Design Resources
Writing by admin on Monday, 23 of April , 2007 at 7:08 pm
This page consists of downloads and links which I hope you find useful. I will try to keep adding to this page.
FOR FREELANCE DESIGNERS
- job book page (pdf)
A job book page - helps to keep track of your current jobs, what you need to bill at the end of the month and which jobs have been paid. - design brief sheet (pdf)
A general design brief questionnaire for your client - sample invoice
For new freelancers - use as a guide to create your own invoice - work planner pdf
A blank schedule to help plan a weeks work - freelance rates calculator PDF
Gives you a guide to how much you would need to charge to cover all your living expenses - created by Lauren Krause of Creative Curio
FOR DESIGN STUDENTS
- sample design brief - battery packaging (zip file)
A real design brief - to create a brand name, logo and battery packaging. The zip file includes reference files, cutter and brief.(if you want more sample briefs please contact me on the contact page and I will try and sort out some more and upload them) - www.desktoppub.about.com
A series of sample design briefs ideal for design students and recently qualified designers looking to build their portfolios.
GRAPHIC DESIGN RESOURCES
Cheap/Free - Royalty Free Photo libraries and Vector Graphics
- Fotolia
A large collection of low price images stating from £1 - morguefile
A largish collection of free photos for personal or commercial use - istockphoto
A large selection of royalty free images from a few dollars - 123rf
A large selection of photo, a bit cheaper than istock, you can purchase with credits or subscription - dreamstime
Royalty free pics from a few dollars - Go Media Royalty Free Vector Images and Textures
A good selection of good quality vector image packs (containing several images) and texture packs starting at $14.99. Also some freebie vector images and textures you can download - Texture King
A selection of free downloadable textures such as brick, rust and grunge - Digital Vector Maps
As the name suggest vector maps including globes and countries average price about $40
General
- lorem ipsum
A text (txt) file of lorem ipsum for greeking in body copy - Lipsum
A lorem ipsum generator that produces lorem ipsum based on your spec - number of paragraphs, words etc
Wordpress
- wordpress theme generator
Generate your own wordpress theme quickly without coding. The theme can then be customised as required - 83 wordpress themes you probably haven’t seen
Smashing Magazine shows 83 lesser known wordpress themes
Colour pickers
- colour lovers
Show loads of different colour combinations, you can vote for your favourites and create your own swatches. There is also a useful section on colour trends - colorjack
A colour theory visualiser - colorblender
Similar to colour lovers helps offers palletes of colours - colorschemer
Type and Fonts
- Type Tester
Test readability on fonts online - DaFont
A large selection of free fonts organised really well by style - Indentifont
Identify a font with a series of questions - What the Font
Identify a font by uploading its image
Graphic Design Forums and Web Design Forums
Please see my post getting help online for more information on each forum
- www.graphicdesignforums.co.uk
- www.sitepoint.com/forums
- www.allgraphicdesign.com/phpBB2
- www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/index.php
- www.forum.computerarts.co.uk
- www.estetica-design-forum.com//
- www.forum.howdesign.com/
- www.forums.digitalpoint.com/
Tutorials
- www.thelearnlist.com
A site which lists and rates tutorials in photoshop, flash, fireworks, illustrator, dreamweaver, actionscript, php, CSS and XML