It’s a well-known fact that visual elements are an integral part of an effective social media / marketing strategy for any business. People are drawn to eye-catching images, graphics, etc. much more than they are written text. The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” doesn’t come from nowhere! But what do you do when you don’t have a graphic designer with the design software to hand? Luckily there are a handful of brilliant graphic design tools available that are both free and most importantly, easy to use, that can be accessed by anyone, allowing even the least experienced designers the ability to create powerful social media posts.
Here’s our 5 fave free design tools:
Canva is an amazing online tool that takes away all of the stress and guesswork away from creating anything and everything design! With thousands of templates made for specific sizes, e.g. Facebook post, Instagram story, Facebook cover, etc. you’re able to find what you’re looking for quickly with the confidence it’s fit for purpose. You can find templates just for inspiration or even ones made for your topic, e.g. events, offers, etc. so even those that feel they lack the needed creativity can still create something really effective!
Like most free tools, there are limits to what you can design and the level of customisation available to you. You will find that some elements such as images, graphics and audio are not available to you on the free version and that you cannot resize projects as you’d like. If you are going to be creating a large number of graphics or projects, you might find the Pro version of Canva is worth purchasing as you can access this for around £9.99 a month. But if you plan to use this every now and then for creating social media posts that don’t need high customisation or resizing for multiple reuse, the free version is perfect!
Design Wizard is very much like Canva but it offers all of its features on the free version! Again, it has thousands of templates to use, for social media posts, marketing materials, signs, posters, etc.! It has a huge library of over 1 million images, illustrations, graphics and videos for your use. You can also upload your own fonts, images and logos to fully personalise your projects. Custom colour palettes can be created and you’re able to resize any design to reuse across all spaces, e.g. Social Media platforms, banners, leaflets, etc.
Piktochart is your go to for anything infographic! Infographics have blown up over the past few years, with searches increasing over 800% in the last two years alone! These are an amazingly powerful way of sharing information in an easy to digest way, but without the design knowhow, these are difficult to create. Piktochart gives even the least experienced non-designers the platform to create basic but effective infographics. With over 400 templates, graphics and icons, Piktochart is a fantastic way to start learning the art of creating infographics.
If you work with photography in any way, shape or form, PicMonkey is your best friend! Resize, crop, colour-correct your images quickly and easily. Although it doesn’t have as many templates as Canva, it is a fantastic tool to do basic photo editing and design without the need to download software, and is available for free or as a premium version if you plan to use this frequently with access to more tools.
Pixlr is a free online tool that allows you to edit images and photos with 600+ effects, borders and overlays. It is now the UK’s top photo editing and design sites and is a favourite for Instagram and Social Media users who don’t yet have the skills to use technical, and often pricey, software. Although it is an amazing site for those who enjoy editing, it isn’t as user-friendly when it comes to sharing these images and graphics, so keep that in mind.
With all of these online tools, remember, free doesn’t necessarily mean easy! Take your time in learning how to use these websites to meet your needs. You’ll find lots of online tutorials to help you too so be sure to make use of these!
Here’s a Canva tutorial to get you started! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un50Bs4BvZ8
Contact our team to find out how we can help with your own graphic design!
