If you don’t know what you’re doing when it comes to graphic design, best not to try and do it yourself unless you plan on learning the skill for real. BUT! There are some very useful tools online (some are even free) that can be used to create graphics fairly easy. Here are a few of them:
1.Canva.
Canva is a very useful site for creating graphics such as logos or banners. It has a wide array of different templates and fonts, different styles, background images etc.
It is incredibly easy to use and can have you creating graphics for your social media posts, or anything else in minutes. In fact heres a pin I made for pinterest in about 2 minutes
It isn’t anything special, but for the little time involved it’s pretty good. They have a good selection of free graphics and photos and you can also add on other elements and text. It even has templates for all your social media posts (Facebook, Pinterest etc) It can be used to create anything from pie charts to album covers.
I personally really like the name of this one. But naming aside. Be funky is a very nice and reliable online design platform. Its main tools are its designer, collage maker and photo editor. These are free too. If you want more advanced features and professional tools you can subscribe to BeFunky Plus. It has great tools for creating pop art effects, oil painting or cartoons, it is very user friendly and intuitive so you don’t need any design experience to get started. But once you have some experience you can create some truly breathtaking images.
3.Pablo.
Pablo wastes no time, it immediately gives you several tips to click through and then drops you straight in. As you can see it has over 600,000 images ready for you to make use of and incase that somehow isn’t enough you can even upload your own. From only messing around with it briefly it doesn’t seem as “powerful” as some of the others, however I’d argue it is more user friendly. It makes adding text, filters or logos to pictures incredibly easy and despite the others on this list mostly being very user friendly, this one somehow takes that even further.
Infogram, though still a graphic design tool, is quite different to the others mentioned. Infogram is more for creating information based graphics, such as pie charts, graphs etc. It offers a free plan that allows you access to 37+ interactive chart types and 10 allows you to create 10 different projects with a max of 3 pages each. Infogram is a more niche specific tool than the others. But if you have some data you you’d like to make prettier. This is the tool to do it.
If you’re looking for a 3D online graphic design platform. Give Tinkercard a try. Using Tinkercard you can build some nice little 3D designs. Essentially you select various shapes you’d like for your image or you can even put them together to make new ones. Once you’re happy with your project you can then turn them into 3d models.
Pixlr is a fantastic online graphic design tool. More akin to photoshop than the others. This platform gives you a huge amount of freedom with the ability to use the most popular and common file formats when it comes to graphic design (.png .jpeg .jpg .bmp .tiff) It even has its own specific file format .pxd which lets you work on different layers much like photoshop.
7.Snappa.
Snappa offers a free subscription plan like some of the others. This free plan gives you access to over 50,000 HD photos and graphics. You have a limit of 5 downloads per month however. With the free plan you will miss out on buffer integration as well as the option for team collaboration. With that said, Snappa is still definitely worth using. Snappa has a nice selection of templates as well as drag-and-drop functionality.
8.Figma.
Figma has already gained credibility in the industry and is built with collaborative projects in mind. Not only is it made with collaboration in mind, you can collaborate in real time. This means you can cut down on time and not have to worry about having drafts sent over email or whatever else. The best part is Figma is free for personal use.
9.Crello.
With 65,000,000 (yes. Million!) 12,000 templates as well as many different formats and fonts, Crello has your design needs covered. Not only is it simple to use it can be used to create pretty much anything you need from Pinterest graphics and Instagram posts to business cards and logos. The user interface is much like Canva and can have you creating nice little graphics in minutes.
Very simple and easy to use, just enter a couple of lines of text, choose a few styles and fonts and it will generate several logos for you. Although this site literally has free in its name. it isn’t, however, as graphic design goes, it is cheap (Hiring a graphic designer to create a logo could run you around £200) and easy to use if you just need a simple design for something like business cards.
If you’re truly artistically challenged like I am. You can always outsource your graphic design needs. Usually at a lower cost than hiring a graphic designer
Although it isn’t a graphic design service, you can find graphic designers here. Fiverr is a freelancing website where you can hire people to do all kinds of things from graphic design to virtual assistants or even producing video content for you. They also offer a lot of educational material on the site if you’d like to learn a new skill yourself and potentially even sell it on their platform. Be sure to check reviews for sellers and to contact them before you purchase a service to make sure they can provide what you want.
There are many other examples of online graphic design tools or logo designing services, as well as many places you can find freelancers selling their services, often for a cost below the industry standard.
