Skip to Main Content

Visual Communication: Selected Websites

A library guide for CPUT Graphic Design students.

Websites

Dribble is a very popular website which has a freebie tag associated with it.But many good designs don’t have this tag, so you have to look carefully to find beautiful designs which aren’t always tagged.Dribbble, however, limits searching for only the past 2-3 months’ worth of designs. But that doesn’t matter, as new designs are updated on Dribbble almost daily.

Behance is a renowned name amongst every designer. It’s an online community where people share their portfolios hoping to catch the eye of real clients. The designers in Behance are more than willing to share their knowledge and any external graphic design resources they have linked to their work. Considering the enormous fan following Behance has, it makes it an excellent source to understand what tools and resources your favourite designers used in their work.

DB Freebies collects and showcases a gallery of Dribbble and Behance freebies stacked together. It’s an ever growing collection with more than a thousand freebies updated almost daily. You can find EPS vectors for Illustrator, PSD mockups for photoshop, fonts, and other such material by filtering the categories in your search.

Brands of the World is the perfect website to visit when it comes to high-resolutions vectors and logos. You can find pretty much everything here as well as view the portfolios of all the great brands and designers. You don’t have to sit around and just wait for your client to email you a logo when you have Brands of the World and waste precious time on a project. You also gain plus points for your research skills and impressing your clients as well.

GraphicBurger has a friendly, interactive and conversational tone about its website. The site claims to satisfy your hunger of design and fulfil your craving with its juicy designs available for free. Look through the long list of designs until one manages to catch your eye. All the designs contained in GraphicBurger are free for both commercial and personal use.

Blogs

Onextrapixel offers resources, tutorials, and freebies for a variety of subjects. Want to learn some new Photoshop tricks? Onextrapixel. Having trouble with your WordPress theme? Onextrapixel. Need inspiration while picking a font for your logo? Onextrapixel. From photography to illustration to social media, Onextrapixel has all of your bases covered.

In addition to free icons, fonts, and Photoshop brushes, CreativeNerds also has a very helpful YouTube channel where they post step-by-step tutorials. Besides their helpful tutorials they also do a lot of extensive round-ups like “85 Best Photoshop Tutorials from 2012” or “50 Phenomenal Free Photoshop Brush Sets.”

Specky Boy Design Magazine posts a lot about web design and WordPress, but that’s certainly not all. They also feature weekly web design inspiration posts, weekly design news posts, graphic design freebies and tutorials, and tips for freelance designers or design agencies.

Site is for graphic designers, but doesn’t provide run-of-the-mill design tips. Graphic Design Blender is an excellent resource for freelance designers (and anyone, really) to get business tips. You can learn how to handle feisty clients, how to set your prices, and how to make sure you have a killer website.

Creative Bloq offers inspiration and resources for graphic designers, illustrators, 3-D artists, and animators. So whatever kind of design you’re into, you’re bound to find some tips, tricks, and inspiration at Creative Bloq. Even if you’re not a designer, the work they feature is stunning and very cool to browse. Plus, there’s a fun trivia quiz every Friday!

UA-89927696-1