Where to Shop for Graphics (Patterns, Illustrations, Fonts, and Templates) for Web Design or Brand Design
Fonts. Graphics. Illustrations. Icons. Patterns. Gradients. Where on earth do you get these things? Do designers create everything from scratch all the time? No, no we don’t! My design style heavily relies on purchasing awesome assets and combining them together to make beautiful things: collage art, for example!
My favorite platform to source these items was Creative Market, but in light of their recent unethical practices, I’m moving on and have a few other faves.
What Happened
Creative Market removed their “Six Free Goods” on Mondays and instead introduced an optional membership, that, frankly, was harmful to both creators and consumers. Slashed commissions, expiring credits, and unclear licenses were all nails in the coffin for my usage of the platform.
I mostly used Creative Market for illustrations, patterns, and assets for brand design. This could include cool shapes, terrazzo patterns, overlays, starbursts, frames, and so much more. I also sourced Canva templates there, but I’ll now be searching elsewhere or buy directly from the source.
Below, I’ve rounded up other locations where I’ll be shopping. I’ve got three lists for you: general graphics & assets, Fonts, Canva Templates, and Stock Photography.
Prefer to Watch vs Read this Article? Click Below!
A Note About Content Creators
You might just use Creative Market as a search engine to find creators. Don’t forget, for every single gradient, font, and icon pack you see, there’s a human being on the other side….most of the time. You also want to have a sharp eye on scammy illustration warehouses that are dishing out dozens of content for use on Amazon, and for people making a fast, cheap font just to sell it. You’re looking for reputable makers with work that you admire in general.
Always check for their websites to see if you can buy directly from them! Chances are you’ll be able to, and they’ll pocket more of their cut of the money.
General Graphics
This means illustrations, overlays, patterns, textures, bits and bobs, and anything that makes up a full brand.
I’ve taken a lot of time to research each graphics provider below on three criteria:
Monthly membership, credits, and cost
Licensing
Variety of graphics
I decided to do a search for “terrazzo” and “tigers” to see what each platform had, and I’m calling that the Terrazzo / Tiger test in each of my criteria below.
You Work For Them
This brand starts off strong from the get-go with even their brand name. It’s clear they care about the creator and the user, by combining great licensing, accessibility, and investment into everything. The branding / site design feels a bit hip for me, like I’m not really cool enough to even be browsing the site, but they clearly care a lot about their makers and are featuring everything for sale right up front rather than their own advertising.
They also make sure to feature that they’re privately owned and run by designers, so they’re not driven by a bottom line. Nice.
Pricing: Per design set, with graphic around $15-$30 and fonts the same
Licensing: I wish theirs was easier to understand, as it’s all in legal-ese, but looks like a normal and solid license. You purchase graphics to use on your business materials, do not redistribute, etc.
The Terrazzo / Tiger Test: I found TONS of terrazzo, though not as many as Creative Market. However, I did find some that weren’t on creative market at all, so that was swell. I wasn’t as impressed with their set of illustrations when it came to Tigers, but I’m realizing that portion of my business might need to fall on me soon.
Immediately, I noticed that a few of my favorite Creative Market creators were actually on this platform as well! That includes Angela in the Fields (where I get my gradients and cool monoline graphics) and Made x Made who has amazing icon sets.
Design Cuts
Okay…I am very turned off by the giant banner ad up top and how cluttered this site looks. I’m sure they’re nice people but user experience and UI matter a lot to me in my day-to-day due to being a very stressed out person. (Which is why I use FloDesk instead of any other email platform.) Despite this stress, I still gave it a good lookover.
Pricing: You buy per pack, but they do have 20% off 2 products or 30% off 3 products. A nice deal!
Licensing: A much better license than I’ve seen elsewhere: Design Cuts clearly states you can use this work in multiple projects and with contracted client projects. PHEW!
The Terrazzo / Tiger Test: They had three pages of terrazzo - some new ones I’d never seen (even over You Work for Them and Creative Market) which is exciting! I’m pleased. Again, not impressed with the tiger illustrations. Looks like I need to get more illustrators on the Let’s Go payroll!
Ultimately, Design Cuts looks cool, but I the platform is so busy with ads that I think my anxiety would skyrocket, making it a bad user experience.
Envato Elements
Oh, Envato. My in house designer LOVES Envato so I do have a yearly license…but there’s something off about the platform. Envato has many “branches” of its business so it’s a bit confusing to navigate, but we’re specifically looking at Envato Elements (elements.envato.com). Since the demise of Creative Market, I’ve done a deeper dive, so here are my thoughts!
(As a note, Envato also has a GIANT tutorial library, website templates, my favorite mockup site called PlaceIt, and more.)
Pricing: Pricing here is a bit confusing. I opted into a yearly license for my entire team to use. That was $198, which isn’t bad at all for unlimited downloads (Ahem, Creative Market.)
Licensing: If you want to look into Envato, each “section” of the site has different license. I’m specifically looking at elements.envato.com here: “All items on Envato Elements have the same simple license terms. You get broad commercial rights, so you can use items with confidence on work or personal projects.” You’ll register new items to different clients. It’s a great licensing system but woof, why am I so resistant?
The Terrazzo / Tiger Test: I’ve already bought every single terrazzo item on this platform, so there’s that. Again there’s something super off about this platform that I can’t put my finger on (which makes for a bad blog article, but here we are.) When I searched tiger, however, I got 60 pages worth of content! Woo! Most of these were logo emblems but there are a lot of great illustrations as well.
Overall, Envato is what I use in house as a subscription for my team. They know they can grab anything under the Let’s Go Studio name and I trust the clear and concise licensing. For my own use, I’ll be using You Work For Them as my creative inspiration site.
Font Studios
Fonts are so much fun to look for because they’re a bit easier to source and understand than graphics! I’d look for font studios vs just googling fonts. I already did a big roundup of a few of my faves on my Instagram, so I’m posting those graphics here!
Free Fonts Mentions:
(I don’t mention Adobe Fonts here because they can’t be downloaded and put on Canva. Sad trombone.)
Please click on the graphic to go to their site:
Canva Templates
No longer will I buy Canva Templates at Creative Market, not after this debacle. Luckily there are TONS of places to buy Canva templates! I’ve listed a few below, but note some of these have affiliate links.
I’d trust Claire with my life, and I mean that. She makes crisp and clean Canva templates that are easy to edit - plus, you can get awesome Squarespace templates as well!
Chances are if you’ve bought something on Creative Market, you’ve probably bought something from Sparrow & Snow anyway. They have amazing templates from carousels to charts to really cool kits, plus how to use them step-by-step.
I know you’ve heard of Big Cat’s amazing Squarespace templates, but did you know they also have beautiful templates as well? Check them out!
Even though they’re written as a stock photo site and they’re a membership basis, they have an incredible library of Canva templates as well. The templates use these incredible stock photos, so it’s definitely worth a look if this feels aligned.
Holy workbooks, Batman: there’s a lot of lead magnets, workbooks, planners, and more! Andrew Pixel has a prolific set of larger format documents (think beyond social media.)
Bonus mention: Social Motion Packs
Okay okay, not templates, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that Social Motion Packs is THE place to get videos for your social feed.
Photography
Here are three notable places to get amazing “non-stock-stock.” We definitely don’t want boring, predictable stock photos: so where do you get amazing things to add to your brand?
I can’t gush enough about how amazing and beautiful these photos are! I’ve purchased many a collection from Styled Stock Society (and I was pleased to see that they’ve even rebranded recently!) If you’re looking for DIVERSE and beautiful photos, look no further.
Pricing: $97/qtr or $297 a year. Both a steal because they ALSO include Canva templates, stock video clips, and even monthly caption guides.
Terms: These are for your business, and they do mention that you can use the images to create graphics for your clients, but not to give directly to clients.
Pricing: Pay $39/mo, $99/quarter, or be like me and get a whole year because you can use these photos for client work for $299. Holy cow!
Terms: Did I mention you can use these images for client work? I’ll never use another stock site again!
I’m a MASSIVE fan of these collections, and Girl Boss Stock includes a ton of awesome stuff: scene creators, templates, images.
Pricing: $34/mo, $87/qtr, and $239 annually.
Terms: Hers are a little more vague. It’s best if you’re needing this for client work to stay away from these - but they’re amazing for YOUR brand!
Pricing: These are going to be priced per photo, so they’re going to be pricier, but they are extremely artistic and well done! I’ve bought a few photos now for usage across media.
Terms: They offer a great, standard royalty-free license with the purchase of stock that is clear and easy to understand. This basic royalty license should apply to all of my clients!
Honorable mentions, but I know not for everyone:
I always like to mention ISS because even though their branding is VERY “woo, pink, gold” there are some AMAZING collections of work here, truly. I highly recommend checking them out.
Beautiful, bright photos! I’m a big fan of Stocklane if your brand looks like it fits cozily here! Her photos are a bit brighter and don’t appear to be as diverse, but they definitely have a strong point of view.
In Conclusion
I will no longer be using Creative Market - but if that’s your jam, that’s your jam! Ultimately, it’s best to consider these things when shopping graphics:
Prioritize creators. Know who is making the items that you’re purchasing. Chances are, they’ll have a whole shop or bundle of items for you!
Know when something is spammy. There’s a LOT of spam on Creative Market as well: I’ve seen bad script fonts, low quality graphics, and items clearly not meant for the main businesses I serve.
Stay ethical. The entire purpose of this blog is that I’m no longer going to support Creative Market because of their unethical practices. Boo!
