Resources for DIY designers, small businesses, and curious creatives

Your go-to toolbox for clear, confident design. This page gathers the tools, references, and learning hubs we recommend most often to clients. None of these links are sponsored unless clearly noted. They are simply resources that help you understand design, make better decisions, and get more comfortable working on your own visuals.

Looking for our own free tools? The Brand Name Nerd toolkit has a WCAG contrast checker, palette puller, font pairing previewer, pricing calculators and more, all running in your browser.

1. Understanding your brand

Before you pick a color or open Canva, it helps to know what you're actually trying to say. These resources build the conceptual foundation.

• Canva Design School: canva.com/design-school
  Short, clear tutorials for beginners. Start here if the design basics feel overwhelming.
• CARI Institute (Aesthetics): cari.institute/aesthetics
  A thoughtful resource for learning why good design feels the way it does.
• StoryBrand BrandScript (free tool): storybrand.ai
  A structured framework for clarifying your message. Use it to write your one-liner and homepage copy. Free to use.

2. Color

You don't need a formal color theory education; you need a repeatable palette and the codes to match. These tools make that simple.

• Brand Name Nerd color tools: brandnamenerd.com/tools/color
  Palette puller (pull five colors from any image), WCAG contrast checker and a color-vision simulator. Free, in your browser.
• Coolors: coolors.co
  Fast palette generator. Good for experimenting before locking in a brand system.
• Huemint: huemint.com
  AI-assisted palette generator that shows your colors applied to mock brand assets in context. Often more useful than abstract swatches for non-designers.
• Color Hunt: colorhunt.co
  Curated palettes for quick options without digging through color theory.
• Adobe Color: color.adobe.com
  Reliable for testing combinations and building custom palettes.
• Design Seeds: design-seeds.com
  Soft, earthy palette inspiration sourced from photography. Useful for organic or seasonal color ideas.

Accessibility: check your palette before you commit

• Brand Name Nerd Contrast Checker: brandnamenerd.com/tools/color
  Our own WCAG AA/AAA checker, free and in your browser. Add up to five colors and it tests every pairing.
• Color Contrast Checker (Deque): color-contrast-checker.deque.com
  Make sure your text is readable on any background. Essential, not optional.
• Contrast Grid (Eightshapes): contrast-grid.eightshapes.com
  Check multiple color combinations for accessibility at once.

3. Typography & fonts

Your fonts are doing more work than you think. These resources help you choose well and pair confidently.

• Brand Name Nerd font tools: brandnamenerd.com/tools/type
  Our free font pairing previewer (with shuffle-able moods) and font license helper. Start here, then browse the libraries below.
• Font Pair: fontpair.co
  Built for finding font combinations that work together. Start here if you don't know how to pair typefaces.
• Google Fonts: fonts.google.com
  A safe, free library of typefaces for print and digital. Reliable licensing, wide variety.
• Typewolf: typewolf.com
  A practical place to browse typefaces without falling into the free font trap. More advanced; use when you're ready to go deeper.
• Fonts In Use: fontsinuse.com
  Real-world examples of typefaces in logos, signage, magazines, and print. Good for understanding how fonts behave in context.
• Global Fonts: globalfonts.pro
  A big font directory for browsing by style. Read the license on each font page before commercial use. They vary.
• Open Font: openfont.org
  Open-licensed typefaces you can use, share and modify. A safe default when the budget for type is zero.
• Kern Club: kernclub.com
  Independent foundry with retro, display and novelty faces, the kind of type that gives a brand a personality Google Fonts can't. Check each font's license for your use.
• Vigilante Typeface Corporation: fontsquirrel.com (VTC foundry)
  Comic, tattoo and horror-flavored display faces. Check each font's license before commercial use.
• int10h.org, The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack: int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts
  Pixel-perfect fonts from vintage PCs and terminals, free under a Creative Commons license. Our go-to for retro-tech flavor.
• Canva Pro fonts: canva.com/pro
  If you already pay for Canva, its Pro library covers most brand-safe needs and the licensing is handled for you inside Canva. Don't export them for use elsewhere.

4. Logo & file prep

Having a logo is not the same as having your logo files in order. These resources help you understand formats, versions, and templates so your brand is actually usable.

• Templatemaker.nl: templatemaker.nl
  Free custom-sized packaging and papercraft dielines in PDF, SVG, and Cricut-compatible formats. Invaluable for anyone making their own boxes, bags, labels, or booth materials.
• SVG Repo: svgrepo.com
  Free SVG icons and vectors with clear licensing. Useful for supplementing your brand kit.
• The Noun Project: thenounproject.com
  Large icon library with a free tier. Clear licensing for simple projects.
• Game-Icons.net: game-icons.net
  Thousands of bold, single-color SVG icons (CC BY). Fantasy, science, tools, everyday objects. Great for stickers, badges and anything that needs to read at a glance.
• OpenSVG: opensvg.dev
  Open-source SVG icon library with SVG tools built in. The icon set behind many of the symbols in our own site and print work.
• Open Symbols: opensymbols.org
  Open-licensed symbol sets built for communication and accessibility. Clear, simple pictograms.

5. Voice & messaging

If your visuals are the look, your words are the human. These tools help you write a one-liner, tighten your bio, and say what you actually do in plain language.

• Hemingway App: hemingwayapp.com
  Paste your bio or homepage copy and it flags what is too complex, too passive, or too long. Free in browser.
• CoSchedule Headline Analyzer: coschedule.com/headline-analyzer
  Free tool for testing whether your page titles and headers are doing their job.
• StoryBrand BrandScript: storybrand.ai
  Also listed in Section 1. Worth returning to once you have your palette and logo sorted, because the messaging work lands differently once the visual foundation is in place.

6. Digital presence

Your digital presence is a storefront. You do not need to be everywhere; you need to be clear where people actually find you.

• Google Business Profile (free): business.google.com
  One of the most underused free tools for local businesses. If you serve customers in a physical area, this is non-negotiable.
• Linktree (free tier): linktr.ee
  A clean link-in-bio hub. Useful when you need one place to send people from Instagram or TikTok.
• HowToGapps: howtogapps.com
  Helpful for anyone managing their business through Google Workspace and trying to automate small workflows.
• Figma Community (free templates): figma.com/community
  Free templates for planning social graphics and content systems. More powerful than Canva for layout, with a steeper learning curve.

7. Visual inspiration

Good moodboarding is not about collecting pretty things. It's about finding patterns. Use these resources to build a reference board before you start any project.

• Pinterest: pinterest.com
  Make a private board and collect references before you start a brand or project. Look for patterns across what you save; those patterns are your aesthetic.
• Savee.it: savee.it
  Cleaner than Pinterest for brand moodboarding. Less algorithm noise, more intentional curation.
• Minimalissimo: minimalissimo.com
  Refined visual inspiration across architecture, product design, and branding.
• Inspiration Grid: theinspirationgrid.com
  A broad mix of design, illustration, packaging, and branding examples.
• Smashing Magazine: smashingmagazine.com
  Articles on design, UX, and workflow. Good for understanding the thinking behind design decisions, not just the aesthetics.

8. Free assets

Free does not mean low quality. These are the sources we trust for photography, textures, icons, and archival material.

• Unsplash Collections: unsplash.com/collections
  High-quality photography for moodboards and quick visuals.
• Pexels: pexels.com
  Commercially reliable photo licensing. Good alternative or complement to Unsplash.
• Vecteezy: vecteezy.com
  Free vectors, photos and video with a clear free-license tier (attribution required on the free plan). Good for illustrative vector elements when you need more than a photo.
• Reshot: reshot.com
  Free icons and illustrations. Less generic than Noun Project, with a more distinctive visual style.
• Public Domain Review: publicdomainreview.org
  Historical textures, vintage illustration, old typography, and archival graphics. Endlessly useful for adding character to brand work.
• Openverse: openverse.org
  Creative Commons search across multiple libraries. Good when you need a specific image with verifiable licensing.

9. Print & packaging

Print does not need to be expensive or complicated, but it does need to be set up correctly. These resources help you plan, template, and preview before you send anything to a printer.

• Templatemaker.nl: templatemaker.nl
  Free packaging dielines and papercraft templates. Custom-sized, downloadable as PDF or SVG. Also listed in Section 4. Worth bookmarking twice.
• The Dieline: thedieline.com
  Brand packaging inspiration and design analysis. Helpful when planning labels, stickers, or merchandise.
• Mockup World: mockupworld.co
  Free product mockups for presenting your designs before printing. Useful for showing clients or testing how something will look in real life.

10. Workflow & business tools

Branding is only useful if the business behind it runs smoothly. These tools help with the operational side: quoting, invoicing, and keeping things organized.

• Brand Name Nerd pricing calculators: brandnamenerd.com/tools/pricing
  Hourly rate, break-even, markup vs. margin, sale price and a print-ready invoice maker. Free, private, in your browser.
• Wave (free invoicing & accounting): waveapps.com
  Free invoicing, receipts, and basic accounting for small businesses. No subscription required for core features.
• Notion (free tier): notion.so
  Flexible workspace for project tracking, client notes, and content planning. Worth learning even at the free tier.
• HowToGapps: howtogapps.com
  Also listed in Section 6. Relevant here for anyone building workflows inside Google Workspace.

11. Software we actually use

You do not need an Adobe subscription to make professional work. This is the stack behind most Brand Name Nerd projects.

• Affinity (Designer, Photo, Publisher): affinity.serif.com
  Professional vector, photo and layout apps (now part of Canva). Handles print-ready files, spot colors and packaging dielines: the desktop stack behind most of our print work.
• OBS Studio: obsproject.com
  Free, open-source recording and streaming. We use it for process videos, tutorials and live doodle streams.
• SF Symbols: developer.apple.com/sf-symbols
  Apple's icon library, free for Mac. Useful for app mockups and UI work; check Apple's usage terms before using outside Apple platforms.
• Brand Name Nerd toolkit: brandnamenerd.com/tools
  Our own browser tools: no install, no account.