Category: Web

Free Video Stock Footage
Video, Web

15 Lists of Free Video Footage For Personal & Commercial Use in HD

The demand for free stock videos or free video footage are always increase throughout the years though every one around the globe has the ability to shoot high quality videos with their smartphone. Unlike free stock photos that we can easily find in the ocean of internet, free videos are still far behind in term of numbers and quality.

Fortunately the increase of visual communications life style, be it for commersial or personal interest, such as social medias, contribute to its growth. Also thanks to the advancement in multi-cameras technology in mobile phone industry.

The questions are, can we really find free stock videos (short clip videos or video footage), that will meet our requirement? What is the level of quality they offer? Are they really free to use for personal & commercial? We found out some of it and list it down below.

Get a free 4K video clip every month

Royalty Free Videos VS Free For Personal & Commercial

Free for Personal & Commercial Use Meaning

Really free to be use on personal project, such as own website, blog, presentation, etc. Also for commercial projects, advertising, etc. But bear in mind that some videos owner restrict the use to only one commercial project, some video owners impose the terms & conditions to use the free videos with Attribution to the owner. So make sure you read and understand their terms before you use for commercial project.

Only restriction for all types of Free for personal & commercial is, you CANNOT rent, license, sublicense, sell or redistribute those videos “as-is”. Unless you re-edit the medias to be a new work-of-arts, that’s different story. Still, you need to refer to the terms of use.

Royalty Free Videos Meaning

Stock video clips or footage that are under a Royalty Free license type, normally means you need to pay a one-time fee in exchange for the right to use the medias that was protected by copyright, patent, or trademark. this way you have the right to use for personal & commercial.

It may sound similar to Free for Personal & Commercial, but the advantages are, usually you get better package; higher quality (resolution), extra add on, full support for the medias and no Attribution needed. But still, you CANNOT treat the medias as you own property; to rent, license, sublicense, sell or redistribute those videos “as-is”. Unless you re-edit the media to make it a new work-of-arts or parts of your whole project. Always read and understand their terms, even though you paid for it.

Our priority in this review should consists of; Free to Download and to Use & High Definition (HD) quality at least..

Table of Contents

  1. Pexels
  2. Pixabay
  3. Videezy
  4. Videvo
  5. Coverr
  6. CuteStockFootage
  7. OpenFootage
  8. X Stock Video
  9. Footage Crate
  10. We Distill
  11. Mazwai
  12. Life of Vids
  13. Motion Places
  14. Vidsplay
  15. Mitch Martinez

1. Pexels Free Video

Free Videos by Pexels

Pexels is one of the famous name in free stock photos. The videos footage they provide simply straight forward. You just need to choose from the thumbnail preview or use search box instead. The thumbnail preview will open a modal box with recommended Similar Videos of the category.

✅ License: Free for personal & commercial used.
✅ Attribution: Not required
✅ Signup / Login: Not required
✅ Quality: HD, 4K
✅ A lot of ‘Similar Videos’ shown in modal box preview to choose from.
❌ No category link to choose from

View Pexels

2. Pixabay Free Video

Free Videos by Pixabay

Just like Pexels in the list no, 1 above, Pixabay is also a well known for their free stock images. Surely, you can try to find the right video footage you required with Pixabay, when you cannot find one with the list no. 1.

The interface seems similar, but every thumbnail preview has the level of quality (FD, HD, 4K), footage length & owner of the video mentioned. So you may find it helps to choose the right videos before you click to proceed.

✅ License: Free for personal & commercial used.
✅ Attribution: Not required
✅ Signup / Login: Not required
✅ Quality: HD, 4K
✅ A lot of Categories to choose from, Video types (Animation, Slow motion, Time lapse) & Resolutions to filter out.
❌ ‘Similar Videos’ are shown but limited to 4 thumbnails only.

View Pixabay

3. Videezy Free Video

Free Videos by Videezy

Videezy is consider a younger brother (or maybe sister) of Vecteezy, one of the most popular free vector graphic resources known by many graphic designers. They labeled themselves as ‘Eezy’ and they have 4 networks of freebie resources. Besides Videezy (this video footage) & Vecteezy (vector graphics resources), Brusheezy (Photoshop brushes) and Themezy (Web themes).

Videezy offers free and paid videos in variety of categories, but you cannot see the category list, until you click the ‘Browse By Category’. The main page didn’t show enough info of every video’s thumbnail like Pixabay did, but you can see it in the preview page. The video thumbnails also didn’t play the short preview when your cursor on hover it.

✅ License: Free for personal & commercial used.
✅ Signup / Login: Not required.
✅ Quality: HD, 4K
✅ A lot of Categories to choose from.
✅ Adobe After Effect (AE) Templates available 👍
❌ Attribution: Required, as mentioned in their ‘License Info’.
❌ No video preview played in thumbnails on mouse over.

View Videezy

4. Videvo Free Video

Free Videos by Videvo

Videvo consider among young digital contents provider we can say. Though they have been around about 5 years since 2015, they made impressive numbers of digital medias and they promise only the best quality in their collections. Videvo offers more than 7,600 of stock videos, as they claimed. Even more interesting, they also offer free music tracks and sound effects as well. A complete package in one place, yes we agree.

Looking at their main page (home page), you may thought that all medias are free, until you proceed to the preview & download page, then you realize that the media you want to download labeled ‘Premium’, not free.. unlucky you 😅. Unless you browse to the top menu link categories to choose from ‘All Videos’, ‘Footage’, ‘Music’, etc.. then you can see all the medias labeled either ‘Free’ or ‘Premium’.

✅ License: 3 types, but most of it allow Free use for personal & commercial (unless mentioned otherwise).
✅ Attribution: 3 types of Licenses made Attribution is required in some contents.
✅ Signup / Login: Not required
✅ Quality: HD, 4K
✅ A lot of ‘Similar Clips’ shown in the preview page, just like the Pexels ‘Similar Videos’.
✅ Videos, Sound tracks & Sound effects.
❌ The main page may tricked you because it didn’t show you which medias are free & which are paid.
❌ Even though you can see the ‘Free’ & ‘Premium’ labels in the category pages, you may still feel it hard to see the ‘Free’ contents among ‘Premium’, because they didn’t differentiate the Free label & Premium label by colors.

View Videvo

Related article : Best Free Video Editing Software Without Watermark for PC

5. Coverr Free Video

Free Videos by Coverr

Coverr is a side project created by a filmmaker’s that continues from his successful first project, Veed.me which was acquired by Fiverr (a freelance market place). Built with passion as filmmaker to provide free and beautiful looking videos for personal & commercial as well.

While most of the video footage created by themselves, they also offer video contributions as other sites did. Coverr main page looks simply straight forward, full page video covers the main background with search box ready to load your keyword. Simple and clean layout that suits its name.

Below it are the video categories link buttons. Choose any category you prefer and it will show its category results. Unfortunately, selecting these button’s category didn’t perform the correct results. Don’t know why it keep showing the same results even for other categories.

✅ License: Free for personal & commercial used.
✅ Signup / Login: Not required.
✅ Videos created for background used, you can also test the selected video to be appear at the main page of it, before you proceed to download.
✅ ‘How To Use’ guide, HTML, CSS & Script codings are provided to help you embed the videos in your website.
❌ Quality videos only optimize for ‘background video’, so consider no HD.
❌ No video information on the thumbnail grid page and at the preview page.

View Coverr

6. CuteStockFootage Free Video

Free Videos by CuteStockFootage

CuteStockFootage offers quite variety of video footage shown in their main page. You can keep on scrolling and scrolling to get the video that you’re looking for. But you may not see the list of video category in their site. Or did I missed it..?

The owner claimed that all the digital medias are created by him alone. So, the positive side is, you don’t have to worry in using it, as long as you follow the terms.

✅ License: Free for personal & commercial used.
✅ Signup / Login: Not required.
✅ Quality: Up to 4K
✅ They also provide Sound Effect stock medias and Texture stock photos as well.
❌ You must give attribute; credit to the site, link to the license & indicate changes of the media if you edit it. (Creative Common 4.0).
❌ No video information on the main page thumbnail grid.
❌ We think the ads are too many.

View CuteStockFootage

7. Open Footage

Free Videos by OpenFootage

OpenFootage are group of creative people in filmmakers and 3D artist. Their passion in make videos not just for themselves, but also to share with the rest of the world, made OpenFootage one of the free stock videos available in the internet.

Emphasizing with visual effect videos (VFX), they offer free footage at lower resolution with CC license (to attribute but no commercial) and higher quality with specific

✅ License: Free for personal
✅ Signup / Login: Not required.
✅ A lot of creative Visual Effect type of videos
❌ Commercial use needs license, you can choose price options from HD to 4K. While the Free low resolution option, needs to give Credit as the Creative Commons 4.0 terms.
❌ You cannot see which videos are offering free download at full HD quality in the main page, unless your cursor over it.. but no preview play on cursor over the thumbnail.

View OpenFootage

8. X Stock Video

Free Videos by X Stock Video

X Stock Footage is an another free video footage that you can check out their collections. They offers Free and 2 types of License – Regular & Extended, for commercial purpose. Their Free to use refers to ‘Free to view video project’ (such as promotional, event, educational, client, youtube without ads), as they mentioned.

The website of X Stock Footage show simple & clean interface, but when you look at it, you may notice that the fonts are hard to read. For instance, the category ‘Filter’ in the header, the text not just too small (for me as a normal user), but also dark grey color make it hard to read with black background. Besides that, video playing preview are not available, you need to download the sample.. hmm..

✅ License: Free for personal project.
✅ Attribution: Not required
✅ Signup / Login: Not required
✅ Quality: HD
❌ Commercial use need to buy license, either Regular or Extended.
❌ Video preview is not available in the website, you need to download the sample of every video you want to see.
❌ No 4K or UHD quality videos available (so far).

View X Stock Video

9. Footage Crate

Free Video by FootageCrate

Footage Crate is VFX or visual effects oriented video maker with thousands of free professional grade media resources. It was stated in the search box, more than 10 thousand of exclusive HD assets avaiable. Besides videos, they offer SFX (sound effects), Music stocks, Graphics and 3D stocks as well. No wonder they have a lot of all digital medias in one place.. free for sure.

Nevertheless, free users still have limit of the digital medias download. Free users can only download up to HD video quality, while pro (paid) users up to 4K video quality. Free users get only 5 downloads per day, while pro users can get up to 200 downloads per day. Fair enough for a free user as beginner, right?

What make us like and recommend you to Footage Crate are, they have Forum community, so you can find help there. Another plus point is, Tutorials for you on how to do, step by step, tips & tricks using mostly video production apps such as Adobe Premier, Final Cut, Cinema 4D, Adobe After Effect, 3D, etc.

✅ License: Free for personal & commercial used.
✅ Attribution: Not required
✅ Quality: HD (for free)
✅ Visual Effects heaven with Hollywood quality in variety of category.
✅ Videos & After Effect Tutorials provided and Forum community available for support 👍
❌ Signup / Login : Required to download.
❌ On average, most of the search results reveal that paid medias are more than free medias.

View FootageCrate

10. Distill

Free Videos by Distill

Distill which still in beta as stated in their site logo, prefer to receive video contributions from public. They will then carefully choose the videos submitted to be appears in their website. All videos are in HD quality and Free for personal & commercial use.

✅ License: Free for personal & commercial used.
✅ Attribution: Not required (not even mentioned so far)
✅ Quality: HD
✅ Signup / Login: Not required
❌ Still in beta, or testing mode.. so most probably not much collections available.

View Distill Free Video

11. Mazwai

Mazwai, we don’t really know the meaning of the website name, maybe it’s the owner’s name. Anyway, Mazwai is another resource for free video footage and moving images with their mission mission is to give creators around the world free access to beautiful stock footage, with simple licensing. So you should bookmark this site.

They show the videos category easily seen in the header, so you choose from it. The grid of video thumbnails will show the video’s info; length, quality and will play the video preview. Click on it will go to the download page of the selected video with more detail info related to the video, creator and license info.

✅ License: Free for personal & commercial
✅ Signup / Login: Not required
✅ Quality: HD
✅ Most of the videos come with sound or music background, (unlike others with mute videos).
✅ They provide more info; (besides resolution & video length), Frames per second & the Video Aspect Ratio as well
❌ Attribution: Required for free use.
❌ Seeing their social medias, they last active on Facebook in 2016 and last active on Twitter in 2018. If you need support, just email them.
❌ We think that they still lack in number of videos.. hopefully more contribution will be added. Video contribution need to be deal via email.. hmm..

View Mazwai Free Video

12. Life of Vids

Life of Vids promise of all free videos for any project you may use. They presents their website interesting way with big video thumbnails preview on the main page in one column grid, then 2 column grids. This free video footage site owned by a creative agency based in Canada. No wonder you’ll see elements of creative touch.

On hover cursor to the thumbnail did’t play the preview, but will show you the animated ‘Play’ text in the middle, Download button at bottom right and Infos link on top right corner. The ‘Infos’ link will open the preview page, where I thought it will show more info about the video. Unfortunately not much info shown in the preview page. Except the video’s tag and the download link which will open a modal window (pop up) with option of the video quality you can choose to proceed.

One of the good thing you may found, you can get the source video file with up to 4K quality in the Download options. Despite the fact that you can use it freely, they did mentioned that you’re limited to put up to 10 videos in your website.

✅ License: Free for personal & commercial used.
✅ Attribution: Not required
✅ Signup / Login: Not required
✅ Quality: HD, 4K
✅ Most of the videos by themselves, a creative (web) agency.
✅ They also provide Free stock image – Life of Pix.
❌ At first the main page seems unorganized with big images stacking in the center slightly off to the left and right.. and you feel hard to navigate.

View Life of vids

13. Motion Places

Motion Places is a stock videos provider with focus only place realted videos. You may search or navigate through countries or towns category mostly, geographical & landscape category as well. In short, if you’re looking for video related to ‘places’, Motion Places should be in your list.

Their interface just like others, with grid thumbnail images of the video, but the thumbnail didn’t play the preview when your cursor on hover it. Click on it to go to the preview page with more infos available with the video.

Basically it’s clearly mention, all videos are free to download & use for any project in HD quality. But you need to credit them in your project’s use. Or you may buy the royalty free license, so no attribution will be required and you get 4K video quality.

✅ License: Free for personal & commercial used.
✅ Quality: 4K
✅ For those who looking for ‘places videos’.
✅ A lot of geographical places categories available to choose from.
❌ Signup & Login are not required, BUT you need to give your email to download the free videos.
❌ Once you give the email and click the Download button, you’ll notice a reminder telling you that ‘3 downloads remaining before (24 hours of your current time)‘.
❌ Attribution is required for free videos.

View Motion Places

14. Vidsplay

Vidsplay is similar to most of free stock footage we listed above, with grid of 30 thumbnails preview in a page. The thumbnails however didn’t play the video preview when cursor on hover it, just showing the video name. Click it and you get to the preview page.

In the preview page, it shows more info; video length, video quality, format, frame rate & download link. Video quality is in HD and up to 4K available for some. Others than that, they mentioned, they only require attribution. Video Categories are available as drop down on the top right of page.

✅ License: Free for personal project.
✅ Signup / Login: Not required
✅ Quality: HD, 4K
❌ Attribution is required.
❌ We think that they still lack on quantity (so far)

View Vidsplay

15. Mitch Martinez

Mitch Martinez is a photographer & filmmaker who showcase his works on his website and also provide us free stock videos to download and use. All of his free videos are in 4K quality and I personally cannot see any lower resolution or HD options available when you want to download it.

His works for free videos showing all the categories you can choose for in the free stock footage page. Hovering your cursor on the thumbnails image preview didn’t play the video preview, but video infos will appear with preview link and download link.

When you play to view any of his video, you’ll see the video presents his logo mark at the end of the footage. You can check in the terms of use as free download, whether you can crop the video to delete his logo mark part. And one more thing that I think a bit annoying, to use any video in his (even free) collections, you must get the License Agreement by fill in the form, the link provided in the download page. Wait for the reply to receive the License Agreement via email, it’s free of charge anyway.

✅ License: Free for personal & commercial used.
✅ Signup / Login: Not required
✅ Quality: 4K
✅ Variety of Categories to choose from.
❌ You need to request for License Agreement by fill in the form provided, to use those videos.
❌ Attribution is required where possible.

View Mitch Martinez Free Video

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There are some more lists worth to list them down here, but we think is better to separate it to part 2, in our next post.. hopefully we manage to do it, soon or later :)

Meanwhile, please share with us your list of collections that you already got. We would love to list it down as well, as long as they meet the criteria of HD quality video and Free to download & use, definitely.

Design, Web

4 Ways to Build Skills Required for a Web Designer

Web design is the first thing that ensures a site’s success on the Internet. It must keep visitors engaged visually and make it easy for them to navigate and interact efficiently with a page. Clunky or cluttered pages lead to slow loading speed and affect traffic negatively. Meanwhile, a unique and catchy layout brings visitors back and keeps them longer on a site.

As any profession that combines creativity with technology, web design changes fast. To stay on top of this industry, you must always seek to improve your web design skills. Do you want to create visually-stunning websites with great user-interface and impressive loading speed? We answer your question about how to improve the skills needed in this profession.

How to be a Better Web Designer

A web designer should have essential skills such as visual creativity, resourcefulness, mastery of the latest changes in CSS, HTML and UX technologies, and great communication abilities to connect with the client’s needs and desires. Let’s see what are the greatest methods to build and improve your web design skills, whether you’re a student or a professional.

1. Focus on Practice, Not Theory 

Especially if you’re a student, the most important thing to do is to focus on practical skills and abilities. Don’t waste time with tasks unrelated to your goals. Instead of spending hours writing a theoretical paper that doesn’t add value to your designer skills, you can ask essay helper EduBirdie for assistance. You must devote all your creativity, time, and energy on practicing your craft. Find help online from an essay writing service and forget about useless theory.

2. Get Visual Inspiration from Masters

Skills for a Web Designer

As a creative professional, you must let the world inspire you. Check the work of the best web designers but don’t copy their ideas. Instead, let them inspire you in developing your own ideas. To do this, you must look at their websites with a critical eye and see what you would do differently or better. View other designs with a scientific eye and take note of the details that make them stand out. This will show you how to improve the skills that you struggle with. Don’t mimic other people’s styles, but incorporate specific elements here and there that you like.

3. Learn Everything about UX

The answer to how to get better at web design is to learn to see your website from a visitor’s perspective. UX stands for user experience, and it is an essential thing that defines how successful your website will be. It’s all about how the website is making your visitor feel while navigating the pages. When you hire an essay helper, you can see that an essay follows a strict structure. When people visit your website and read the information, they also expect structure. Is the navigation easy and intuitive? Does the content stand out on the page? Are the colors attractive? The better you understand UX, the greater your work will become.

Related article: Free Web Designer Tools Online, 11 Free Website Builder

How to improve skills with UX?

  • Use simple tabs and buttons for efficient navigation.
  • User proper indentation to maintain a clean, organized look.
  • Choose fonts and colors according to the type of the website.
  • Avoid filling each space on the page since a simple design makes it easier to emphasize important sections on the page.

4. Be Resourceful Web Designer

Skills for a UX Designer

It’s alright not to know everything, but the desire to learn and the ability to search for answers is essential for web designers. If you’ve ever sought essay writing help as a student, you know that trusting a professional can save you a lot of headaches. Web design skills revolve around CSS, HTML, Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Illustrator, where there’s always something new to learn. While you learn everything about UX, color palettes and colors psychology, web fonts and typography, you should not be afraid to search for helpful assistance or helpful tools.

Do you wonder how to get better at web design? The answer is to always be willing to learn more in terms of visual creativity, technologies, and the latest trends. Follow our tips, and you’ll find yourself prepared to face any career challenge with success.

Creative Idea Stock Image
Design, Photography, Web

5+ Creative Ideas Using Stock Images for Your Marketing

Creative Idea Stock Image

As we dot our i’s and cross our t’s for the end of 2019, it’s a good time to start thinking about the new year 2020. What we can prepare for better marketing efforts in the new coming decade. Surely your business isn’t this far into December without some kind of 2020 marketing strategy started, but let’s dive into it a little more in stock images.

Stock Images as Visual Communications

The importance of visual communications, especially photo & video used in marketing strategy are undeniably will help to boost the campaigns. Whatever type of marketing strategy campaigns you will use in 2020, email newsletters, social medias, web contents, or anything else, Stock Images are among the biggest player. Companies like iStock by Getty Images is one of the must listed site to shop for stock images.

This world’s leading royalty free stock content marketplace, iStock by Getty Images offer oceans of carefully selected premium contents.

You just name it, they got it.. images, vector illustrations & videos.

Yes, they offer all contents category in one place:

In fact, they also provide useful tools and smart plugins to smooths your work tasks, such as Adobe CC plugins, just to name one.

With that said, here are 5 tips to using iStock and their collection of stock images in the upcoming year 2020 and the new decade.

January Idea

Since this month has probably already been taken care of before the holidays, use iStock’s Boards to help manage the upcoming months. Simply create a board to save any content that you might have found and are not ready to use yet. Way better than bookmarking or write down the images you’ve come across during other projects. So, when the time is right, you already have the options to start with.

Hey remember, January 25th is a big celebration for our Chinese friends. Spruce up your website or create a gift guide for the Chinese New Year images holiday.

Related article: 15 Best Free Online Photo Editor

March Ideas

Be prepare for the International Women’s Day 2020 graphic contents in 8 March. Be unique for this month to get attention for ladies with visually appealing marketing. Also there will be Earth Hour 2020 on 28 March, so you may have some ideas to be different from your common strategy. Save time and use a pre-made sale template that fits the theme and designed to make them click through.

April Idea

Taxes. Make this time a little more fun for people and throw a Refund Sale to get rid of the stress.

May Idea

Fills your May marketing strategy with heart touching content is another good way to try out. Honor mothers around the world or your target markets with special stories, promotions, or gift guides for Mother’s Day and make them extra special with heartwarming images.

June Ideas

Summer vacation planning is usually in full swing by now since school is out and people are wanting to enjoy the warmer weather. Offer up some destination ideas with amazing places photos from actual places to visit.

Within half a year, you’ll get use with iStock and more familiar with the way iStock has to offer. Therefore, check out their plug-ins and see how to streamline and simplify your projects even more with your working apps.

Now you have all the tools and confidence you need for a successful 2020, head over to iStock and browse their flexible pricing plans & low cost credit packages. You’ll be surprised how much you need can be found in one place!

Graphic Design Illustration
Design, Software, Web

6 Trends in Animation and Design That we Will See in 2020

The graphics design and 2D-3D animation industry has become a long way today. After all, we are living in a world that’s increasingly becoming digital. So, there is a huge demand for high-quality visuals for websites, videos, advertisements, social media, etc.

Graphic Design Illustration

If you are an animator or graphics design artist, then the following are 6 trends in the industry that you need to know:

1. Motion Design



Brands are realizing the value in storytelling as it allows them to connect to their target demographic on a personal and emotional level. So, motion design is now becoming popular as it allows the brands to offer genuine and customized experiences. You can take a look at some of the best animated logos to understand how motions in logos can add a creative element to the designs and help in sharing the brand story with billions of people across the globe.

2. Gradients

Graphic Design Gradients

No one wants to see dull and uninspiring graphics when visiting a website or a mobile app. Perhaps, that’s the reason why gradients in graphics are becoming more and more popular.

Gradient color effect is a color transition style that uses different shades of the same color. The image above is a good example of this technique and you can see that it uses different shades of purple to create a unique effect. You can use this design technique with all the popular photo editors. However, you may want to study some good examples online before you get to work.

3. Glitch Effects

Graphic Design Glitch Effect

If you are working on a project that could use retrowave or cyberpunk kind of vibe, then you can use the glitch effect. You can recognize this style with the 80s cartoons and action-hero comic books. Remember, the vibrant and energetic graphics that these products would use? Remember the rainbow, metallic, and dark patterns? That’s how glitch effects are used.

Simply put, glitch effect can be created by using some grain and noise in a design. The latter helps in visual malformation, and the formers helps with picture quality enhancement.

4. Typography

Typography plays a huge role in design and animation. This is because of how font psychology can influence design. That said, the following are two main typography effects that we can expect to see trending in the near future:

Graphic Design Typography

  • Broken Text: As the name suggests, it’s a font technique that uses, well, “broken text” just like in the image above. It can be used to express bold and vibrant thoughts. It can also evoke excitement and adventure.
  • Kinetic Typography: This involved moving or active text. It’s a good way to put more emotion into text and also makes it easier to grab the attention of the users.

5. Morphing

Morphing is an old design technique that’s making waves once again. In this, objects and characters “morph” into different items so that a transition is displayed but in a magical or surreal fashion. It looks incredible on a laptop or mobile screen. Since it can be implemented in different ways, the designers get ample flexibility and creative freedom to bring their ideas to reality, which is a big advantage.

6.  Visuals for Branding

Branding is becoming important for organizations more than ever, and they want to leverage visuals to showcase their values. It’s become the responsibility of the graphic designers and animators to understand the requirements of their clients and use select fonts, colors, and icons so that not only they market the products and services of a brand, but also its mission statement and vision.

Conclusion

Graphics designers across the globe have all kinds of tools and platforms to experiment and create some of the most complex designs with ease. They have advanced tools for finding new and interesting color palettes, massive repositories of icons for logos and other creative assets, and many large communities too where they can share their ideas and draw inspiration from the works of other creative geniuses. As long as they keep up with the latest trends, they can continue offering the world some of the most original designs we have ever seen.

 

Imagination
Design, Illustrator, Web

7 Letter Design Tips For Beginners and Pros

Lettering is a great option for a variety of design goals – from crafting an Instagram post to creating a memorable business card. It’s not as easy as writing something over a photograph in a photo editing software. You have to know the basics to create great-looking lettering design. Here’s how you start.

Start With a Grid

Think of your lettering design as a drawing, not a text. It’s what it is, essentially. So start designing it like a drawing.

Begin with a simple grid like this and flesh out the main elements of your design – the words. Think of each block as a word or a couple of words. Save smaller blocks for the functional words, and give the main words some room to breeze to make them stand out.

Grid design
Source: Stefan Cruze

While the form in which you present your lettering may not influence the meaning of the phrase more than by the sheer size, it has to catch people’s eye. It’s these blocks that people are going to see first, not the words.

Work on making your composition visually attractive and eye-catching. Don’t just leave the blocks as they are. Stretch, rotate, and deform them to find the perfect form.

Visual Hierarchy

Once you’re done creating the composition, think about the visual hierarchy of your piece. The form of lettering may be difficult to read from the first look, so you have to prioritize certain words. In content creation, the job of professional writing services is to make sure that the text is easy to understand. In lettering, your job is to do the same thing, but visually.

You need to make sure the audience gets the message without having to read the whole sentence.

You might want to highlight only one word in shorter sentences, while longer ones may need more. For instance, if you have to find the main words in Gandhi’s quote “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony,” you’d put a soft emphasis on the words “happiness” and “harmony,” and a bigger emphasis on the words “think,” “say,” and “do.”

You can make them stand out by choosing a different font type, size, and color. When placing the main words on your canvas, you need to make sure the whole sentence is readable, though. Otherwise, it may end up like this.

Type Setting Mistake

Not More Than Three Fonts

While it’s amazing that you’re ready to unleash your creativity, you shouldn’t get too carried away. If you place too many fonts on your lettering design, it can get pretty cluttered and hard to understand.

Try using no more than three fonts. Pick a basic font, a font for a soft emphasis, and a font for the main emphasis. They can be as different as you want them to be, but make sure you don’t use too many of them.

Work on Kerning

Kerning is the distance between the letters. You need to make it uniform to avoid breaking up a word visually. It’s a harder task than just finding the correct distance from the end of one letter to the beginning of the other.

The problem is that letters are very different, and kerning may appear the same on paper but look visually different. You have to make allowance for the problems with human perception when designing your lettering.

A common technique is to kern the letters upside down or in groups of three. This way, you can forget about the words and their meanings, and treat the letters as abstract shapes that relate to each other.

Add Visual Elements

Very few lettering designs can look stunning without additional visual elements. If you’re not trying to get a very minimalistic look, consider drawing something to compliment the lettering.

If You Stumble Make It Part of The Dance
Source: Crashboomdesigns/Instagram

It can be as simple as these lines, or you can create a full-on drawing to serve as an underlayer for the lettering.

Get Creative With Artwork

You don’t have to focus your design on letters. After all, what you’re creating is essentially a drawing. So, why stop there? Get as creative as you want with the artwork you use.

Great Jones
Source: Really Good Emails

You don’t have to stick to the traditional fonts, either.

Imagination
Source: Rafael Serra/Behance

Do You Have to Print?

Here’s the last tip. You may find it particularly useful if you’re creating lettering for printable materials. Working on printables and digital drawings is very different. You should start by switching to CMYK color code and leaving plenty of bleed on the edges of the picture. For more information, please, read this printing guide.

Conclusion

Creating great-looking lettering design is all about maintaining a balance between structure and creativity. You have to design a grid and fill it creatively with your phrase. Remember about the audience you’re working for and the purpose of the drawing, and you’ll receive great results!

 

Social Media Marketing SMM
Web

3 Reasons To Become An SMM Specialist: A Job of The Future

The question of which profession should one choose is the one that concerns every young person at some point in life.

And now, when the world is changing rapidly, with new jobs emerging, it is even harder to make this decision. It is just like studying at college – choosing both the right college and the place to work at determines the future of a person.

So it is essential to choose responsibly and do some research first.

Social Media Management (SMM) is a job that became strikingly popular with the advent of social media. More and more young people are choosing this path – and for a good reason. SMM job is in high demand, has good perspectives, and can be an excellent option for students. So, let’s explore the benefits of SMM job.

Social Media Management (SMM) Specialist

 

Social Media Management Is in High Demand

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube – all of these popular resources are social media. Lots of people are using these channels to connect with family and friends.

But social media is also a great e-commerce tool. If used correctly, it can attract new customers and grow the business. No wonder that more and more companies pay lots of attention to their online presence. For example, 88% of companies with more than 100 employees use Twitter to reach their marketing goals.

This is where the social media specialist steps in. The specialist’s main task is to manage the online presence of the company. The best part? There are different businesses in need of SMM specialists – starting with a fashion brand and ending with research paper writing service. Thus, any person can easily find something to one’s liking. The funniest part is that you can delegate your academic load to the place you work at as most SMM jobs are remote positions.

If so, every social media specialist can find a company that has the same values and goals. In the long run, it makes work more enjoyable and delivers better business results.



 

Social Media Management Is Great for Students

Another great thing about SMM jobs is that it is quite easy to join the sphere. With an abundance of studying resources, every aspiring college graduate or even a student can become a social media manager in no time!

Of course, it might be challenging to combine studying at college with a job. But social media management can be done remotely as many companies opt for freelance social media specialists. Also, students can use freelance marketplaces such as Upwork to find a job in social media.

Working as a social media manager while studying at college is beneficial from two standpoints. First of all, it helps a student become financially independent. Secondly, a learner can balance education and getting valuable working experience.

Here is one more thing to boost the confidence of any college student who considers working in social media. It is an excellent option for Millennials and Generation Z. These people are naturally good with technologies and understand social media. So, the SMM profession is a good fit for them.

 

Related article: 15 Sites Where To Sell Your Vector Arts

 

There Is Always Room for Creativity in Social Media Management

What makes any job worth it? There are lots of incentives to consider: salary, work-life balance, room for growth, and many more.

While SMM job is in high demand and flexible enough for students to apply, it also has another significant benefit. Managing social media is a creative process that allows a worker to express one’s voice and opinions.

It is mostly due to the fact that managing social media is multifaceted. These managers have various tasks like planning social media strategy, developing brand voice and tone, creating content.

All these assignments can be done creatively. Thus, the SMM profession is great for people who do not see themselves doing a mundane job but want to be creative.

Surely, there will be some brand guidelines and policies to adhere to. But creativity plays a major role in social media marketing and can be expressed in different ways — starting with captions for posts and ending with elaborate visual assets.

 

Final Words

Social media marketing is at full swing now, and it does not seem to slow down. More and more companies are discovering the world of social media, and so SMM jobs are in high demand.

Working in social media is a good option for aspiring college students as it allows them to combine having a job with getting a degree. Moreover, it is a great opportunity to express creativity and produce content which helps in taking the company’s business to a new level.

 

Photography, Web

6 Photography Businesses Freelancers Can Take Part In

Getting started as a freelancer can be a daunting experience. In many fields, it can be hard to know just where to begin and which jobs to pursue. You might find yourself struggling to choose between jobs that will improve your name recognition and other options that will best keep the bills paid. This can be particularly true in a field such as photography, which is largely considered to be one of the most competitive freelance markets out there. If you’re feeling confused with no idea where to start, here are six photography businesses that are freelance-friendly.

1. Photojournalism

Photo by Alif Ngoylung on Unsplash

While it’s certainly important to visit freelance job boards regularly and often, it can be just as important to build lasting relationships with clients and partners that you may already know. This can be especially true in the field of photojournalism, where you’ll largely be supporting writers and reporters on newsworthy events. Photos are now and always will be necessary in terms of hard-hitting journalism. If you build meaningful and lasting relationships with freelance writers and reporters, you’ll likely never find yourself without work.

2. Portraits

Photography Studio for Portraits
Photo by Alexander Dummer

Portrait photography can be one of the most trying endeavors in which to build up a consistent and reliable client base, and you might find yourself working pro-bono for longer than you would like. The flip side of this is that once you have established yourself, it is probably the most reliable method by which you can sustain yourself as a freelancer indefinitely, eventually going through all of the steps to turn the work into your own business.

When it comes to taking portraits, relationships are absolutely key. It is important to consider the location in which you will primarily be operating. Since portraits are often taken to commemorate life events, it is important to advertise yourselves to clients with children or other family members in formative years, as a huge percent of portraits are taken for events in education. It is also important to make sure you are operating with proper photo and lighting equipment. In a day and age where some of the world’s most powerful digital photography software is built into everyone’s smartphone, you must be able to give the client something that they cannot get themselves. Proper lighting is important for this.

3. Tech + Camera Maintenance

Camera Parts and Repair
Photo by Shane Aldendorff

Much as the aspiring musician may find themselves in an instrument shop, the freelance photographer could definitely earn some money on the side by working in a camera repair or maintenance shop. While this no doubt will sound like a drag compared to other freelance work that could expand your portfolio, it certainly is not a dead-end line of work. Operating in environments such as these can be crucial to your understanding of the bare bones of how all equipment, both modern and antique, function. Though you won’t find a great deal of filler for your resume, you will be granted an extended vocabulary and knowledge that can only be obtained by hands-on experience.

4. Event Photography

Wedding Event Photography at Night
Photo by Andreas Rønningen

This is the big one. Usually, when people set their mind to freelance photography, they set it to event photography. And when they set their mind to event photography, they get very preoccupied with weddings. While weddings are certainly one of the biggest draws for event photographers, there are scores of opportunities for the event photographer willing to think outside of the box. One of the ways you can do this is by coordinating with an event to set up a photo booth. Photo booths have risen to prominence as a way to get event-goers to participate in recording memories and will put you in the spotlight as a skilled photographer even more so than the classic, fly-on-the-wall style of event photography. Plus, while they’re extremely popular for weddings, they’re popping up at all kinds of marketing events, award shows, birthday parties and more.

5. Location Photography

Fashion Model Warehouse Photoshoot
Photo by Gerardo Marrufo

There’s no shortage of models, bands, or even business groups who want a special sort of “photoshoot” to really showcase who they are. This will likely be some of the most demanding work in which you participate, going from location to location just to line up the perfect shot. Similar to being a graphic editor for brands, clients in this field will be very demanding of your time and your patience, but this will be an area where you can make some of the strongest pieces to add to your portfolio, showcasing your value as a photographer.

6. Tutoring

Black Cameras
Photo by Luca Bravo

If the rise of social media has taught us anything, it’s that there is absolutely no shortage of young people that aspire to a certain degree of skill in the field of photography. While some of this work will no doubt be on the more meager side of your earning pool, there is still a great deal of job satisfaction that comes with passing on the skill of photography to a new generation. You will always be able to find work tutoring and mentoring new photographers, and may even make new connections for work along the way.

Blank business card
Design, Web

Graphics Tips for ID & Business Cards: 6 Tips to Improve Your Designs

Blank business card

If you’re looking for a way to make a big splash with your business or ID cards but not sure where to start, here are a few tips to help you create sharp, professional, and unique designs that stand out from the crowd.

1. Keep It Simple and Concise

Different fonts can evoke different ideas and themes. So, don’t be afraid to try layouts that not only relay information but also express the individual style of your brand. Also, make sure the language of the wording is clear and concise as well as unique and memorable to your brand.

Your name or company name will be the anchor design of your brand, so build on that. Your reader should never have to guess whose card it is. Try using a free font editor for access to different fonts and designs.

2. Focus on Necessary Information

When first looking at a business card, the eye is often drawn to compelling graphic design. But a great business card or ID will support the overall image and message, further promoting the text information. If the graphic is too elaborate, it can be distracting and lose the reader’s attention.

Conversely, make sure to keep the text limited to only the most valuable and important information, Always remember the goal is to get the message across clearly and concisely.

3. Showcase a Sample

graphic design company display

You will always want to ensure your business cards are printed and designed to specs to maximize their benefit. Make the most of your mini promotion space even when you’re working on a tight budget. Print on both sides in full color and see the card as your personal canvas to showcase who you are.

When working on your projects, make sure you’ve got the best resources possible. With different types of computers, you’ll see the pros and cons of the different user interfaces. So take the time to find the best, most user-friendly and computer for your project.

4. Add a Call to Action to Your Card

It’s vital for any marketing tool that you know your purpose clearly. In addition to a supporting conceptual layout, a call to action is a great way to drive traffic to your product. There is no better time to encourage connecting with your readers, audience, and potential clientele than while they are impressed and inspired by your business card design. This clear call to action helps let them know what to do next.

Keeping a consistent tone in this call to action which also matches your overall design and message are great ways to further establish your brand.

5. Show How Excited You Are About Your Business

Whatever your specialty, it’s vital you consistently show passion for your business and what you do. This helps the reader and audience learn more about your style and focus for the brand you are working to create.

Creative business card design and display

Once you’ve got your design, try experimenting with professional typography as well. You want to make sure that you have complete readability with the text of your cards. Make sure the colors are clear, large enough to read, and have sharp contrast so that your customers, clients, and other personnel don’t have to strain to read it.

6. Get Professionally Printed Cards

The quality of your cards makes all the difference in the world. Instead of trying to DIY this kind of project, go with a professional ID card printer to do the job right.

Just remember, there are many tools out there and you should utilize them! Explore working with color, textures, patterns, different types of printing materials, and more. Realizing that you are only limited by your vision and imagination, you can create something utilitarian, new, and exciting for your company. You might also consider using a compelling photograph to get your idea or point across. Always get permission from the photographer or head to a website that has free stock images. Using colors from your brand logo as a tie-in or going with a font that evokes emotion are also great ways to play on the reader’s brief but impacting experience of reading your business or ID card.

Have fun, be bold, and create your vision today!

Great Images Improve Sales
Web

5 Ways Great Images Improve Sales

Great Images Improve Sales

As a business, you will want to attract as many customers as possible to your brand. Therefore, using high-quality photos of your products can be a great way to increase sales. How your images look can make a huge difference and will be the determining factor in how many sales you make. Customer satisfaction should be your number one priority, so here are five ways great images can improve sales.

Make Your Images Stand Out

When a customer is on your page, the product image is typically one of the first things that they will see. Therefore, you need to use eye-catching images to get buyers hooked from the get-go. The better-quality images you use, the more chance you have of securing more interest in your business. Therefore, refrain from using your iPhone to take pictures. Instead, use a professional camera that can enhance your images. If you need help with an Amazon PPC campaign and want to know how better images can help your business, get Amazon PPC specialists to review your strategy. The team can help build your brand and help to increase sales.

Give Buyers Multiple Perspectives

To attract more sales, you will need to give customers a variety of angles of a product. Buyers want to see how a product looks from every angle. To do this, you can either upload multiple images or set up 360-viewing. If you go with the former option, a great tip to keep in mind is either using a hover to enlarge feature or a popup box that goes through every image (with the thumbnails of the product in a row at the bottom).

Up Close and Personal

In day to day life, we don’t tend to hold products right up to our eyes. However, buyers want to inspect what they are purchasing, so it’s important to include a zoom feature on your photos so customers can get up close and personal with a product to see what sort of condition it’s in, as well as any special features that it may contain. If you use a poor-quality camera, the picture will become grainy once zoomed in, so it’s essential that you invest in the latest technology to see the best results.

Show How the Product Works

While fantastic images are essential, how they are presented can make a big difference. For example, if you are selling headphones, you should have them placed in a person’s ear, rather than discarded on a surface. Letting customers know how your products work can not only increase more sales but gives them an idea of what to expect. Who you include in your photos can also make a huge difference, too. If you are selling a sofa, your buyers want to know what sort of demographic it is best suited for. Whether it is a sofa for the family or a bachelor pad, including the right models in the photo is important.

Keep Perspective and Scale in Mind

Buyers want to know that what they are purchasing is exactly what is shown on the tin. If you are selling a smartphone, for example, you should take a photo of it next to similar objects, so the customer can get a better idea of its size. While there are certain tools and techniques that you can use to enhance an image (such as a filter), it’s important not to fool the buyer into purchasing a product. You should be honest with what you are selling, so keeping size and dimension in mind is key. You can use software such as Photoshop to scale down an image.

Having images that stand out and are of high quality may be all you need to drive more interest to your business. Customer attention span can be short, so you will want to include images that are eye-catching from the get-go. Make sure that buyers can zoom in and examine photos to help improve sales.