This is a small collection of some of the resources I’ve become especially attached to over the years – and some that come highly recommended from students and colleagues. Links to second-party curation collection sites are listed last. If you have suggestions for resources this page can’t live without, let me know.
– Holly
InDesign Secrets
Free tutorials, tips and advice for all things InDesign. Recommended reading for students in JRN 4200.
InDesign help tutorials from Adobe
To further enable that ongoing love/hate relationship with the evil software monopoly we can’t live without. You can also find the same line of tuts for their other products, such as Illustrator and Photoshop.
I Love Typography
John Boardley loves typography so damn hard he runs this absurdly magnificent site. More intrigue: he’s British and lives in Vietnam. With a cat. Visit soon. The site, not John.
Envato Design Tutorials
This mega purveyor of digital products and services offers a massive library of free tutorials – more than 25,000 to be inexact.
Typography Primer
Have a yearn to kern? Got a problem with your font’s x-height? This concise but complete manual is the word. Adobe.
Society of News Design
International organization for news media professionals and visual communicators. Examples of excellence, competition, advice and job postings. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s more hip than elitist.
AIGA The Professional Association for Design
Just the largest community ever of design advocates and practitioners, that’s all. Events, standards, examples, inspiration. And say it, A. I. G. A.
Unsplash Free Photos
Gifted by a group of gifted photographers who are so generous we forgive them immediately for gratuitous use of filters.
Pantone
“The undisputed world-renowned authority on color … and accurate communication of color.” Don’t believe us? Just ask them yourself. Cool site, but the imperious attitude is a buzzkill.
Society of Publication Design
Vast resources for anyone who is in any way contributing to visual storytelling. Shaping the future of visual culture? It feels like they might be.
Font Squirrel
Tagline: Free front utopia. We agree.
Design Resource Curation from Canva
My colleague, Laura Fry, turned me on to Canva and I don’t know how I lived so long without it. The developers of this capable little design app have pulled together a dreamy list of tools, filters, imagery, tutorials and podcasts that will take you a year to explore – something to fill your days while you wait for the next season of “Game of Thrones.” When you’re finished, take Canva for a test drive, if you haven’t already.
Free Design Resources from Shillington design school
Everything from mood board apps to free graphics. Plan a playdate here with your design friends.