When I first started off in the communications industry working on some projects with very low budget, I struggled with the implementation of big ideas simply because there wasn’t any visuals we could create without paying the price. We couldn’t take images off the Internet because of copyright issues and we had less than 24 hours to come out with a stunning design. And the graphic designer who was working with me totally blew the top when I told him the only way to go around it was to illustrate. I wasn’t good with illustration; and I thought as a senior graphic designer, he should be able to handle illustration easily. He dropped the case two hours after the clock started ticking and I panicked.

Then a friend recommended me some websites from which I can download free vectors to be used, and for commercial purposes too! Since then, I find that these online resources could be quite a saviour at times, especially when you have a project with low or no budget at all and you have very little time to draw from scratch. I started collecting free vectors for my Vector Bible (that’s what I call it) whenever I have time to surf the Internet. I only download those that are license-free for commercial usages and keep them in a file tugged somewhere in my working documents. And I find it extremely useful for every designing projects I work on. It’s more than a source of inspiration, it saves you time – giving you more time to come out with big ideas that work. Here are some of my favourite download sites.

Vecteezy

Vector Junky

Vector4free

123 Free Vectors

ForDesigner

Cool Vectors

Free Vector Graphics

Free Vector Download

Round Pixel

123Vectors

I strongly encourage all designers to create a Vector Bible for themselves. It doesn’t matter if you are a web designer or an offline designer, a Vector Bible is both convenient and essential to your designing experience. It saves you hassle and gives you more time to explore visual ideas. Just make sure that the collection you have is license-free for commercial use. Of course, you can download other free vectors as well. Personally, I have two folders in my Vector Bible: Personal (free vectors for personal use only) and Commercial (free vectors for commercial use). I refer to the relevant categories when I need to use any of the free vectors I downloaded.

So ya, have fun browsing through the websites. And if you have some of your own to recommend, leave me the links under comments. Sharing is caring.

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