If you’re a blogger, entrepreneur, or creative you know how important graphic design is. You need graphics for your social media accounts, website, blog, or products. The right graphics can make all the difference.
The right graphics can sell your products, increase your followers, and increase traffic to your website/blog. You don’t have to be a graphic designer to get high-quality graphics. Nor do you have to spend hundreds of dollars to get them.
I am going to show you exactly what tools to use, where to get royalty-free images, and where to get other graphic design resources for free. That way you can create your own. No need to hire a graphic designer.
*Affiliate Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see my full disclosure for further information.
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Free Graphics, Fonts, and more
There are at least 5 websites that are always giving away graphic design resources. I used the graphics from these sites to launch my Printable Art Shop on Etsy. I didn’t have to pay hundreds of dollars for my graphics, or fonts. Most of the graphics I got were free.
Where to get free premium fonts, free clip art, and free digital patterns
The sites that are constantly giving away free premium fonts, free clip art, and more are:
- Creative Market-Weekly Freebies
- Creative Fabrica-Weekly Freebies
- Design Bundles-Weekly Freebies
- Font Bundles-Freebie Friday
- The Hungry JPEG
Creative Market
Creative Market gives away 6 freebies each week. One-week Creative Market gave away a set of wedding invites for free! You just never know what goodies you can get for free. What I love about Creative Market is that they give away free social media graphics too.
I recommend signing up for their email list so you can see what new freebies they’re offering each week. Sometimes they even give away free PowerPoint templates.
Click here to check out the Freebies at Creative Market!
Creative Fabrica
My personal go-to is Creative Fabrica. They’re constantly giving away fonts, clip art, and more. Recently they gave away a big bundle of free coloring pages and other activities for kids. Another time they gave away a big bundle of graphics.
They have a big list of free premium fonts, clip art, and more. These freebies never expire. I recommend signing up for their email list to be alerted when they add new freebies. Plus, they have dollar deals too. If you run a print-on-demand store they have a special section of graphics just for you.
Click here to check out the free graphic design resources at Creative Fabrica!
Design Bundles
I love Design bundles because not only do they give away weekly freebies but they have discounts. Every so often they’ll have a $1 sale. This is where they sell tons of clip art, fonts, and more for only $1 each!
If you sign up for their email list they will notify you of any sales, or weekly freebies. Design bundles have tons of graphics, all kinds of templates fonts, SVGs, free designs, and more. My recommendation is to check the site every week.
Click here to check out their free design resources!
Font Bundles
At Font Bundles, you can get premium fonts for free. What are premium fonts? Premium fonts are fonts that are unique and can be used in commercial projects. They’re fonts that usually cost money and can’t be found anywhere else.
I use premium fonts all the time to create my printables. With Canva Pro you can upload your own fonts. I do that all the time. Font Bundles has tons and tons of free premium fonts.
Click to download free premium fonts!
The Hungry JPEG
TheHungryJPEG has pages full of free graphic design resources that include a commercial license. Plus, they have $1 deals too! They have items for crafters, templates, fonts, and more.
But if you plan to use any graphic design resources, commercially be sure to find out if it comes with one. Then read to see how you are allowed to use them. For example, you may be able to use some just for personal use.
Free Canva Templates
I am not talking about the templates you can get from Canva itself. These are templates made by professional graphic designers. You can use them for your blog or online business.
Free opt-in template pack from Simplifying DIY Design.
Free video pin templates from Simplifying DIY Design.
Free social media templates from Simplifying DIY Design.
Free holiday gift guide template from Simplifying DIY Design.
Free opt-in freebies templates from the Rising CEO.
Free Stock Photos
Stock Photo Membership Sites
I don’t recommend using stock images from sites like Unsplash in your pins. Many people are using the exact same images you are in their pins too. Pinterest will get confused and misinterpret your pin.
For example, one image can be used in a recipe pin and then be used in a back-to-school pin. That means your pins won’t get ranked properly. Therefore, won’t be seen in the right search results on Pinterest.
That’s why for pins it’s better to use images from stock photo membership sites. Not many people have access to these images. Therefore, they are more unique. That’s what I do for my pins. Many of them offer free images in exchange for your email address. Here are the ones I use and recommend:
- Ivory Mix– 4 Free Stock Photos per Month
- Styled Stock Society– Free Stock Photos per Month
- Pixie Stock-Free Stock Photos Upon Email Sign-Up
- Simplifying Social– Free Stock Photos from Previous Months
Where to get other free photos
You don’t have to create background images yourself or graphics. There are tons of them that you can use online for free legally! You can find them without using Google Images. Shocking right?!
I do not recommend using Google Images either. Most of the time those images are copyrighted. Which means you can get in trouble for using them.
The sites I recommend for social media images or other graphics:
You don’t have to pay a cent for any pictures. You are free to legally use those pictures however you want. Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels, and PikWizard are sites where you can find free stock pictures.
No attribution means you don’t have to credit them in order to use their photos. You can if you want to. I use stock images from these sites in my blog post graphics, and on Instagram.
Related post: 11 Best Free Online Courses for Beginner Bloggers
Free Graphic Design Editing Sites
Canva
Canva is an insanely popular graphics tool. So many businesses, entrepreneurs, social media marketers, and content marketers use Canva. You can create graphics for social media, emails, blog posts, posters, etc.
Anything you need graphics for Canva has it. The best part of all Canva is free to use! You don’t have to pay a monthly fee. There are some templates that do require a monetary fee to use them. But most graphics on Canva are free.
If you are looking to become a social media marketer then knowing Canva is a must. Most jobs in the field nowadays require potential employees to know it. Even most freelancing gigs require the use of Canva.
I use Canva to create my printables, blog graphics, and social media graphics. If you don’t know how to use Canva Kayla from Ivory Mix has a free Canva Graphic Design Course! Click Here to Sign-Up!
BeFunky Photo Editor
The only online photo editor I recommend is BeFunky.com. I know there are others like PicMonkey or Pixlr. I don’t recommend those ones. Pixlr is too confusing and complicated to use. PicMonkey has very limited free features.
Even to resize your images on PicMonkey you need a premium account. The only reason any blogger recommends PicMonkey is that they are an affiliate. This means anytime you sign up for PicMonkey through their link they earn a commission.
I am not an affiliate of BeFunky either. I recommend it because I use it myself. It has tons of free features. It’s so easy to use too.
It has a collage maker, designer, and photo editor. To use the features of the designer you do need a premium account.
But a lot of the features under the photo editor are free! You don’t need a premium account to upload your own pictures, resize, or add text. Overlay, blur, blemish fix, and smoothing are free! You can use it on your desktop too.
You don’t need an account to save your work. I love that you can save to Google Drive from BeFunky.
Plus, you can use it to create printables! If you are a blogger or sell printables this is a great option for you. You can resize your printables and save them in pdf for free! Just click on create to use their graphic design editor.
PowerPoint
Yes, you can use Powerpoint as a graphic design tool. There are many ways to use PowerPoint. With PowerPoint, you can even save your images/graphics into any format you want.
Suzi from Startamomblog.com put together a really great tutorial on how to use Powerpoint to create Printables! Click here to watch her tutorial!
All you have to do is open PowerPoint, click blank presentation, then click insert for your graphics. Powerpoint will even give you design suggestions.
Out of all the design tools out there I find PowerPoint to be the easiest to use. When I first started blogging I used PowerPoint to create my blog graphics.
Visme
Visme is another graphic design tool that’s easy to use. It’s similar to Canva but with more options when it comes to creating presentations and infographics. You can use it to create social media graphics, ebook covers, pins for Pinterest, and more!
I was able to create an infographic easily with Visme. It was easy to add charts and graphics. I also created a monthly to-do list printable with Visme. You can create your own dimensions too.
You can even create a team account. Plus create animated graphics too. You can get started on Visme for free! But Visme’s free account is limited to only 4-5 projects. If you want to learn more about Visme click the link to read my blog post!
Easil
I think Easil has the best free Instagram templates. I like their Instagram templates more than Canva’s. I think Easil’s are more elegant. They are more unique than Canva’s. All I had to do was change them to my brand colors. I didn’t have to do much else.
But Easil also has Pinterest templates, Facebook, Twitter templates, and more. I love that they have tons of beautiful, elegant Instagram story templates. You can upload your own fonts to Easil.
I love that! You can only do that in Canva if you pay for a work account. You can create your own custom dimensions, create ebook covers, infographics, and more.
You can get started on Easil for free too. But there are a few cons with Easil. For starters, they don’t have an app. You can only access it on a desktop.
Canva has more free templates than Easil. They do give you a trial run of their paid subscription.
iPiccy
ipiccy is slightly different from the others I mentioned. They don’t have any templates you can use. But it’s 100% free. If you don’t mind starting from scratch it’s a great option. You can use it to edit photos, create social media posts, create pins, create printable wall art, and more.
What I love about ipiccy is that you can use all of the fonts you have on your computer for free. If you are like me and have tons of premium fonts on your computer then ipiccy is for you. With Canva you have to upgrade to the pro version to install your own fonts.
With ipiccy you can use any of your own fonts. As long as they’re already installed on your PC. But if you don’t have any that’s ok. They have tons of free fonts. Most of the fonts I haven’t seen elsewhere.
Another great free feature is the ability to make your graphics transparent. If you want to create a transparent PNG you can do it for free. Whereas with Canva you have to upgrade to the pro version to do it.
Free Graphic Design Course for Beginners
If you don’t know anything about graphic design then this course is for you. If you would like to create excellent graphics for your blog or business but don’t know how then enroll in this free course. You’ll learn the basics of graphic design, color psychology, the best way to use stock photography, and more!
Click here to enroll now!
Free Templates, Themes, and More
One of the best places to find free social media templates, WordPress Themes, and other resources for your blog or business is Lady Boss Boutique. It’s a site similar to Creative Market. It’s a site filled with individual shop owners.
Each shop owner sells something different. Each month they give away a collection of FREE blog or business resources from the site’s shop owners. As a result, each month’s bundle of resources is different. To get access to these monthly resources you do have to sign up for Lady Boss Boutique‘s email list.
There was one month where they giveaway Pinterest templates and a WordPress Theme. If you need resources for your blog, Etsy shop, or online business then definitely check out their site.
Additional Resources for You
How to Use Fonts Legally
How to Create Viral Pins for Your Blog
Where to Get Gorgeous Blog Themes for Your Blog
Conclusion
Creating your own graphics doesn’t have to be expensive. There’s no need to buy expensive software
or hire a graphic designer. Nor do you have to pay a lot for graphic design resources.
If you need graphic design resources for your Etsy shop, blog, online store, or digital products I recommend checking out the sites I listed above.
I hope my post has helped you. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Until next time!
