My top 5 favourite designer resources

I may be a workaholic, but I also always look for ways to make my job easier. (So I can do more in less time!) Thankfully, there are tons of great resources out there, and some of them are even free. (It still amazes me.)

Here is my roundup of the most useful designer resources I’ve ever come across. These are tools I use regularly — aside from my go-to Adobe software of course. All of them are free. You’re welcome.

1. Wordmark.it

Wordmark.it helps you choose fonts by entering a word or phrase, and showing it to you in all the fonts that are installed in your computer. It’s a free online tool that is super helpful, especially if you have thousands of fonts in your library and you’re struggling to find just the right one.

2. Find one of 18’000+ color names

Because pretty often, you need to find just the right name for a color. You can’t very well use blush, pale blush, paler blush, and palest blush. And yes, there is a difference between mist and ocean mist. This free online tool helps you do just that. Simply enter the hex code and it generates the name for you.

3. Subtle Patterns

Add subtle patterns into your web or graphic design project. This site offers hundreds of free textures that beautifully designed. They come in low and hi-res versions.

4. Screenfly

There’s no need to actually have all possible devices to test your website project for mobile responsiveness. Screenfly by Quirktools lets you enter the url, and you can generate screenshots for every possible device size – computers, tablets, mobile phones, tv, etc. You can’t scroll the screenshots, but at least you can test what’s visible “above the fold”, which is basically what people see first.

5. Adobe Express

Possibly one of my favourite tools so far, Adobe Express allows you to instantly remove backgrounds from images, making it easier to use it to create a collage or design something even more creative.

All you need to do is upload the image, and their AI does all the work for you. You can download it as a png file with a transparent background for you to use on Photoshop, or work on it online using their editing tools. So fun!

Enjoy!

I just love how generous the design community is! Do you have other free resources to share? Let me know in the comments!