I’ll start this post by simply saying: Mike Taylor knows how to find things. He’s constantly posting articles and resources on Twitter and LinkedIn that, if curated in one place, would probably serve you better than any masters program in instructional design.
This post borrows heavily from one of his sites on which he’s compiled “a collection of the best free design resources on the web.” If you have some time, I encourage you to check out his site.
Sometimes having too many choices can be overwhelming, so I’ve narrowed his resources down into the following list of 18 resources that may be helpful if you’re specifically looking for new places to find stock photos, fonts or icons.
9 Places to Find Free and Low-cost Photo Images
- Cupcake: https://cupcake.nilssonlee.se/
- Death to the Stock Photo: https://deathtothestockphoto.com/
- Dreamstime: https://www.dreamstime.com/
- NASA Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/
- Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/
- Stockio: https://www.stockio.com/
- Stokpic: https://stokpic.com/
- Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/
- Vintage Stock Photos: https://vintagestockphotos.com/
5 Places to Find Your Perfect Font
- 1001 Free Fonts: https://www.1001freefonts.com/
- Dafont.com: https://www.dafont.com/
- Font Combinations Kit: https://fontcomb.kkuistore.com/
- Google Fonts: https://fonts.google.com/
- Urban Fonts: https://www.urbanfonts.com/
4 Places to Find That Elusive Icon (or Set of Icons)
- Icon Gallery: https://icongal.com/
- IconBros: https://www.iconbros.com/
- IconFinder: https://www.iconfinder.com/
- Illustrio: https://illustrio.com/
I’ve had the opportunity to use some of these sites and I’ve found them very easy to use, which has resulted in much more visually appealing slide presentations.
Yes, the content of a presentation should come first, but the visual packaging of information is incredibly important. With images that help a learner better connect to the content or with fonts that create the intended “feel” that you’re trying to get across, your presentation will be more meaningful.
If you try out some of these sites, I’d love to hear more about your experiences – have you been able to find what you’re looking for? Have your slide designs improved?
Please try a few out and let me know how they helped (or didn’t help) you! And of course, thank you Mike Taylor for continuing to find and share all sorts of amazing resources.