12 Sites for Free Photos, Illustrations and Icons
Images are so important in design. They help communicate an idea, provoke thought, clarify text and provide a visual language for a brand.
The adage, “A picture is worth 1,000 words,” is still relevant today. A good image can tell a story in an instant, and if you want to create engagement from your audience, then you need to put images at the core of your message.
For images that are high-quality and have extendable licenses, I recommend sourcing paid images from a stock photo house like iStockphoto, shutterstock, or Adobe Stock. Other indie stock houses worth mentioning are Moyo Studio, which allows you to download up to 50 free images, and Social Squares which has a limit of 20 free images.
However, if your project is on a budget, but you don’t want to sacrifice image quality, here is my go-to list for images that are free. Bookmark the sites and save them for later use!
Photos
1) Unsplash
Unsplash is my go to for many of my designs. The images are beautiful, high-quality and free for personal and commercial use. The attribution for the photo is not required, but appreciated.
2) Rawpixel
I love Rawpixel. They have a very diverse library of stock photos, illustrations, graphics, mockups, templates and logos. Images are free when on public domain, or starting at $3/month for premium photos.
3) Pexels
Pexels offers free photos and videos for commercial use under a Pexels license. You may provide attribution for the photo, but it is not required.
4) Nappy
Wow, Nappy blew me away! In all my years of design, I haven’t been on a stock photo site with so many beautiful and high-quality photos of black and brown people. And as a Latina, representation in photos is super important to me. All photos are free for commercial use with no attribution required.
5) Burst
Burst is powered by Shopify. It provides photos in low-resolution and high-resolution formats making them perfect for websites and most other design applications. All photos are free for commercial use with no attribution required.
6) Pixabay
Pixabay has a huge variety of images, illustrations, vectors, videos and sound effects. All of the content is released under a Pixabay license with no attribution required.
Illustrations
7) Blush
Blush is a design tool powered by artists from around the world. It makes illustrations customizable by giving you the ability to mix and match elements from any collection. Pricing plans are forever-free or $12/month, and all illustrations can be used on personal or commercial designs. Some notable collections to choose from include Open Peeps, Open Doodles, and Humaaans.
8) Undraw
Undraw is an open source tool that provides illustrations you can use completely free of charge for personal and commercial projects. You can customize the images by using the color picker tool, and download them in SVG format.
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Icons
9) iconmonstr
Created by Alexander Kahlkopf an icon designer from Germany, iconmonstr offers more than 4,500 icons in more than 300 curated collections. All icons are free for commercial use.
10) The Noun Project
The Noun Project started in 2010 by offering icons as a visual language for the world. It has recently expanded to offer photos as well. Their assets feature contributions from artists from around the world making it a truly diverse and global collection that champions inclusion.
11) Animaticons
Animated GIFs! Who doesn’t love an animated gif!!? Animaticons make it easy to add animated icons to your next project by making them easy to insert via code on your next email, presentation or website. The library is small with a couple of collections that are free, and others that are as little as $5.00 for 30 animated icons.
One more free tool for photos
12) Removebg
I saved the best tool for last! I can say that it literally changed my life. I used to spend hours in Photoshop clipping out a person. Even with the advanced tools for clipping hair, it was still a time-consuming task. When I found removebg, it blew my mind how quickly the tool worked and how high-quality the results were, and I don’t mean that lightly. I am a Photoshop pro, and this image background removal tool is excellent. Give it a try and let me know if you like it!
That’s it! What are your go to tools? Am I missing anything? Let me know in the comments below.
Hi, I’m Monica. I’m a brand and website designer with a background in graphic design. I am a mom, creative, and entrepreneur. I started my side hustle about 10 years ago. When I became a mom, I knew it was time to leave my day job and take on my business full-time. The last 5 years of my business have been full of growing pains, but also many wins. I’ve been blessed with wonderful clients that have helped me survive the pandemic, and in turn, I’m here spilling design and business knowledge on these pages. My goal is to help small creative businesses thrive and accomplish their biggest dreams. What’s your dream?
