Resources
Royalty Free Images
Deposit Photos – This is probably one of the most secure in regards to getting safe photos that are free of copyright drama. They also have some vectors.
Creative Fabrica – Great for fonts, vectors, backgrounds and textures. I’ve even used a lot of their type effects and disected them to learn how to make my own.
Creative Market – Another great page for fonts, they have many from the type houses too. Also great for downloading large collections of matching images, backgrounds and symbols to make themed stationary.
Business
Google Workplace – I have my own web host account, I could host my email myself, but I choose to use the google servers for all our emails because it is more secure then shared IP hosting and it gets marked as spam way less often. It also allows you to keep all business stuff together with your business listing and analytics.
Quickbooks Online – I do all my accounting with this software, its super easy to do your GST and Tax Returns with it also as it gives you really simple reports that you can just copy and paste the figures from. You can do your BAS statements form this program too. And the iPad version is super easy to use and it looks nice which really helps when your on it so much!
Books
Pattern Pulse Volumn 1 – The first Pattern Pulse book, it’s available on Kindle which is fantastic because ifI don’t have a lot of room for physical books and I love just looking through this and reading peoples journeys while waiting in the school pickup line.
Pattern Pulse Volumn 2 – It’s only available printed right now but it such a pretty book and really inspiring to see such successful artists making beautiful things.
Digital Drawing Tools
Drawing Glove – These things are a godsend if you do digital drawing. Sometimes when I’m drawing in Procreate or Adobe Fresco my iPad decides to be ULTRA sensative and my palm just makes it go bonkers. These gloves are comfy to wear and stop the screen from reacting to my hands.
Apple Pencil Nibs – I didn’t realise I had worn down my Apple Pencil nib until I scratched my screen, it was only a little scratch but it stopped me drawing until these showed up, so now keep a backup of a few of them and check my nibs regularly.
Software
Adobe Cloud – Industry standard for the graphic design industry. Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are programs I use DAILY.
Procreate – This program is a drawing program that does way more than just drawing. You can make animations, patterns, composite images and even some typography. This is only available on iPads.
Goodnotes – I use this program on my MacBook, iPad and even my phone. I setup notebooks for each of my clients and I add inspo images and notes during communication. It makes a work file of our history which is handy to look back on.
Colour Assistance
Coolors – By far the most fun you can have with making a colour palette! Limited features as a free account but totally usable, $5 a month is barely anything if you want to get rid of the ads and save your palettes.
Adobe Colour Accessability Tools – This website is great for checking accessibility for colours. I used the contrast checker and also the colour blindness tests to make my colour palettes better suited for the masses.
Mock Ups
Shots – Make beautiful website mockups online buy uploading screenshots. This page does not work on Safari so make sure you have another browser handy.
