As you know, I’m a wordsmith by trade. I’m not the most image-oriented person, even though I recognize that my blog will need pictures to succeed. In fact, I’ve written posts about other graphic resources in the past, though they focused mainly on the stock photo side of things. My article about free stock photo sites was one of the first ones I republished after my site kicked the bucket originally, and I think that speaks volumes about just how important graphics, photos, and images are when presenting content on the web.
Not to mention my post series on how to survive without photoshop or expensive editing software. (We aren’t all in the market for Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Light Box, or InDesign.) I think it’s important that bloggers, freelancers, writers, and others to have reasonable alternatives, even if they’re operating on a shoestring budget.
Today I wanted to talk about a different type of image that is equally important to the success of blogs, websites, and all other forms of digestible content. That’s right, even your presentations and ebooks aren’t safe!
I’m talking about logos and diagrams!
The Big Picture of Little Pictures
So you might be wondering why you’d ever need logos, diagrams, or icons. Typically when you think of things like sales funnels or pie charts, you think of presentations in the board room. While that might be the furthest thing from your situation, (Especially for the mompreneurs and solopreneurs out there), don’t rush to conclusions. Icons, diagrams, and charts are essential when you begin creating content upgrades like eBooks. (Not to mention when you’re creating course content or hosting a webinar!)
Here are my three favorite graphic resources that are sure to spice up any presentation, ebook, webinar, or course content you need to put together. Best of all, they’re inexpensive, so even those of us who aren’t rolling in the dough will be able to get the tools we need to succeed!
Note: I’m not getting paid/this isn’t a sponsored post of any kind. I just really love what these folks are doing and want to spread the love with my fellow writers, bloggers, and other folks who might need some graphical awesome.
For those of you who make your eBooks and presentations using Microsoft Powerpoint or Google Slides, prepare to fall in love! infoDiagram makes fully customizeable graphics and diagrams which are delivered in Powerpoint. When you open the file, you can tweak everything from any overlaying text to the colors used in the graphic, so that way everything you use will be on brand or consistent with your project’s color scheme. (Awesome!) This is especially cool for the watercolor diagrams and images. – Their designs range from modern to playful scribbly and watercolor, so poke around the next time you have to put together a presentation.
The best part is that they offer a free sample so you can check out what they have to offer before purchasing any given package. – If you happen to sign up for a subscription, let them know I sent you!
Logodust is pretty great for finding logos and other design gems. The premise of this site is that they want the logos their clients don’t use to go to good homes. They don’t like the thought of them going to waste, and would instead prefer to benefit others who might not have the budget to get a logo for their startup. (Great sentiment, right?) — While I didn’t go this route for my blog or business logo, I definitely use this site for inspiration for my own faux-graphic design work and for any project logos I might need. They’re also helpful for course content and creating presentation icons and graphics. They deliver their images in illustrator format, so keep that in mind before you click “download”!
Their logos are very modern and involve symbols most of the time, so if you’re very into typography this won’t be the site for you. However, it’s still a great resource if you love design and simplicity, and I love the fact that they’ll send logos to me once a week to remind me they exist and to help keep the inspiration flowing. (Plus, their actual logo design company does work on a “pay what you will” basis, so if you love their work and want something custom, odds are you’ll be able to get something prepared!)
This place is great for customized icons for web design, ebooks, courses, presentations – you name it, they can hook you up. What’s great about this site is that, like infoDiagram, their images are easily customized. With this site you can create custom graphics for pretty much any genre or theme, all with a few clicks of your mouse. Once you’re done, you can download the icons in multiple formats, but I love the trusty PNG for easy transfer into my photo editor of choice. – You won’t find any icons that are too detailed here, but if variety is the spice of life – this site is anything but bland.
What are your favorite places to find icons and graphic resources?
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