors.
gomedia.us This company puts out great sample packs.
vectorportal.com Simple vectors for download.
designerstoolbox.comdesignresources CD covers, folders and more templates.
freevectors.net Large selection.
vectorvault.com Register to access the “Free Downloads” section.
freevectors.com Small selection.
createsk8.com Browse blog posts for a lot of great freebies.
vectorart.org A small quantity of vectors, library is expected to grow.
vector4free.com Good selection of vectors.
free-vectors.com Large selection of simple vectors.
brandsoftheworld.com Vector logos from companies around the world.
logotemplater.com Great starter vectors for logo inspiration.
david.bellot.free.fr Deck of vector playing cards.
aiga.org Simple symbols.
all-the-flags-of-the-world.c.la Vector flags of the world.

Free Photo Sites:
sxc.hu Stock exchange site.
stockvault.net A large selection of amateur photos.
dreamstime.com You’ll need an account to access the free photos section.
imageafter.com A small selection of amateur photos.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikipedia has created what is called Wikimedia. It is a database of 2,695,602 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.
bigfoto.com A large selection of low quality images.
free-pictures-photos.com Free photos

Free Textures:
textureking.com A large database of quality textures.
freetextures.org
cgtextures.com

Free Fonts:
fontfreak Over 5,000 free fonts.
urbanfonts.com Excellent quality and large selection of free fonts.
dafont.com Excellent quality and large selection of free fonts.
bvfonts.com A small selection of unique fonts.
321fonts.com A large selection of fonts.
fontreactor.com A large selection of fonts.
fonts101.com A large selection of fonts.
logotypes.designer.am Free Logotypes.

Great sites containing mixture of different freebies:
bittbox.com/category/freebies Brushes, Fonts, Vectors, and much more.
browse.deviantart.com/resources Large selection of quality vectors, Photos, Tutorials, Textures, Fonts and a whole lot more. You have to have an account, which is free.
adobe.com/cfusion/exchange Adobe exchange. A great database of actions, filters, gradients, brushes and more.
brusheezy.com Free Photoshop brushes.
blog.spoongraphics.co.uk Vectors, Brushes, Tutorials and more.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources Here is an extensive list of Public Domain images, logos, music , stamps and more from Wikipedia.

Free Tutorials:
ndesign-studio.com Illustrator and Dreamweaver tutorials.
psdtuts.com Photoshop tutorials
pshero.com Photoshop tutorials
photoshoptalent.com/ Body enhancement Photoshop tutorials
aiburn.com Illustrator tutorials
smashingmagazine.com Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and more.
3dtotal.com A great list of 100 Photoshop tutorials.

News and Inspiration:
adage.com
digg.com/design
designflavr.com
justcreativedesign.com
designfloat.com
smashingmagazine.com

If you are able to purchase I recommend:
crestock.com
shutterstock.com
istockphoto.com
vectorstock.com
gettyimages.com More expensive, but excellent images.

If any of these links do not work please report them to me and I will fix them immediately. Or if you have any other useful links to add to these please let me know. Thank you!