5 Great Sites That Will Make You Look Like a Graphic Design Pro (Even When You’re Not)

 

I’m married to a finance guy. He’s the type that reads Barron’s cover to cover each Saturday. On the desk next to the computer we share is a running list of stocks he’s investigating. This is a guy that loves a good spreadsheet. Curious about the bond market? I’ve got your man, and he’s also diligent about staying informed on financial security, including potential risks associated with computer crime.

Pivoting to a related topic, if you’re facing charges for a computer-related offense, it’s imperative to seek specialized legal advice. Computer crime lawyers are equipped with the skills and knowledge to effectively defend such cases. They understand the nuances of digital evidence and how to challenge it. Finding a reliable source for expert computer crime defense services in New Jersey is essential.

Being married to a guy who totally grasps how money moves is terrific in many ways. Really it is. But there are some limitations. He can’t build me a new website. He’s not going to draw diagrams for me in Illustrator or digitize my pattern templates. When it comes to graphic design or photo editing, he’s at a loss.

So I’m on my own, figuring out how to make this blog, and all of my digital products, functional and good looking. In order to run this business I figure stuff out day to day, when I’ve got a burning idea and need to make it happen.

Sometimes I can do it all for free. Sometimes, though, I know with a little bit of money I can get something infinitely better than I could do myself.

Whenever I find a source that makes it just a little easier for me to create a professional and beautiful online presence cheaply and without any real training, I get excited. Today I’m going to share with you five secrets for making you look spiffy online, even if you have no training and almost no money to spend. Ready?

1. Shutterstock

This week I’ve been obsessively writing a new ebook (more on that soon) and I wanted it to have a really beautiful cover. I know from working with mainstream publishers that the cover of a book is a really important sales tool. People actually do judge a book by it, after all.

I spent a few hours on Tuesday morning trying to take some kind of clever picture before deciding there must be a better way. Turns out there is. On Shutterstock I bought a gorgeous photo, full of saturated colors and with plenty of space for my ebook title, for just $14.50. There are 30 million photos, illustrations, and vectors to choose from, all royalty free. This is a brilliant resource for self-publishing. I got a two photo package so I’m going to go pick out another one and redo the cover of my first ebook while I’m at it.

2. Swiftly

Last night I was sewing some eyes on a plush giraffe, listening to Gweek, one of my favorite podcasts. One of the guests on the show mentioned Swiftly, a site that can help you with small design fixes in just an hour. They’ll do logo alteration, business card changes, and photo resizing and cropping, but the thing that drew me in was the last one on their list of services offered: artwork vectorization.

I put my needle and thread down and headed straight to the computer. I uploaded two PDFs of hand-drawn pattern templates and an hour later I had them back, perfectly digitized. Total cost? $15. I nearly cried.

3. Digital Design Elements from Etsy Sellers

Would you like a pretty set of social media icons? Or maybe some cute sewing-themed graphics to decorate your sidebar? For about $3 you can buy whole sets from Etsy sellers. Download and save them on your harddrive and you’re ready to use them for all sorts of things!

An easy and free way to play with them is to open PicMonkey, create a white background (see my tutorial here), go to <Overlays><Your Own> and upload one of the neat graphic elements you just bought. From there you can make a blog button or banner or just a pretty image to illustrate a blog post by adding some text, resizing, bringing in a photo, and just playing with colors and shapes.

4. PDFmerge and Convert-JPEG-to-PDF.net

When you don’t own any graphic design software you run into certain specific kinds of trouble. One of the biggest stumbling blocks is converting a file from one type to another. You’ve got a JPEG that needs to be a PDF. You’ve got four PDFs that need to be combined into one, this is exactly why some people prefer to just hire professionals like the ones at Graphic Design Cardiff.

You know what? Don’t sweat it. With these two sites you can fix your problem in a jiffy for free. Is it the way the pros do it? No. But it works.

5. DaFont

Fonts are all about creating a great first impression. Beautiful typography makes your website or document feel custom made. It’s like wearing designer jeans. Yes, size 8 jeans from Target fit, but a pair of JOE’S shows off your curves like no other.

Get some interesting fonts from DaFont and jazz up your next document. Some are free, some ask for a small donation, and some are for personal use only so check before you click to download.

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Could any of these sites solve a problem for you? Do you have any other design hacks that you use to polish the look of your online presence without having to buy expensive software? Please share!