This list of free multimedia resources is for business owners who are working on a new website. That is either a new website or redesigning it. It’s also useful for web designers who want to add to their resources to build websites better.
Most web designers won’t provide all the content you need for your website design. That is unless you’re working with a marketing company and paying them a lot of money to do it for you. Learn more about what you need to provide and what a web designer will provide during a web design project.
This list of resources will give you a good source of free multimedia resources that can make any web design project a visual success. Don’t just focus on the visual, though, because a website also needs to focus on conversion and optimization for search engines.
If your website doesn’t rank and convert then what good is it, right?
We use many of these resources for every affordable website design project we work on. Whether we’re looking for lightweight icons, SVGs, or CSS backgrounds these resources will satisfy you. From the visually obscure to pictures of cityscapes, these free multimedia resources cover all your needs to help your website communicate your message and look good while doing it.
7 Free Multimedia Resources For Web Design Projects
This is the list of resources you need to choose the right visuals for your web design project. Each resource is completely free but pay special attention to the license on each individual item. Sometimes they can be used for commercial use (ie. business) and sometimes they cannot.
The last thing you want to do is incorrectly use an image that’s not allowed to be used for commercial purposes. We also put together a guide that will help you understand the fair legal use of multimedia and content on the internet that will help keep you from getting in trouble with copyright infringement.
Here’s a summary of the resources covered on this post so you can jump to anything that interests you.
Here are the multimedia resources you need for a successful website.
Pixabay
There are a lot of free websites for multimedia, but this one combines the best of many resources. There’s no reason to go anywhere else for free images, illustrations, vectors, music, videos, and more.
SVG Backgrounds
We prefer working with SVG images as long as the image works well as a vector. Of course, you can’t convert a photo into an SVG and expect a small file size. But, for any vector image SVG is great because it’s lightweight and looks great.
This free resource lets you start with a background pattern and then personalize it further. You can change the settings and colors of the SVG until you get exactly what you need.
The best part? You can export the SVG background in a number of ways. You can export the code to create your own CSS class or you can export it as an SVG image. The flexibility is amazing!
Haikei
Create lots of different SVG design asset types with Haikei. You can start with a general shape or background type and then customize the design further. Once you’re done creating the design you can export it as an SVG or PNG.
Take a look at these two images we created in just a few minutes. To give you an idea of the size of each format, we put that there too. You see why we like using SVGs instead of PNG and JPG if possible?
BGJar
This resource might be one of our favorites. You start with any type of background you want and then customize it from there. The world map is definitely awesome, and you can even highlight different countries on it!
When you export your creation after customizing, there are tons of different options to save space and optimize your website. You can download an SVG image, or you can get the code with different options that are all really light on size.
Check out this world map we created in a few minutes.
This image exported as an SVG is pretty big (173 KB) but the code that you can download is minuscule (1.49 KB to 1.62 KB!)
Gradienta
This is a good resource if you just want to look through a list of options for gradients and then download one you like. There’s no ability to customize the gradient once you find something inline with what you like. There is a gradient editor that’s in alpha right now so more options are coming.
Sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and browse and this is a great resource for that.
CSS Icons
If want a new take on icons that are different than the standard Font Awesome then this is a good place to start. They’re open-source, free to use, and easy to either embed with CSS code, SVG code, or just download an SVG file.
There are lots of options for using these icons, or you can just call the whole list of icons and place them by calling them with a CSS class on an i tag, div or custom tag. It’s pretty easy to get a new take on icons with CSS Icons.
Remix Icon
Another take on icons for your website, Remix Icon has lots of options. Once you find the icon you like, you can embed them on your site with CSS or you can download a PNG or SVG. It’s nice that you can search the icons and there are so many to choose from.
How These Multimedia Resources Help Your Website Design Project
When you’re working on your website design project with a web designer, your job isn’t to create the website. That doesn’t mean you can’t (or shouldn’t) have any input into the design, though. In fact, it’s extremely important that you have input during the project even if at a basic level.
You’re paying someone to design your website, though, so your website designer should provide their expertise and do the work. But, they can’t do it all because web designers aren’t experts in copywriting, graphic design, or anything else that goes into a website.
With that in mind, you either have to work with an expert in those fields or provide it yourself. These multimedia resources will help you provide images, graphics, and other design elements that make a website even more successful.
You can browse some elements available on these websites and provide links to your website designer. They’re a good way to provide your website designer with more information about what you like. This can make your web design project go smoother.
If you want to take things even further, browse around the internet in markets related to yours for websites you love. Save the websites and provide them to your web designer. One of the questions we ask during our website design process is for examples of websites you love.
Conclusion
Your website is the most important part of your local marketing strategy. It’s a piece of online real estate that you own rather than relying on the whims of other companies (Facebook, Google, etc.). These multimedia resources will help during the affordable website design process.
You don’t have to be a design expert, but you do have to be able to determine what you like and don’t like. Browsing websites in your industry or the multimedia resources provided here will help you provide valuable input. Not only that, you’ll be able to provide additional multimedia resources beyond the free ones we provide you in every website design plan we have.
If you have any additional free multimedia resources that should be included in this post, please feel free to contact us with more information about it. We’re always happy to increase the number of free multimedia resources as long as they’re high quality and useful.