As our world becomes increasingly visual, it's more important than ever to put your best design foot forward when going into business for yourself. So whether you are setting up a YouTube channel to start teaching online classes, starting your Etsy shop, or refreshing your website, chances are you'll be in need of some good design elements.
But if you think that in order to make interesting visuals that look professional, you need to pay big bucks for a graphic designer, you are wrong. Until you have the budget to pay for your own designer, there are plenty of online graphic design software and tools that can help you create stunning graphics to get your brand off the ground. From logos and banners to cool business cards, these free online graphic design services will get you up and running in no time.
Want to try your own hand at graphic design? These examples of online graphic design software and free design services are easy for beginners to use.
Canva
Canva
This online graphic design software for beginners has a drag and drop format that makes it easy for anyone to create stunning visuals. Canva has a huge range of templates for everything from Facebook covers and Etsy shop icons to wine labels and gift certificates. Just click any template and you can customize the font, images, and layout.
There are premium elements if you want to upgrade, but the free offerings are quite vast. They even have tools to tell you which fonts work well together, and a color palette generator that takes its cues from any photo you upload.
Gravit
Gravit is a free vector design app that allows you easily create illustrations, icons, screen designs, presentations and much more. You can use it online or download a desktop version, browsing thousands of free templates uploaded by a team of expert graphic designers. Gravit even has helpful tutorials to assist you in getting started with the program.
Moo
If you think business cards have gone out of style, think again. A unique business card can say as much about your creativity as your portfolio and Moo makes it simple to create eye-catching business cards. You can upload your own design or select from a wide variety of free templates to help you best express the look and feel of your work while making your business card memorable enough to keep it out of the trash bin.
The Noun Project
The Noun Project
Looking for the perfect icon to integrate into your newsletter, business card, infographic, or website? With over 1 million royalty-free icons, The Noun Project will almost certainly have something to suit your needs. All icons are available, free of charge, to download in either PNG or SVG formats.
Snappa
Similar to Canva, Snappa is an easy graphic design tool to help you create sharp-looking social media posts, banners, or display ads. More graphics than photography focused in its design, Snappa's strength is its enormous library of visual assets. A free account will get you 5 downloads a month and you can connect two social accounts, while upgrading to Pro will unlock unlimited downloads and integrations with third-party apps like Buffer.
Theme Forest
If you are working in WordPress, Theme Forest is a great place to find the perfectly designed theme to enhance your website. And each month, several of their premium themes are free of charge, so keep checking back to see if one suits your needs.
MadMimi
Pixlr
Pixlr is a powerful online photo editor that is similar to Photoshop, but is intuitive enough that users of all levels will find it helpful. If you just need to make a few quick tweaks to an image, this in-browser editor is a great solution. You can use layers, masks, curves, and levels to edit your photographs and graphics and get them just right for whatever project you have in mind.
Piktochart
Infographics have proven to be a smart way to marketing yourself while also giving people the interesting information they want to read and share. Instead of hiring a designer for your next project, you may want to try Piktochart, an easy infographic maker. With tons of free icons, fonts, and templates it's easy to customize your own infographic and share it with the world.
MadMimi
Setting up a mailing list and sending out newsletters to keep your fans and clients updated about your work is a key point to marketing your creativity. MadMimi makes it easy to set up a newsletter that will look as good as it reads with its drag and drop interface. Its free starter plan allows up to 100 contacts and after that, even the paid plans are quite economical as far as newsletter services go.
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