Design Freebies You Don’t Want to Miss

Fancy Patterns by ~Ruthenia-Alba

Freebies are the great thing about using the Internet. There are just so much free stuffs on the Internet that you can legally use for all your print and web design needs. You just need to know exactly where or how to get them.

Now, instead of letting you go about wasting time trying to get some of these free stuff, let me give you some of the best free things that you can get for your designs this year. Just read the list below, and you will find some of the best items for common design tasks.



Free PSD Templates
http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/13-free-psds-to-start-2013

First up, we have templates. FREE templates I should emphasize. For all those who are just a little bit lazy with their designs, the link above gives a nice list of 13 free PSDs that you can use for 2013. It is a set of User Interface design elements, primarily for use on web designs. However, you may also adapt these easily to printed designs if you want.  All of these have a nice sleek futuristic feel, perfect for web 2.0 style designs, or printed graphics that need that modern digital feel.

Get Some Free Patterns
http://speckyboy.com/2013/01/09/40-unique-free-photoshop-patterns/

Next up, we have patterns. Patterns are of course great for backgrounds and subtle textures for specific design elements, In the link above you will find 40 fresh and FREE Photoshop patterns that you can use for a variety of designs. Take note that the link above only LISTS DOWN these free resources, and is not the direct download site. However, browsing through it should help you get some nice quality patterns perfect for most different kinds of designs.

Free Fonts for 2013
http://www.noupe.com/fonts/there-is-no-getting-round-these-40-inescapable-fonts-in-2013-73742.html

From Noupe.com comes, as they say a list of “inescapable” fonts for 2013. While I certainly think that you can of course choose NOT to use these, the fact that they are free, and that they are pretty sleek looking means you probably WILL want to use them. If you click on the link above, you will be taken to the main list of fonts. Take note that there are some fonts with only one format, or different formats. So, be sure to check if the font format is applicable to your system, be it Windows or Mac.

Free Photoshop Brushes 2013
http://photoshop.cc/brushes/

Clicking on the site above will give you the latest FREE Photoshop brushes from “photoshop.cc”. This site will usually update their list with the latest free brushes that they can find. A large number of these sources come from deviantart and our most favorites here are the texture style brushes and design element brushes. Try out the broken glass brushes and the flourishes blushes just as a sample. These can easily add depth and texture to most of your print designs, and again they are all for free.

Free Color Palette Helpers 
http://mashable.com/2013/01/15/color-scheme-tools/

If you are a real designer, you will probably have spent a lot of hours, even days trying to get a color scheme right. Real artists still do this by sight, but for the more production minded digital artists out there, you can save a lot of time by using color palette helpers or “schemers” etc. Basically these tools help you by choosing the right colors that go in harmony with a base color that you choose. This includes, choosing complimentary and contrasting colors need to make a good color scheme, and some suggestions even for font colors etc.

Free Vector Icons
http://www.mypixel.se/freebies/other/20-fresh-new-free-vectors-from-february-2013/

Finally here, we have some free vector icons. Again here we have a link to a nice collection of free vector rendered images. You will need to visit the primary pages for the downloads though, but the link above has the previews and the download lists. These icons are pretty useful for modern web design, as well as print design since they are easily scalable. For print though, you will STILL want to print these in high quality paper to maintain the good look of that flyer or poster. Whatever the case, these vectors still need to be rendered in pixels once they are ready for publishing, but they should give you a high quality finish. Of course, you will need software like Illustrator to edit these if you ever want to do it.

Great! Now you should have enough free stuff for your 2013 print and web designs! It is pretty amazing how many free stuff you can get online, and the links above provide you with the freshest free items that should not be too “used” yet by many designers out there.