I have a confession to make: I’m a bit of an image hoarder. I love finding beautiful photos for my projects. And since my designs tend to be, shall we say, “unique”, I’m always on the hunt for more.
Here’s my list of go to resources for free and fabulous images.
Unsplash is the undisputed Queen of free stock photography. I recommend starting here.
Pexels gets better and better by the day. This is great if you want to find free studio photos, especially if you want more than one from the same studio session.
Lower in quality, perhaps, but it includes graphics and illustrations. It’s great if you are looking for an “old style” illustration, like the ones that used to come inside books in the 19th century.
Truly not the best, but I’m adding it because you may need to have a look as a “last resort”. It does contain a lot of unusual photos, so if you need something to look amateur, go here.
Sites with Freebies
For these sites, you have to create an account. I recommend first looking at what they offer, and if you find something you can’t live without, then create an account.
Well, this is The Adobe, we are talking about, so everything is pristine and high quality. There isn’t that much in the “free” section, but it is worth creating an account just for the quality.
There’s not tons here, but they do offer more freebies once in a while, once you are subscribed to their list. Another similar source is Creative Market. They offer 6 new freebies every Monday. However, beware that these tend to be limited licenses, so you cannot use them for commercial purposes.
There’s good stuff here, and they change their freebies regularly, so I recommend getting an account and checking back in a while.
OK, so not “images” per se, but you do need fonts, and some of these are great.
Envato is a subscription based stock service for all kinds of design goodies. They change their free goodies monthly, so again it’s worth it to create an account and check regularly. Their freebies include graphics, templates, fonts, videos, etc.
Simple corporate illustrations. You can customise it by colour.
Must Link Back
I don’t love these because, though they are free to use for commercial purposes, they ask that you add a link back to them. If you don’t mind doing so, they are great resources.
They specialise in modern graphics and web elements. You have probably seen this style all over the web. They also offer all kinds of different things, like strange transparent PNG files, icons, a background remover, and their own graphic design software (free for Windows).
Specialises in vectors and photos. Very high quality, so it’s worth it to sign up and link back to them.
That’s it! Now get started making beautiful and unique designs.