TOP 5 FREE ONLINE RESOURCES FOR DESIGNERS

Source : http://www.laurenschroer.com/

The internet can really help or hinder productivity when working on design projects, so today I'm going to share with you some of my favourite free online resources for designers that help make my time online more productive. I use these websites and tools quite often throughout my design process and I find them to be really helpful, so I hope you do too!

WORDMARK.IT

Every designer has been there. You just know you have the perfect font for your project on your computer, but among your hundreds of fonts you just can't remember what it's called. Or you are starting on a project and have no idea where to start! With so many fonts out there, it can be difficult selecting fonts for your projects. But that's where Wordmark comes in and saves the day! On Wordmark, you simply type in any word or phrase, and the website loads your type in every font you have on your computer and displays it in a collage. It even gives you the option to view them white on black, or black on white, and you can choose the text size. While scrolling through your fonts, you can click on ones you like or might want to use, and then click "Filter Selected" at the top and it'll show you just your selections. This website has saved me hours of going through my fonts and I really can't live without it now!

COOLORS.CO

Coolors is a tool to help you create and discover colour palettes. It gives you the option to create a palette featuring specific colours, or it'll generate various palettes for you! Sometimes a colour palette can really help direct a project and give you the inspiration you need.

CREATIVE MARKET

If you're a designer or creative person and haven't checked out Creative Market right now, you need to go and make an account. It's an online marketplace of sorts where you can buy and sell all kinds of graphics, fonts, templates, and more! What makes it really awesome too is that every week they offer 6 products from the website to download for free! I've found so many unique graphics and fonts through Creative Market and it's a great place to look for inspiration. You can follow me and check out my shopon Creative Market too if you'd like!
sign up here 

LOST TYPE CO-OP

If you want some really high-quality free fonts, Lost Type is worth checking out! They don't have as extensive of a collection of free fonts to download as sites like DaFont or FontSquirrel, but the fonts available are really well made. Lost Type's website also has a fantastic blog which is great for getting inspiration or just to enjoy some beautiful lettering for typography nerds .

PINTEREST

I know, this one may seem obvious, but for a while I wasn't that into Pinterest! In the past few months though I've gotten really into it and it's such a great source for design inspiration. One of its best uses for designers is to use it to create mood boards for projects. When doing my rebrand, I made a secret board and pinned images that conveyed the look and feel that I wanted to achieve with my branding, and it really helped to guide the direction of my design process. It's also just fun and enjoyable to browse in your free time!

Have you visited any of these sites before? What online resources to you use in your design process?