Graphic design has an amazing community. Comprised of both the vets from the pre-computer era to the newbies who were raised on the internet and computer-editing applications, there is a huge gamut of people sharing their work and expertise online. I know when I was starting out in design, I found tons of inspiration and information from sites like JustCreativeDesign, DesignNewz, and more. If there’s one issue, however, it’s that there’s almost too much great information out there. I know – good problem to have, right?
But for those designers just starting out, or for those designers who are considering getting into design, the amount of information can be a little overwhelming. Couple this with Paper Leaf’s desire to give back to the design community, and this is what you get: the All-in-One Graphic Design Starter’s Kit. The idea behind this kit is for it to be a one-stop shop for those getting into design – and for it to be completely free. It includes free software (for both Mac & Windows – photo/raster editing, vector editing, and HTML/CSS WYSIWYG editing), eBooks, textures, vectors, brushes, and awesome fonts. If you were to have no idea where to start, you could come here, download everything, read the eBooks and corresponding software guides, and have a great starting point.
This “kit” was originally intended to be a zipped file containing all of the links below; however, it clocked in at about half a gigabyte, which I thought most people wouldn’t want to sit and download (plus it would put a strain on our hosting). Thus, I’ve broken down the kit into the elements that made it up, and linked to them all below – and making this All-in-One Graphic Design Starter’s Kit a series of links and downloadable sections, which allows people to pick and choose what elements they want.
All of these items are free, open-source and legal for both me to share & you to download – however, please don’t claim any of them as your own. All of the items in this design kit required a lot of time & effort from their respective creators, so give ‘em some love! Hit the jump for all the amazing links and downloadables that make up the Free All-in-One Graphic Design Starter Kit!
Software
Not everyone can afford the industry-standard design software – that being Adobe’s Creative Suite – so here are three open-source alternatives that will allows you to do virtually the same kind of work.
GIMP (Snow Leopard) (Leopard) (Windows)
GIMP is a free, open-source raster-editing program – like Photoshop.
Inkscape is a free, open-source vector-editing program – like Illustrator.
Kompozer is a free, open-source HTML/CSS WYSIWYG editor – like Dreamweaver.
EBooks
You can’t learn everything about design from a few eBooks, but they can sure give you a good launching point! Below is a zipped file with 3 awesome, free design eBooks from Scribd.
Compilation of three great design eBooks!
Textures
(via Bittbox)
Much love to Bittbox, a site that has been around a while and consistently shares great design elements – like these textures, below.
Fonts
There are a ton of free fonts and free font sites out there, but most are garbage. FontSquirrel is the best, in my opinion, and here are some of their top free fonts.
Vectors
No sense reinventing the wheel if you just need some design elements to complement your design. Below is a zip file containing a bunch of free vectors. Most of these come from Vecteezy.
Compilation pack of free vectors!
Brushes
Same as above – a zip file containing a bunch of free raster brushes. Some from Bittbox, some from Brusheezy.
Compilation pack of free brushes!
Keep in mind that no single “kit” or post will ever make you a complete and well-rounded designer. Use this kit as a starting point, but keep learning! Become involved in the design community – both your local one and the web’s – and you’ll grow faster than you ever imagined. Happy designing, and if you liked the post, please share and subscribe to the RSS feed!
thank for the post
Comment by designfollow — November 16, 2009 @ 8:20 pm
[...] Free All-in-One Graphic Design Starter Kit Very nice of the folks at Paper Leaf to take the time to put these resources on one post. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)links for 2009-10-26LA Auto Show Design Challenge entrants reveal Youthmobile 2030 designs [...]
Pingback by links for 2009-11-17 « random thoughts and casual ruminations — November 17, 2009 @ 6:06 am
yeah thanks
Only wish there was something else than gimp cause it’s interface is so user unfriendly. I’ve tested a couple of free photoshop alike programs, bo nothing seems to be even close to good old ps :/
Comment by kiwus — November 17, 2009 @ 7:14 am
Woops, sorry, didn’t realize they were direct downloads, hah. Just noticed my download manager going nuts. Thought there were pages beyond them thar-links. Apologies!
Comment by Andy — November 17, 2009 @ 7:41 am
Yeah, Photoshop is the standard for a reason I suppose! But for those who can’t drop the coin, GIMP is definitely better than nothing! And Andy, no worries about the links. Thanks for reading!
Comment by Jeff — November 17, 2009 @ 9:41 am
[...] Free All-in-One Graphic Design Starter Kit [...]
Pingback by Free All-in-One Graphic Design Starter Kit | Design Newz — November 17, 2009 @ 12:01 pm
[...] come un chupa-chups! font, risorse vettoriali, pennelli e tanto altro… buon divertimento!!!
Free all in one Starter Kit __________________ Quello che il bruco chiama fine del mondo, il resto del mondo chiama [...]
Pingback by Free all in one starter kit - Grafici Creativi — November 17, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
Oh come on, those folks at Paper Leaf are way 2 cool for putting together this design starter kit! Thanks, Paper Leaf, your happiness shows!
Comment by Dana Jumper — January 24, 2010 @ 3:21 am
Hey Dana! Thanks for the compliment – hope you get some use out of the kit!
Comment by Jeff — January 24, 2010 @ 9:52 am
Thanks for the post. And everyone else… please, please, please read what you type out-loud before you post it. There are way too many grammatical errors in succession on this page. (also typos)
Comment by ddrt — January 27, 2010 @ 6:58 pm
Thanks, the books and fonts are invaluable to me (technical writer). We don’t need to layout books but we need to understand the principles behind the lines and colors.
Comment by Isao — February 2, 2010 @ 11:24 pm
Alright. I think it’s time for me to switch careers.
Comment by Tony — February 3, 2010 @ 12:00 am
Another nail in the coffin of graphic design. I’m all for giving out help to those who genuinely want to be designers but I can’t help but feel this is belittling design and giving more ammunition to the ‘I could do that’ crowd who would normally ‘create’ their work in Word or PowerPoint.
Comment by Martin Boath — February 3, 2010 @ 2:37 am
Martin & Tony – I understand where you’re coming from, as I deal with the “do-it-yourselfers” too. However, I think it’s important to realize that the point of this post is to provide alternatives to the people who have an interest in design, but can’t fork over $2500 for CS4. It’s not to devalue graphic design (as the bottom paragraph touches on).
It’s highly likely that people who use the open-source alternatives will either a) go in another career direction after a while, or b) fall in love with design and upgrade to the industry standard software. The DIYers/Word “designers” are not a threat to the graphic design professional, in my opinion; just like Walmart’s portrait booth isn’t a threat to the professional photographer. Different markets, you know?
Anyway, I’m a full-time designer, and my reason for writing this post is not to “put a nail” in the coffin of my own career; that would be ridiculous. It’s simply to provide alternatives to people who can’t afford the industry standard. I know I was there once.
Hopefully you see where I’m coming from. Thanks for reading.
Comment by Jeff — February 3, 2010 @ 9:00 am
Awesome! Thanks so much!
Comment by Amy — February 3, 2010 @ 2:09 pm
Yes, I think it is unlikely many of the MS Word designers out there are likely to use these programs. Oh, they may try to use them, but chances are they will either be discouraged by the steep learning curve and go back to Word. Of course a few may muddle through only to discover that their designs still look like crap, but those people weren’t likely to ever higher a real graphic designer anyway.
Comment by Ed — February 3, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
[...] Paper Leaf has put together a list of free graphic design tools for download. I have yet to peruse the e-books, but it’s definitly worth checking out the [...]
Pingback by Graphic Design Aids « Masters of Design — February 15, 2010 @ 8:14 am
Those looking for a better UI than GIMP on the Mac might try Gimpshop (http://www.gimpshop.com/). It is a hack of Gimp that rearranges the interface to mimic Photoshop.
Comment by Wordman — February 18, 2010 @ 8:49 am
Nice! I hadn’t heard of Gimpshop. Thanks for sharing, uh… Wordman.
Comment by Jeff — February 18, 2010 @ 9:04 am