15 Free Design Resources Every Designer Should Bookmark

There's no denying that creativity is expensive. Whether you are a freelance designer or work for an agency, sometimes it can feel like a struggle to find the time and energy to hunt for the best stock images, videos, illustrations, or icons. If you are always searching for free online resources, this article will benefit you. We are featuring here 15 resources that could add value to your work without taking any money out of your pockets.

Pexels

Pexels is a platform for free stock photos and videos that one can use anywhere. It gives you access to millions of high-quality royalty-free stock images that are also copyright-free. Finding the right image/video is very easy as all the assets are segregated into different categories. All images are high-resolution and available under a CC0 license, which means one can use them without attribution or permission for personal and commercial projects. The best part is that there is no limit on the number of downloads. Pexels also offers paid services for those who need more options.

Unsplash

Unsplash is another excellent resource for photographers who want their work to be seen worldwide. It has millions of high-quality photos released every week under a Creative Commons license, which means you can use them for commercial purposes. They also have an app to download photos directly from your phone!

LottieFiles

Lottiefiles gives you access to the world's most extensive collection of free-to-use animations. Whether it is an app, website, or social media campaign, Lottiefiles has tons of animations that you can use for your personal or commercial use. A Lottie is a JSON-based animation file format that allows designers to distribute animations as quickly as static assets to any platform. They are compact files that can scale up and down without pixelation and operate on any device.

Freepik

Freepik has a massive collection of free resources for designers and provides all assets in one place like free vectors, Stock Photos, and PSD downloads. With attribution, there are thousands of free stock photos in high-resolution, ready to download and use for both personal and commercial uses.

Pixabay

Pixabay is a thriving creative community that shares copyright-free photos, movies, and music. All of the content is licensed under the Pixabay License, making it fair to use without seeking permission or crediting the artist - even for commercial purposes. Clicking on each category will show you a massive range of content made available by photographers and users like you, with new items posted daily.

3D Icons

3dicons is a set of beautifully crafted open-source 3D icons created in Blender and made available to the public for free. It is released under a Creative Commons CC0 license, and hence it is free to use for personal and commercial projects and copying, editing, remixing, sharing, and redrawing. 3Dicons will make it easier for designers and content creators to produce beautiful and effective designs in less time.

Coverr

Coverr is a resource for free stock videos, no catch and no registration is required. Coverr's are videos made to fit as a beautiful video background, but you can use them for any need, including commercial and noncommercial use.

Flaticon

Flaticon is a massive collection of free vector icons and stickers! They provide icons for developers, newsletters, social media, and more in various sizes and formats. Browse through their icon sets and download those that perfectly match your project needs. You can create multiple collections to have your icons organized and download them in the format you want.

PixelTrue

Pixel True helps businesses deliver breath-taking web design & illustration projects without breaking the bank. It offers a core set of 100 illustrations perfect for any website, app, newsletter, or blog. Free for personal and commercial use without attribution.

Tilda Icons

Tilda Icons offers free icons for landing pages. There are 700+ icons divided across 47 industries that can be downloaded for free. Instead of searching through catalogs, use one of these free icon sets for your business. The sets range from Education to webinars to Fintech and many more.

GraphicBurger

GraphicBurger is a design resource website that offers a vast collection of free and premium graphic design resources for designers.

The site features many resources, including mockups, textures, icons, backgrounds, and more. These resources are carefully curated and are available in various file formats, including PSD, AI, and EPS.

Fontfabric

Fontfabric is a digital type foundry that offers a diverse selection of high-quality fonts. It also provides various resources for designers, including font pairing guides, typographic tutorials, and a blog with tips and inspiration.

Khroma

Khroma is an AI-powered color palette tool that helps users generate and explore color combinations for their design projects. With its intuitive interface and AI-powered technology, Khroma is an excellent tool for anyone looking to elevate their design projects with fresh and innovative color palettes.

Humaaans

Humaaans is a collection of customizable illustrations designed to help creators and designers add a human touch to their digital projects. Humaaans provides a vast library of vector illustrations that users can mix and match to create unique characters, scenes, and stories. If you are working on a new product or app layout, these illustrations pair well with a structured UI wireframe to communicate your design concept before development begins. 

Font Squirrel

Font Squirrel's library includes various font families, including sans-serif, serif, display, and handwriting fonts.

In addition to offering free fonts, it provides various tools and resources for designers, including a font identifier tool, font pairing generator, and web font generator.

We hope this list comes in handy for your next project. Once you have your assets ready, a good next step is putting them to use inside a wireframing tool , WireframePro lets you drag in icons, images, and UI components directly as you build your layouts.

FAQs

What are the best free design resources for designers?

Some of the best free design resources for designers include Pexels and Unsplash for stock photos, Flaticon and 3D Icons for icons, Font Squirrel and Fontfabric for fonts, LottieFiles for animations, and Humaaans for illustrations. Most of these are free for both personal and commercial use, though some require attribution. The best resource depends on what type of asset you need for your project.

Where can designers get free stock photos for commercial use?

Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay are the most reliable sources for free stock photos that can be used commercially. All three offer high-resolution images under licenses that allow personal and commercial use without attribution. Freepik also offers free stock photos but requires attribution on its free tier.

What are the best free icon resources for UI designers?

Flaticon is one of the largest free icon libraries available, offering thousands of icons in multiple formats including PNG and SVG. 3D Icons offers open-source 3D icons free for personal and commercial use. Tilda Icons provides 700 plus icons organized by industry, making it useful for landing page and UI design work specifically.

Are there free font resources designers can use in commercial projects?

Font Squirrel is one of the most trusted free font resources for commercial use, with every font on the platform vetted for commercial licensing. Fontfabric also offers a selection of high-quality free fonts alongside its premium catalog. Always check the individual license for each font before using it in a client or commercial project, as terms can vary.