100+ Must-Have Graphic Designer Resources

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PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

Podcasts

The Futur
Chris Do is the godfather of creative business. As an Emmy award-winning designer, Chris leads value-packed, candid conversations with inspirational people spanning the globe. If you’re looking for actionable, cerebral advice when it comes to design, technology, marketing and business, look no further than The Futur.  And forget what you think you know. Chris challenges the status quo with rare wisdom, business acumen and flare that’s magnetic to millions (and soon billions) fortunate enough to absorb his world-class content.

Pricing is Positioning
Paul Klein delivers game changing value with every single episode. He interviews the best of the best pricing gurus, always asking the right questions to get the most value out of his guests—a lost art that he’s truly mastered. A virtuoso of pricing in his own right, Paul very clearly lays out actionable advice to help you get max value out of your products/services through strategic positioning. Ignore this podcast at your own peril.

Design Recharge
Design Recharge is a weekly web show and podcast committed to inspiring, connecting, and educating designers. Diane Gibbs hosts this uplifting, valuable show attracting designers from all walks of life who want to level-up their creative career. She has produced fantastic interviews over the years to freely peruse, hosting this ever-growing show since 2012. If you want to connect with other designers and grow your design business, then Design Recharge is a can’t miss resource.

Design Blogs

Smashing Magazine
With about 200,000 email subscribers, Smashing Mag has become an online leader for graphic designers and web designers alike. They also have a directory of design positions available for both full-time and freelance designers.

Just Creative
Jacob Cass has built up quite the arsenal of design articles with his design blog, Just Creative. With in-depth insights on logo design, branding, web design and so much more, Jacob shares his extensive knowledge on all things under the design umbrella. Jacob has had the chance to work with Jerry Seinfeld, Disney, Nintendo, Powerade and was even named the “top graphic designer in NYC” by The New York Post. If you’re hungry to learn about design, subscribe to his blog and you won’t be disappointed.

nu School
The nu School blog not only has an eye-catching layout, but delivers some serious value to designers from all walks of life. You’ll learn how to make your freelance design business more successful by tapping into every facet of running a design business. Among the best graphic design resources for freelancers hungry to learn.

Canva It’s safe to say that Canva has arrived. With 11 million users across 179 countries in their first 3 years, people have noticed. For some perspective on these jaw-dropping numbers, Facebook had a nearly identical user growth in their first 3 years. They have a stellar Design School blog with daily articles, interactive tutorials and tips to help hone your graphic design skills. Canva also has a wide variety of design tools, but I’m personally drawn to their color palette generator, online photo editor and font combination tool.

Brand New
Discover before and after logos from some of the biggest brands in the world. Brand New gives their opinions on corporate and identity work. They even open up the discussion where you can give your own opinion through comments and polls which produce a refreshing, collaborative vibe to the site.

Creative Bloq
Creative Bloq gives “Daily inspiration for creative people. Fresh thinking, expert tips and tutorials to supercharge your creative muscles.”

Paul Jarvis
Talk about a blog chock full of crazy good value. Paul gives insight on the ins and outs of being a designer. From articles like, “The surefire way to turn a profit as a freelancer” to “Our work ego: the good the bad and the ugly.” Paul’s refreshing, tell-it-how-it-is writing style draws you in from the get-go.

Creative Boom
A nice mixture of both art and design. A rare but effective blend of news and stories covering art, graphic design, illustration and photography.

Millo
Millo has a laser-focus: To share advise on what they’ve learned about building a successful creative business. Practical, to-the-point articles make for a good, quick read. One of those can’t miss graphic design resources.

Seanwes
If you want to learn more about growing your business, attracting clients, dealing with clients and pricing your services, then Sean McCabe is the guy. He is well-known for his amazing custom lettering portfolio and has excellent insight into both design and business.

Typewolf
Need help choosing that perfect font combo for your next graphic design project? Typewolf has you covered. As a fairly new venture launched in 2013, Typewolf has taken the type world by storm. From font recommendations to their “favorite typographic site of the month”, designers everywhere can keep up with the latest trends in the world of type.

Freelancers Union
The Freelancers Union mission is simple: “Be the voice of the freelance nation”. Discovering helpful graphic design resources, connecting with other freelancers and reading up on their insightful blog is just the tip of the iceberg.

PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors

Placeit (by Envato)
Placeit is an online tool that’s super simple to use. With a library of more than 50K smart templates you can create eye-catching images and videos for anything you need. Access all kinds of mockups and design templates with its mockup generator and video creator. Just select the template you like, quickly customize it to your needs and you’ll be ready to go.

Pixeden
For premium quality graphic design resources, Pixeden might just take the cake. With tons of free psd mockups and vector icons/graphics, their library seems to have an endless supply of files which are free for both personal and commercial use.

Design Cuts
Design Cuts deals are quite the game changer. Their huge collection of best-selling design assets are the ultimate time-saver for graphic designers and creatives everywhere. These high quality design bundles include fonts, geometric shapes, decorative flourishes, brushes, patterns, illustrations, dividers, borders, frames and much more. In the end, you’ll be able to save up to 50-99% on the best design assets like these fantastic mockup bundles.

GraphicBurger
Similar to Pixeden, GraphicBurger boasts their own database of premium graphic design and web design files. Each of the designs you see on GraphicBurger are free for personal and commercial use, so you don’t have to worry about licenses.

Graphic River
Discover over 500,000 icons, vectors, print mockups, illustrations, psds and much more from this industry-leading superpower. As an extension of Envato Market, each design asset is hand reviewed before being submitted to this massive marketplace. A can’t miss resource for any designer.

Freebiesbug
Freebiesbug showcases free, high-quality graphic design resources like PSD files, HTML website templates, fonts and other cool stuff. Their user-friendly site is void of extra clutter with straightforward navigation. Did I mention everything is free for commercial and personal use?

Pixel Buddha
The exclusivity of design mockups, vectors, patterns, fonts (and more) make Pixel Buddha stand out. Many of the resources have a free download (free for personal and commercial use), and other files require signing up for their weekly digest mailing list.

PSDDD
I’m a big fan of Dribbble, so any website who hand-picks freebies from the Dribbble community is a friend of mine…and this sums up PSDDD. Icons, vectors, ui kits, psds, and mockups are just scratching the surface with this nicely curated site.

Font Awesome PS
Tired of looking all around the web for the right icons? Look no more! This slick tool allows you to have hundreds of icons right inside Photoshop–drag, drop and done.

Endless Icons
Since it’s launch in November 2012, successful entrepreneur Min Kim created this helpful resource to give back to the design community. You’ll find both pngs and svgs for a 100% free download.

Linea
Linea gives graphic designers 730+ line icons to download for free. Creator Dario Ferrando’s only ask is to consider sharing on Twitter to show some designer love.

Subtle Patterns
What a gem. Integrate beautifully-designed, seamless patterns into your next design project with a free download. It’s worth it to note that you’ll need to give attribution for commercial projects.

Free Stock Textures
The name says it all. Designers Ewa Sajdak and Paweł Woźniak have put together an outstanding free texture site. Seriously impressive when it comes to premium imagery. Even more, they have a surprisingly large database of textures. Can easily be the “go-to” texture site for your next graphic design project and beyond.

PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

Design Inspiration

Logoinspirations
Logoinspirations is a curated logo platform with a top-tier gallery of the best logos from around the globe. Their Instagram page has a massive audience of 570k+ followers, which makes it the largest logo curation profile on Instagram. They seek to feature top talent in the logo design industry, while giving these designers the extra boost of recognition they deserve.

Logos.ai
If you’re looking for first-class logo inspiration, logos.ai has got you covered. With their active following and regular Insta posting schedule, each day you go back seems fresh and new. They’ve done a great job of staying true to who they are with a bold compilation of curated logos ranging from badges, to mono-line logos and whimsical, finely crafted pieces.

Logodose
Logodose is a top-notch, curated logo design resource featuring some of the best talent in the industry. Their fast-growing Instagram profile shows logos in their purest form–black and white. With a “follow” button that’s incredibly clickable, this can’t-miss designer resource will inspire and push your creativity to new levels.

LogoLounge
Well known for their best selling books and yearly logo design trend reports, LogoLounge founder and design virtuoso Bill Gardner has made his dent in the design universe to say the least. They have successfully accumulated a massive collection of logos from some of the best designers on the planet to fuel logo ideas and inspiration. Coming from a guy like me who’s pretty frugal, the $100/year subscription was a no-brainer to access this growing collection of about 250,000 logos.

Logo Inspiration Generator Tool
Wish you could find quality logo inspiration all in one location? I asked myself this question before creating this tool, which helps designers find targeted, high quality logos in one easy-to-use spot. You can search thousands of logos by style (creative, vintage, monogram, etc), by color, and miscellaneous topics (logo trend reports, double-take logos, etc).

Muzli Design Inspiration
Functioning as a Chrome extension, this slick tool allows you to set custom parameters to show your favorite design blogs and websites when you open a new browser tab.

Color

Coolors
Quickly create, save and export color palettes with this gem of a site. Can’t find that perfect color scheme? Coolors has you covered where you can explore thousands of other palettes generated by their ever-growing user base.

Colordot
Finding a color scheme for your next project just got crazy simple. Your entire browser window actually acts like a color picker as you move your mouse around the screen to your preferred color. Their minimalist approach is refreshing–creating quick color palettes can’t get much easier.

Adobe Kuler
Choose your perfect palette using Kuler’s customizable color wheel. Their “Color Rule” dialogue is a helpful feature giving you more specific options like analogous, monochromatic, triad, complementary, compound and shades.

RGB.to
Simply type in any color value and this tool will automatically give you the HEX, RGB, CMYK, CSS and closest Pantone color values.

PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

Fonts

Font Squirrel
When it comes to finding that perfect font, Font Squirrel is among the best. The majority of their fonts sport a free personal and commercial use license, too. What stands out the most is their obvious commitment to premium, high-quality fonts. You’ll love their extensive filtering options which help you really zero in on the exact font you’re looking for.

DaFont
DaFont has one of the largest libraries of free fonts on the planet. You can filter the search to choose “100% commercial and personal” so you don’t need to worry about licenses. They even have the functionality of typing in a word and seeing exactly how that word will look for each font.

Creative Market
Browse 13,000+ unique, handcrafted fonts and support independent designers at the same time. One of the best resources I’ve come across for script, brush, hand written and calligraphy fonts. Their font database is only the tip of the iceberg, though. Creative Market serves as a platform for more than 18,000 creatives to sell design assets to a massive, targeted audience of 3 million members.

ByPeople
Most graphic designers know just how tough it can be to find quality handwriting fonts. ByPeople has turned this notion on its head. With most of their fonts being free for commercial and personal projects, you can breathe easy. Let’s not limit their offerings, though. This curated network for developers and designers has massive amounts of freebies ranging from icons, vectors, fonts, ui kits and more. Signing up for their email list will give you (and 300,000+ of their other subscribers) resources and downloads delivered weekly to your inbox.

Google Fonts
With a vision to “Making the web more beautiful, fast, and open through great typography,” Google’s open source font directory is quite the resource for designers and developers alike. 100% free downloads coupled with css and html web embed options give you a “one-step-ahead” type of user experience.

Typecast
Typecast works with an infinite canvas, checking for font readability and testing rendering across different devices.

FontShop
Browse an expanded and updated list of quality font families to choose from. With a modern, forward-thinking design to their site, FontShop has done a nice job displaying their fonts. You can save your favorites, make lists and take the font for a test run.

WhatTheFont
Ever come across a font and you can’t tell what it is? This tried-and-true tool is the solution. Simply upload your image, then characters will be recognized by their technology. Like magic, the tool will show several possible fonts based on the original image. Overall, I’m impressed with how accurately the tool performs.

PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

Hosting/Domain

WP Engine
Whether you’re looking for quicker page load times, top-notch support, or keeping your website secure, WP Engine is the answer. Can’t say enough good things about these guys. There is a slight premium (Personal Plan at $29/month), but for me, the slightly larger investment has been (well) worth its weight in gold. Definitely worth a look.

Software

Adobe Creative Cloud
Get the latest and greatest in Adobe Creative Cloud software which includes entire a collection of 20+ creative desktop and mobile apps including Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC and InDesign CC. A true must-have investment for graphic designers everywhere, you can get Adobe CC for $49.99/month here.

Vectr
Vectr is a free online vector graphics editor. There is surprisingly little-to-no learning curve with this intuitive software. Either work straight out of your browser window or do a free download and you’re all set.

Stock Photography

LibreStock
Explore from about 60,000 quality, 100% free stock photos in one place…with no copyrights or fine print. This multisite search engine scans and indexes stock photos from 45+ different websites.

Pexels
Search the word “design” and find an almost endless scroll of high-quality photography related to the design industry. Their color filter is a rarity for a stock photo site–simply click on your color preference and Pexels color filtering does the rest. Oh by the way, all their images are free for both personal and commercial use.

Picjumbo
With over 4 million downloads from inception, it’s fair to say Picjumbo has arrived in a big way. Even more, their photos never seem overly posed or fake–natural, everyday life situations with premium photography. 100% free.

Pixabay
Pixabay has more than 760,000 stock photos in their library. All free for commercial and personal use.

Unsplash
Free (do-whatever-you-want), high resolution photos. Incredible quality photography from some of the best photographers from around the globe.

PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

Design Awards Sites

Logo Wave Awards International
Logo Wave is a new, revolutionary logo design awards site that rewards designers in “waves”. The 1st place winner of each wave receives $1,000.00, the crystal trophy, and much more. An internationally acclaimed jury puts the cherry on top with design giants like David Airey, Debbie Millman, Bill Gardner and Alina Wheeler, to name a few. The heart behind the brand: “To reward and recognize designers in order to bring positive career impact.”

Awwwards
Awards that recognize the creative talent of web designers, developers and agencies around the world. Submit your site for about $45 and a chance at the Awwwards crown. On top of the awesome inspiration you can glean from the site, you can also get interactive after a free sign up and vote for your favorites. I’ve also found it to be an nice resource when you’re looking for the latest trends in the web design world.

Ebooks & Courses

Logo Lounge Publication Series
Here’s a rare chance for logo designers to get featured in a best-selling book. After signing up for a reasonable $100 yearly fee, you can submit your best logos for a shot at some serious recognition in their highly acclaimed LogoLounge publication series.

Pre-lance (Melinda Livsey)
If you want to know the real secret to landing clients, enhancing your income, and building a freelancing business you’ve always dreamed of, then this is the course for you. This online course gives you everything you need to know before jumping into the creatively fulfilling life of a freelance designer without underpricing yourself. Melinda spares no details in this comprehensive, easy-to-consume course. She not only helps prepare you to work for yourself, but talks to big topics like pricing, bringing in clients, workflow, taxes and more.

The Ultimate Guide to Logo Design (eBook)
Whether you’re a seasoned designer, or just starting out, check out this definitive, 100+ page eBook on all things logo design. Jacob Cass calls it, “The most complete, timeless resource I have read on logo design to date. Kyle’s writing style is actionable, easy to read and has a conversational tone that outlines the keys to success based on his own experience working with hundreds of brands, big and small.” Join graphic designers in 59 countries spanning 6 continents who’ve made the investment.

Creative Class (Paul Jarvis)
Paul Jarvis gives 12 online lessons where you’ll learn the business of freelancing. Even more, you’ll have the knowledge to immediately apply what you’ve been taught. Learn how to earn more, attract better clients, eliminate business headaches, and more. You can use promo code “COURTRIGHT” and get $50 OFF this course today.

Chimp Essentials (Paul Jarvis)
Check out Paul’s Chimp Essentials course if you want to learn everything from start to finish about email marketing using MailChimp. These 39 short video lessons will not only help you grow your audience, but you’ll learn all there is to know about email marketing, and even how to make money from your newsletter.

Logo Design the Draplin Way
If you are enjoy logo design and don’t know Aaron Draplin, it’s time you meet this logo legend. His upbeat, transparent personality collides with his innate eye for design making him a rare gem of a resource for the graphic designers everywhere.

Udemy
Udemy has a massive database of online courses starting at only $20/course. Filter classes by topic, skill level and amount of lectures per course to fit your needs. Before you take a class, you can see the course intro video and check out user ratings from people who have already taken the course.

Skillshare
Enter into a worldwide learning community to create, connect, and collaborate with students around the globe. You can sign up to Skillshare for free. There are a decent amount of classes you can take that are completely free. A premium membership is $12/month or $96/year for complete access to 1,000+ classes in their Premium catalog. They give back too…for every annual Premium membership purchased, Skillshare donates one to a student in need.

General Assembly Design Courses
General Assembly offers personalized, expert-led training both online and at its campuses around the world. All offer the chance to learn alongside thriving communities of students, alumni, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs. Students also have the option to choose a part time “go your own pace” program, or a 12 week “boot camp” style training program where you will learn multiple Adobe products like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and many other tools a designer will need to be successful in the industry.

PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

Printed Books

Work For Money, Design For Love
I can’t give a high enough recommendation for this book. What an important read for freelancers just starting out, as well as those seasoned freelancers who are still eager to learn. David Airey gives graphic designers, web designers and creative freelancers incredible value answering those real-life questions we have when running a design business. How to price your services? How to deal with clients? When to say no to the client? What should I include in my contracts? Overall, this book is a timeless, eye-opening graphic design resource on how to launch and run your design career to it’s utmost potential.

ReWork
Mark Cuban’s quote speaks volumes: “If given a choice between investing in someone who has read Rework or has an MBA, I’m investing in Rework every time. A must read for every entrepreneur.” Owners of a Chicago-based company, 37Signals Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson wrote Rework from their many years of business experience. Fried and Hansson bring a refreshing look on how to do less while creating more. Check out this NewYork Times Best Seller and you won’t be disappointed.

Remote
Do you work from home or want to work from home someday? This easy read from Fried and Hansson explain the challenges and unexpected benefits of working from the comfort of your home.

The One Thing
People are using this simple, powerful concept of “The One Thing” to really focus on what matters most in their work. With 300+ appearances on national bestseller lists, including #1 Wall Street Journal, NewYork Times, and USA Today, this book has received the accolades it deserves. It also won 12 book awards and voted one of Top 100 Business Books of All Time on Goodreads.

Mentorship

RookieUp
RookieUp is a creative education platform that offers short-term design bootcamps and portfolio-building tools to help designers build their portfolios and launch their careers. Use promo code “LOGOWAVE15” for 15% off all RookieUp products and services.

Conferences & Events

Creative South (April 2018, Columbus, GA)
“Come as friends, leave as family.” That’s the Creative South motto. Meet old friends and make new ones in the design industry for a weekend of creative thinking, collaboration and exploration. Attendees enjoy workshops, including Ink Wars and Logo Wave Live to get interactive and win cool stuff. With awesome design workshops and top-notch speakers like Aaron Draplin, Bill Gardner and Von Glitschka, you’ll be glad you made the trip to beautiful Columbus, GA for this can’t-miss conference.

2018 Brand New Conference (September 2018, New York, NY)
The Brand New Conference is a two-day event driven by UnderConsideration, an extension of the popular blog Brand New. With a focus on corporate and brand identity, the conference consists of eight sessions each day. Speakers from around the globe teach from a wide range of perspectives, catering to global consultancies, in-house groups and small firms. Listen to an awesome lineup of speakers including Dirk Barnett (Nike), Ashley Straus (Tennesse Titans), Matias Duarte (Google) and more.

Offset 2018 (October 2018, Sheffield, UK)
Make a trip to the UK for Offset Sheffield in the amazing Crucible Theatre. This two-day event features 60 speakers in 32 hours on 2 stages. With 2,500+ attendees each year, Offset is one of the world’s most inspirational conferences for the design and creative industries.

PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

Printing

Vista Print
Take advantage of the wide product selection Vista offers. For smaller scale business collateral and promo items, they seem to have it all. They produce everything from business cards to postcards and flyers, as well as mugs, pens, hats, tees and bags to name a few.

Portfolio Showcase

Behance
Join this established, respected community of creative professionals to easily showcase and discover creative work. Their mission? “To empower the creative world to make ideas happen.” With Behance, companies and organizations can explore some of the best creative talent from around the world.

Dribbble
This invite-only community of designers showcases the process and projects of top-notch designers. In order to join, Dribbbblers need to get invited by current members who every so often get invitations to give to other talented designers.

Sortfolio
If you’re a web designer, easily showcase your web portfolio for free using this user-friendly site. Potential clients have the options to filter by style, budget and location. In the designer profile, simply attach your web examples, company description, and the best way to contact you for the project.

PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

Youtube Channels

The SKOOL Network
This online education platform has an emphasis on the business of design including user experience, design, branding and entrepreneurship.

Derrick Stratton
Derrick is a talented illustrator and graphic designer who teaches about logos and brand identity. He walks you through his logo design process on each project and communicates in a way that is easy to understand. If you want to learn more of the techniques of being a logo designer, Derrick’s logo design videos will do just the trick.

Will Paterson
As a freelance graphic designer specializing in logo design and brand identity, Will effectively gives an in-depth and personal perspective of working as a graphic designer.

Becky Kinkead
From videos talking about her creative process, to book reviews, to Illustrator tutorials, Becky centers her content around all things graphic design. Her passion for design comes through as she delivers applicable design insights and techniques in a practical, transparent way.

Spoon Graphics
Chris is a veteran designer who creates detailed Photoshop & Illustrator design tutorials. His wealth of knowledge in the technical aspects of these design makes him one of the top graphic design resources online.

ArmaganVideos
These Illustrator-heavy design tutorials from Armagan will cover more of the technical aspects of building out designs.

Matt Borchert
Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Matt has built-up a massive library of design tutorials. His channel helps you learn new ways to use Photoshop and Illustrator. His mission? “To teach you tips and tricks to work faster, show you how to create cool design objects quickly, and provide you with high quality tools that help get the job done.”

Teela Cunningham
Teela’s channel gives you Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign tutorials. More specifically, she has quite a few videos focusing on hand-lettering, typography and practical pieces of advice on being a graphic designer.

Productivity & Organization

Toggl
Need to keep better track of your design hours? Toggl helps you track in real time so you never lose a minute of your billable hours. Organize your time by projects or tags and use it as a way to add efficiency and productivity to each day. If you forget to switch on the Toggl, no worries–just manually enter the time later on.

Pocket
It’s hard to imagine what life was like for me pre-Pocket. Ever come across an article but at the moment you’re too busy too read it? With Pocket, you can save any page in your browser and refer back to it later. Just install their Pocket Bookmarklet in Chrome and you’re all set.

Evernote
Collect, cultivate, and share your ideas across desktop and mobile platforms. Always accessible, always in sync. Keep notes, sketches, ideas, to-do lists, reminders all with their free version which allows you to sync any two devices.

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Accounting

Wave Accounting
Free accounting software (no fine print) with all the bells and whistles of Quickbooks. It’s easy-to-use, safe and secure. Invoicing, expense tracking, receipts, reports, Paypal connect, and automatic data backup. The time and money Wave Accounting has saved me is invaluable. This cloud-based software is specifically designed for small businesses with nine employees or less. Other offerings include payroll, personal, payments and receipts. About two million small businesses have discovered Wave Accounting and is one of the best resources I’ve come across.

Automation

The Logo Package Express
This one blew my friggen mind. The Logo Package Express is an Adobe Illustrator extension that auto-generates and exports full logo packages in just a couple minutes. One of the best no-brainer investments I’ve seen for logo designers. Nab this tool if you want to save gobs of time and effort in saving out those logo files. Ignore this tool at your own peril!

Buffer
Buffer was created for you to automate and schedule your social media posts. It picks the prime time for the greatest amount of people to see your content. You can post a message, photo or video to your social media accounts from one place. Even customize each post according to different audiences.

Zapier
Automate tasks between more than 700 popular web apps.

IFTTT
IFTTT allows you to connect apps and devices like Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Google Drive, Gmail, Fitbit, Slack, and more. Set up your customized “if this, then that” statements add some automation to your life. Browse “recipes” to see the most popular user-generated,”if this, then that” statements.

Email Marketing

Mailchimp
The most user-friendly email marketing system out there. More than 3 million people use MailChimp to design and send email marketing campaigns. MailChimp was created to get the right email message to the right customer at the right time. They use comprehensive testing, while targeting your customers based on their previous sales, behavior and preferences. No need to worry about mobile compatibility…all mail templates are designed to work on desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Sync your data from popular apps like Google, Twitter, Facebook and Salesforce to name a few. Track your visitors and pass all the data through MailChimp. Take advantage of the start-up service — it’s absolutely free if you have less than 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails per month. Send unlimited emails with the same amount of subscribers for $30 a month.

PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

WordPress Plugins

Gravity Forms
Hands down the best contact form plugin for WordPress. Build complex, powerful contact forms in just minutes…no programming knowledge required. Over a half a million WordPress sites are now using Gravity Forms. Features include a drag and drop layout, advanced notifications, lead capture, conditional logic and much more.

Yoast SEO
One of the most popular WordPress plugins–and for good reason. Yoast makes it easier to incorporate your SEO strategy will giving best practice recommendations as you build out posts/pages on your WordPress website. With 1+ million active installs, this #1 SEO plugin is a must-have.

WP Smush
Tired of using Photoshop to optimize every single graphic for your website? WP Smush does all the work for you to resize and optimize your images with their free image smusher.

W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache drastically improves the user experience of your site by increasing the performance and minimizing download times with content delivery network (CDN) integration.

BackupBuddy
Need to back up the ol’ website? Backup Buddy is the best in the biz. Backups to Dropbox, FTP and Google Drive are just some of the options to add this insurance policy for your website.

Seed Prod Coming Soon
Seed Prod is more than meets the eye. It not only has fully customizable features, but also allows you to capture email leads while your site is under construction. Tight integration with MailChimp, Constant Contact, Aweber, Campaign Monitor & Gravity Forms makes this task really simple.

WooCommerce
If you need to sell products on your website, WooCommerce has to be at the top of the list. The 10 million+ downloads speaks to the amazing capability this ecommerce solution provides its customer base. Oh and the best part…it’s free.

28 Free Photoshop Plugins
When you consider how much technology and design has moved forward since the 1990’s, it’s surprising to realize that a good number of the Adobe plugins haven’t been updated in about 20 years. Enhancing your options and speeding up the design process is a no-brainer for most of us. This helpful resource from Art of Blog highlights 28 of the best free photoshop plugins available.

Page Speed Testing

GT Metrix
When you’re looking to optimize your website for conversions, this free tool is has it all. Page speed performance testing, optimization suggestions, and how your scores stack up versus the rest of the web.

Pingdom Tools
Much like GT Metrix, easily see just how fast your web pages are loading (for free). Enter your url and Pingdom does the rest.

PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

Other Cool Stuff

Design Disruptors Film
Design and business coincide in this important documentary film. “Design is the act of intentionally solving problems.” – Julie Zhuo Facebook VP of Product Design.

Word Counter
Just as it sounds, Word Counter is designed to count your words and characters as you type or paste copied content on their site. Use Word Counter’s free service to take the guesswork out of your keyword density. It highlights the top 10 keywords and keeps you from over-using certain terms. The tool even shows you the overall readability of the content.

Typeform
A game-changer in the world of web forms. Typeform takes any preconceived notion of what an online form “should” look like, and throws it out the window. These interactive forms are suited to….humans. Take control of your forms with custom icons, background imagery and even video integration. From surveys, to quizzes, order forms and more, these guys have all the capability to put their mark on the form universe.

LeadQuizzes
When it comes to surveys, quizzes and forms, be sure to checkout LeadQuizes. They have 40+ professionally written quiz, survey & form templates that are free to use. It can be also used as a great tool for lead generation as it can help you collect & analyze your leads so that you can make smarter marketing decisions to grow your business further.

Gridzzly
Make your own grid paper. Its simplicity and slick functionality drew me in right away. Set your dots, then set the proximity of the dots and print off. Logo designers will love this one.

Desygner
Create amazing animations in seconds. Spice up the look of your blog, website, social media, and more. Their rich library of out-of-the-box assets doesn’t require software or plugins – everything you need to impress your audience. They have a drag and drop option, simple UI and many features with thousands of free templates, background remover, image animator, and many more. With access to 120+ million Shutterstock images and 20+ million users, it’s worth a peek.

Sniply
Avoid invasive advertising with Sniply. Advertise with link-bound messages containing the designated piece of content with your message embedded inside. Create custom call-to-actions for any web page, allowing you to engage your followers through every link shared. You’re able to implement a button to the page that links to your own website, so people can discover you as they read. You can try it out for free with their basic starter plan.

SumoMe
SumoMe gives your website the ability to greet every visitor with Welcome Mat, List Buster, among many others. Other options like Scroll Box, (you choose when it pops up) or Smart Bar that sits at the top of your website reminding visitors to sign up for your email list. Enjoy the SumoMe start-up version for free and discover real-time stats on your site’s traffic.

Crazy Egg
Wondering why you’re not getting many online orders on your site? Maybe your website needs tweaking. Use Crazy Egg free for the first 30 days and continue reaping the benefits, starting at $9/month. Find out where users are coming from, how long they stay and exactly what they are (or are not) clicking on your site. Their heatmap technology lights up the hotspots visitors click the most, so you know where to strategically place your web elements.

Optimizely
You realize your website just isn’t reaching its full potential, but how do you change that? This is where Optimizely comes to the rescue. It’s the number one website optimization platform in the world and they’ve landed more than 7,000 companies including Sony, Disney and Salesforce. How does it work? They make customer-experience optimization software for companies with A/B and multivariate testing. This determines what changes will result in more traffic, clicks, purchases, etc. Simply put, Optimizely exists to improve websites. But don’t take my word for it—check it out for yourself with their free trial.

Quicksprout
Neil Patel’s Quicksprout blog started as a side project in 2007. As a result, his annual revenue exceeded one million dollars and was featured in Forbes, Inc. Magazine and Business Insider. His blog focuses on digital marketing and how to grow your business. He posts things like 8 Things I Wish I Knew When Starting My First Business and different ways to promote your online content effectively. One of Patel’s secrets to success? “The key is to hit people’s hot buttons…stuff that they hold near and dear to them…or hate passionately.” Follow his blog for frequent, practical and useful advice.

Smart Passive Income
Smart Passive Income is a blog for the small entrepreneur with big dreams. Creator, Pat Flynn focuses on how to earn income without a real-time presence. He shows you the importance of taking advantage of the automated systems for transactions and cash flow. Flynn stresses online business is hard work and doesn’t happen overnight, but he gives you the tools to get through it and succeed.

PODCASTS :: Design Blogs :: Print Mockups, Icons & Vectors :: Design Inspiration :: Color :: Fonts :: Hosting/Domain :: Software :: Stock Photography :: Design Awards Sites :: eBooks & Courses :: Printed Books :: MENTORSHIP :: Conferences & Events :: Printing Providers :: Portfolio Showcase :: Youtube Channels :: Productivity and Organization  :: Accounting :: Automation :: Email Marketing :: WordPress Plugins :: Page Speed Testing :: Other Cool Stuff

In conclusion, take advantage of Bluehost and their affordable hosting for your domain. Use Just Creative or Creative Bloq to read up on all things graphic design. Meet all your accounting needs with Wave Accounting. Invest in essential graphic design software like Adobe Creative Cloud.

Get inspired with the Logo Inspiration Generator Tool. Do some seriously user-friendly email marketing with MailChimp. Count and highlight your content with Word Counter. Build your forms with Gravity Forms and run your store with WooCommerce. Read Work For Money, Design For Love and run your graphic design business more effectively. Learn the ins and outs of freelancing with Paul Jarvis’ Creative Class.

Try out a few of these tools and let me know what you think. Don’t forget to bookmark this page as a reference point down the road.

Let’s start the convo.

Do you already use some of these graphic design resources? Are there any other sites you think should be in the mix?