Your business needs visibility, and to have enough visibility, you must stand out and leave a lasting impression for your customers and the general public – having powerful, engaging, and eye-catching graphics can surely do wonders for your business.
But first, let us explain what graphic design is. To put it simply, graphics design is the art of visual communication by using artistically placed texts, photos, and illustrations that are combined to form singular and cohesive imagery that depicts the idea and message you want to convey. It can be in the form of brandings and logos, website designs, marketing materials, social media promotions, signs, billboards and so much more. This can be hard, especially for those who don’t have a resident designer on their team, good news is, modern technology has made it possible for everyone to have access to graphic design tools and be able to use them with ease.
There are numerous tools and apps out there that make these possible for you, coupled with a reliable and creative designer, you can achieve the designs that can really help your business be more visible. We have compiled a list of some graphic design tools we found and tried that have left an impression on us for their usability and great functionality.
Canva
Canva is possibly one of the most known graphic design tools out there. Not only is it easy to use, but you are also given access to multiple (and more as they add more almost daily) design templates for pretty much anything. They also offer a good amount of free usable HD Images that you can use royalty-free even with their free account offering. Their Pro-versions allow you to download crisper images and lets you use their pretty reliable background eraser tool.
If you are working as a social media manager, there is also an in-app scheduling tool that allows you to schedule your posts on your social media platforms right after finishing every design. They also offer printing services that deliver the goods right to your doorstep should you wish to avail of this offering.
Collaboration and team editing is made possible as well as anyone from anywhere on your team can access the designs, make comments/changes needed. A downloadable app that is compatible with your phone and PC is also available making it easier to design graphics on the go.
With an extensive library of 400k+ templates, you can customize them to your needs. Your brand identity can be applied to presentations, emails, or video templates, plus for social, designs can be automatically resized for different platforms from the tip of your fingertips.
Here is a summary of the templates they are offering:
- Videos
- Instagram Posts
- Presentations (16:9)
- Flyers
- Posters
- Facebook Posts
- Newsletters
- Instagram Stories
- A4 Documents
- Logos
- Resumes
- Reports
- Your Stories
- LinkedIn Banners
- Facebook Covers
- Mobile Videos
- Calendars
- Proposals
- Business Cards
- Postcards
- Cards (Landscape)
- Certificates
- LinkedIn Posts
- Invitations (Square)
- Letterheads
- Email Headers
- Twitter Posts
- Letters
- Banners
- Infographics
- Brochures
- ZoomVirtual Backgrounds
- Graphs
- Magazine Covers
- Posters
- Invitations
- Planners
- Desktop Wallpapers
- Worksheets
- Invoices
- Photo Collages
- Presentations (4:3)
- Email Signatures
- Announcements
- YouTube Thumbnails
- Book Covers
- Animated Social Media
- Blog Banners
- Programs
- Instagram Reels Videos
You can use Canva for free, and they do offer different packages depending on the size of your team.
Canva Pro is $119.99 when paid annually or $12.99 paid monthly, for up to 5 people. Any additional team member is $60.00/year ($5.00/month) on a yearly plan.
BeFunky
They offer revolutionary designs plus the freedom to create more for less, with a small marginal learning curve that allows even non-designers to create eye-catching content.
They have partnered with stock imagery websites like Pixabay and Pexels, which enabled them to make it cheaper and easier for you to have pretty much everything you’ll need to achieve the brand identity you and your business need.
BeFunky’s Photo Editor offers a collection of Touch Up tools that help you always look your best. Using innovative Artificial Intelligence, this tool gives you professional portrait retouching results, all in a single click. BeFunky’s Photo Editor gives you the ability to remove unwanted objects so you can salvage almost any photo.
Easily remove the background of your image to make it transparent or replace it with a solid color! Using our powerful A.I. technology, this tool detects the subject in your photo and erases the background around it. Use it to replace your photo background with a solid color or transparent background. You don’t need any photo editing skills to use the tool.
They offer a variety of templates that enable you to design almost anything for everything. The innovative BeFunky Graphic Designer makes it simple to design however you want. Take advantage of a huge selection of pre-designed templates, or if you feel like truly embracing your newfound freedom, create a project from scratch with our easy-to-use graphic design tools.
Here is a summary of the templates they are offering:
- Banner Maker
- Flier Maker
- Poster Maker
- Card Maker
- Infographic Maker
- Brochure Make
BeFunky is free to use, but should you want to upgrade your use of it further, this tool’s subscription won’t break the bank. You only have to pay 59.88 dollars annually or 9.99 dollars monthly. You will then have access to all its editing functions of this tool with their upgraded plan.
Desygner
If you are a fan of Shutterstock images, this might be the tool for you. Designer lets you use royalty-free images and videos from Shutterstock directly from their graphic design editor – and incorporate them into your designs. They also offer a reliable background remover tool in the app that guarantees the best results every time. An in-app scheduling tool allows you to schedule your posts on your social media platforms right after finishing every design is readily available when using this tool.
VistaCreate
VistaCreate, like others from this list, offers easily accessible templates that you can edit to be tailored to your company’s branding and identity. It is free and you can easily download its app on your phone and get simpler designs done even on the go.
Fotor
Fotor is an online photo editor like Photoshop including photo editing and graphic design functions. Fotor’s photo editor makes editing images super easy. Fotor’s photo editor is powerful, offering multiple platforms. Except for the online photo editor, it has the photo editor app versions including iOS photo editor and Android photo editor as well as programs for Windows and Mac. Those photo editor software are all free to download.
Bonus Tools that may be useful:
Sometimes you’re gonna need more than just basic graphics. If you are printing a huge billboard for business promotion or would want to reduce the risk of images shrinking in size whilst being sent to someone, vector images may be more suited to your needs. Here are a few bonus tools that allow you to create free vector graphics.
Vectr
Vectr is a simple yet powerful Free graphics editor that lets you design/edit vector graphics like a pro via its web and desktop cross-platform, without a steep learning curve. Vectr’s based graphics editor is free forever. Creating graphics is made even faster and simpler with time-saver tools and features powered by AI. You can also communicate as changes are made within the editor itself which allows you to work faster towards the final artwork with minimal confusion. A free online tool that allows you to have the functionality of Photoshop for designing vector graphics without the complexity.