Images are a powerful way to make your point. In fact, 90% of information transmitted to the brain is purely visual. Infographics, fonts, photos, and other design elements are a large part of what makes your marketing effective, no matter what channel you’re using.
That’s why quality graphic design is so important for any business in any industry–even if you don’t think it’s important to your customers. The following seven awesome tools for graphic design make it easier to get your message across every time.
Easel.ly: Easel.ly is a simple online tool that allows you to create sophisticated, polished infographics with little design experience. Customize data or results into a beautiful, clear infographic that will speak to your audience. It’s like Illustrator for infographics; plus, it’s free!
IcoMoon: No design project can proceed without crisp, suitable icons. IcoMoon allows you to search its database of free and open source icons for material. Plus, all icons are professional-level, high resolution images for easy customization.
Dafont: Just like the perfect images matter, so do the perfect fonts. Dafont lets you choose from a wide variety of free typefaces to suit the needs of your project. You can even upload images of fonts you like to identify them or search for similar types.
Vector Magic: Converting bitmaps to vectors accurately can be a struggle. Vector Magic makes it incredibly easy. The software may not be fancy, but it will make design work exponentially easier.
Moqups: An important part of any design project is good planning and a clear layout. That’s why prototypes and wireframes are a vital step in successful design. Moqups allows you to create easy mockups in a nifty HTML5 App for a smart plan that is quick to create and exceedingly simple to customize.
InVision: Prototypes aren’t just used in planning stages; they are also a key part of revision stages. InVision allows you to upload designs and quickly turn them into clickable prototypes to test and send out to the team for revisions. Team members can even collaborate directly within the prototype, making comments and suggested changes directly in the interface.
Design Inspiration: The most difficult part of many design projects is simply finding the right inspiration. Design Inspiration is a website curated by designers to show off beautiful logos, illustrations and patterns that you can draw from for ideas about your own designs. If you’re struggling to get started, this website is always a good place to turn for ideas.
Of course, these tools will only take you so far. If you want to create truly beautiful graphics for use at your company, your best resource is a real, professional graphic designer. Consider hiring one who can help you create a strong brand message through everything you create or a marketing professional who can provide you with both design and copy work to work in conjunction to make your content resonate.
