The internet is a crowded place, but good design can cut through the noise. If you want to get your content noticed, it needs to be delivered in a well-designed package. But what if you aren’t a designer?
The best option for designing online assets would be to assign this work to an in-house designer. But when you don’t have a designer at your disposal, or when your designer doesn’t have the time, you need to get creative.
There are plenty of free design tools online that will help you to create high quality graphics, websites, logos and more without any real skill. If you can use a computer mouse and a drag and drop editor, you can use these free design tools online.
When should you use free design tools?
There is a huge gap between the work a designer can create the work you can create for yourself using these free design tools online. Designers plan an important role in crafting online environments, and their work should be valued and appreciated.
It’s like comparing a Michelin star restaurant meal to a Tesco meal deal. If you’re hungry and need something to eat, the Tesco meal deal will hit the spot, but it’s no replacement for a quality meal. Designing your own digital assets is no different.
Read on to discover the best free design tools available online to help you create eye-catching assets.
Canva
If you’re afraid of PhotoShop but want to create social media graphics, presentations and even company logos that look sleek and professional, you need Canva in your life. This easy-to-use design suite is browser-based, which means you don’t have to download any software.
You can use the vast library of templates to create everything from Instagram stories to company letterheads. Canva also offers stock imagery, vector art and video animation to help you create showstopping graphics without the stress.
Canva Font Combinations
If you’re puzzled by fonts and how they work together, Canva Font Combinations (formerly known as Type Genius) can help. Font pairing is a skill that only some people have an eye for. When chosen at random, fonts may appear clunky and awkward. But get the pairing right and it looks harmonious and sophisticated. This is what Canva Font Combinations will help you to achieve.
Start with a font you admire and then see the recommended pairings to help you instantly upgrade your design work.
PlaceIt
If you design apps or websites, you may require stock imagery to show your hard work in action. PlaceIt allows you to create professional mockups to show your website or app development work out in the “real” world. This is excellent for creating social media graphics, website case studies and so much more.
PlaceIt also allows you to create merchandise mockups, so if you’re thinking about releasing a branded coffee mug, a tote bag or a book, you can find a mockup to help you market it before it has even landed.
Coolers
Mystified by colours? Don’t worry, you don’t need a designer’s eye to choose the best colour palettes. Coolers makes it easy to extract a colour palette from an image, create a palette from a single colour or browse popular palettes for inspiration.
If you’re creating a new website and want to be involved in the design process, you might not know where to start. Coolers will help you to understand how colour works. So you can take a single image that fits with your vision and understand which colours are involved and how they fit together.
HubSpot’s Infographic Templates
Using an Infographic template isn’t always a wise move. While the information you add to the template might be unique, the design certainly isn’t. So if you’re hoping to use the template to increase backlinks to your website, you might find that you struggle to find your infographic when you use reverse Google Image Search.
If you just want to get your data into infographic form and don’t have the resources to hire a designer, these infographic templates from HubSpot should do the trick.
None of these options are a true replacement for professional design work, but all will help you out in a pinch when needed. These tools are also excellent for communicating your ideas to a professional designer.