If the idea for your next project includes graffiti lettering, then venture on over to Graffiti Creator to start vandalizing your desktop! The site, run by Mike Wigén, claims to be the first “graffiti generator” on the Web. I won’t argue the point, but I will say that it’s one of the best ones I’ve used. It allows just enough customization to make it interesting, yet simple enough to save the image and easily trace in Adobe Illustrator if need be (hint-hint).
Category: Resources
Free font: BlackJack
One thing a designer can never have enough of is fonts. As I look in my Suitcase Fusion 2 database, I see that I have over 4,100 fonts – one of which I just added this morning. 
BlackJack is a beautifully designed script font by Typadelic, and available for free from FontSquirrel. While you’re there, be sure to check out the growing list of excellent fonts available.
Free raindrop textures
You know what they say: “Spring showers bring awesome textures to everyone… and flowers – for free!” 
The latest Bittbox Free Texture Tuesday selection available is Rainy Day, five beautiful high-resolution raindrop textures available for download, and ready to use in your next Photoshop project.
250+ design template photos
Many times I find myself having to mock-up designs on various items such as bags, DVD covers, coffee mugs, and other various gift items for clients. Having an archive full of blank photos of such items goes a long way in making the task easier. 
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Using shapes and gradients in Adobe Illustrator
With simple shapes and gradients, this Adobe Illustrator tutorial will show you how to create an alarm clock icon. We’ll be using Illustrator CS4 for this tutorial, but those of you with older versions of Illustrator should be able to follow along as well. 
VectorTuts is a great site for Illustrator users to explore. Be sure to check out the community links section as well!
Free font: MOD
FontFabric has made a delicious font called MOD available for download which you’re free to use in your personal and commercial work. 
At first glance, the font doesn’t appear to be all that attractive – particularly when it’s just against a white background. But the font really shines when you use it as a mask on a photograph. It’s also perfect for creating a subtle text headline against a richly colored backdrop.
Free high-res concrete textures
Bittbox gives away a pack of high-resolution textures for use in your design projects. Each texture is very high-quality, suitable for commercial printing. This week, Bittbox released their 100th texture – Concrete. The pack contains five grungy, cracked and spotted concrete textures. You can download them here.
Free font: Aller
The good folks at FontSquirrel have yet another great font for designers to download, absolutely free to use in personal or commercial projects. 
Aller includes 7 font styles, light, light italic, regular, regular italic, bold, bold italic, and display regular.
14 Free vector art resource sites
Logo, Web and print designers, as well as Adobe Illustrator users in general, will find the following free vector art sites to be a great resource, and a huge time-saver. Before you start squacking about “real designers don’t use clip-art,” consider that you don’t have to use the artwork as a whole. I often times use small pieces of the artwork found on these sites as logo elements, highlight graphics in brochures, etc. Because they’re vector, they’re easily manipulated and customized. None of these sites actually create the vector art. Instead they simply do the searching for you and put it all into one easy place. Because of that, you’re likely to notice that many of these sites feature the same artwork. Don’t let that fool you into thinking they’re all the same. Most of them feature artwork not found on the other sites listed. Bookmark the sites and check back often, as they’re constantly updated with free vector art. As always, check for a license or other stipulations before using commercially – though most allow it. (more…)
Looking for free stock photos? Visit the Morgue!
I’m always on the lookout for interesting stock photo sites. Everyone knows about stock.xchng for a huge collection of free photos. But there are other options out there. One of my long-time favorites is the Morgue. 
MorgueFile has been around for years, and is a great public image archive for creatives, by creatives. MorgueFile offers a massive collection of user-contributed images, free for personal or commercial use. The images are high resolution, and vary greatly in quality and content. It’s a great site to find photos of obscure topics.