Essential & Free Online Branding Resources
ThAT’S rIGHT, if yOU’RE A SCRAPPY ENTrePRENEUR WHO LIKES TO MAKE THE MaGIC HAPPEN THEMSELVES, THen THIS is FOR YoU.
Here are some of the free branding resources that I use to showcase a polished brand.
In a previous post I talked about some of the different components that are essential for your branding online.
Two of the biggest heavy hitters that are easy for you to add to your work are Fonts and Branded Images.
Beyond that, you can utilize sweet online platforms to do a little extra work with your graphics and colors.
Now, stock images of course won’t be as on point as branded photography that you take yourself or get from a photographer, but when you need to get scrappy and make things work. These sites will be your gold mines. Now before I tell you the sites, you’re probably wondering…
Why FONTS?
Because this is such a powerful stamp of “you’re in the right place, this is my business!’ Think fonts like the one they use with Coca Cola. If that beautiful curly swoop was missing you would immediately know something was off. Font’s help showcase the flavor and spirit of your brand. When you pull them into your marketing, logos, emails, website, etc. it makes it readily apparent to customers that you are you and also that your business has its own voice.
You will want to keep it concise with one ‘fancy’ font and one easy to read and ‘simple’ font.
Super rad site, with GORGEOUS layouts and easy to navigate font selection. You do need to filter into their free fonts, but there are so many cool fonts in here that have an artistic flair that can’t be beat!
I love this site to test out designs for clients and find a wide variety of fonts. There are so many versatile options here and I find their choices to be outstanding and easy for myself and my clients to navigate. I’m in love with the ability to download fonts to test out for personal use and then if my clients dig the way the graphics and text work together, then it’s typically a very low-cost typography solution.
Want to upload these fonts to your Squarespace site? Check out this free tutorial on how to do so.
Why IMAGES?
This one is probably a no brainer, but let’s talk about why.
A lot of businesses figure this one out with time but having a consistent style of photography is key. This again is a visual representation that people are in the right place and it helps people connect with the vision of your brand. Are you a health focused brand with clean, natural photos of produce and healthy people? Are you a technology company with a muted color palette and lots of technology in your photos? Are your pictures bright and colorful? Two-tone? Grey scale? Each choice impacts your consumers in different ways.
Sweet, so let’s get into the nitty-gritty. Here are some sweet sites to use for your images:
I ADORE this site, their photography is outstanding and you can use the photos for your business with out licensing issues. The one thing that I want to emphasize is that these photos are the result and hard labor of photographers who are out there in the world making it easy for us, make sure you add an alt tag with their name to spread the love or showcase their work in other ways, so they get credit.
This site is also outstanding, I tend to find a lot my artistic renderings and moody feeling images on this site. They also have royalty free stock images. Again, give a shoutout to those amazing creators when you use these sites. 😊
I dig how the photographers on this site capture people and movement. Super rad photos here to be used! Share the love with the artists work and use these royalty free stock images to your hearts content!
WhAT OTHER Free RESOURCeS CAN I USE To ADd SOME FLair TO MY PERSONaL BRanding?
CANVA – Online Design Platform
This tool is pretty much a life saver for making unique images/graphic designs for those of you who want your own stuff in a way that is user friendly and fast. Check it out! You can use Canva for free or you can upgrade to their pro feature and pull in all of your fonts and branding materials. In the long run I would highly recommend this.
COOLORS - Free Color Palette Generator
This site is also a free resource for creating your very own color palette. It’s the bomb.com because you can upload photos that inspire you and pull colors from them. You can also turn around and change the shades and mix in new random colors when you aren’t sure what direction you want to head in. Super easy tool to work with!
Have a lovely time bringing your brand to life! I’m a jump-skip-and-a-hop-away if ever you need anything!
Britt
Want to delve even deeper? Check out these posts too: