Basic Flyer Design: 6 Inspirational Ideas to Try
Not long ago, I compiled a list of 6 Free Resources You Can Use for basic flyer design. In this article, I'll share some of my favorite creative resources for images, ideas, and inspiration.
1. Beautiful Public Domain Images from Pixabay
Whether you are looking for design inspiration, cover images for your Facebook page, pins for Pinterest, or imagery for your newsletter, Pixabay is a great spot to browse for public domain images. Remember, you can always review greater detail on licensing, creative commons, and public domain at Creative Commons.
2. Color palettes from Design Seeds
Managing color can be overwhelming. Remember to keep it simple. If you have no idea where to begin, browse Design Seeds for beautiful palettes. To the right of the palette, you can hover over the color you'd like to use to see the HEX code.
One useful way to use the palettes and codes is for creating beautiful newsletters in MailChimp. When editing the design of your MailChimp template, you can type the HEX code right in to modify the color. (Yep, that's what the goofy letter and number combination next to the color box, with a hashtag, can do for you.) For additional information on using the colors in the Design Seed palettes, read here.
3. Textures from Lost and Taken
If you need a texture for a flyer background, Lost and Taken is your resource. Find torn paper, lined paper, cardboard, metal, grunge textures, leaves, fabric, etc., etc., etc. Consider using some of the images with filters over other images to create texture, or just use them as a simple background for your flyer with a nice bold trusty font.
4. Test drive at Font Squirrel
I've shared my love for Font Squirrel a time or two before, but this time I'd like to share the "test drive" mode. If you have a propensity for typeface installation, it's handy to have a program like Nexus Font to preview and manage your collection. If you like to test drive before you commit, or just want to see some options for bold flyer titles, take some letters for a spin on Font Squirrel. When browsing the font offerings, you can click on a font you'd like to take a closer look at, then click on the "Test Drive" tab at the top. You'll find it next to "Specimens." Type in your flyer title and try out various sizes. If you like what you see, you can download and install the font. For instructions, check out this article.
Not sure which fonts to try first? Some of my go-to fonts are League Gothic, Ostrich, Junction, and Garamond. More on that another day.
5. Crazy Ideas from Fast Company Design
If you just need something a little different to get your brain moving in another direction, you can't beat photos of insects wearing hats made of water, a typeface made entirely of the season's hottest clothes, or a city built entirely of chewing gum.
6. Get Outside
Nothing competes.
Related articles
- Basic Flyer Design: Free VBS Flyer Background (corissanelsonart.com)
- Basic Flyer Design: First, Keep it Simple (corissanelsonart.com)
- How to Choose a Typeface (designmodo.com)
- 10 Great Places for Free High Quality Fonts (designify.me)
