Every week, Creative Market offers 6 free downloads, typically including one font and one vector pack along with some images and a WordPress theme from what I’ve seen. They have restrictions as far as commercial use is concerned (1 project with up to 500 sales) with unlimited personal use, but the vector they provide is usually something I could see being a nice addition to have on file for decorative touches. For example, this week’s vector file includes a set of 110 round vector shapes plus some brushes.
A lot of the sites out there with free files seem a bit sketchy and I definitely want to be cautious to not steal artwork, but since this site is trustworthy, it’s nice to be able to get some files to play with each week. Plus, they definitely have some items I have bookmarked to purchase as I start projects once the Glowforge comes in.
Http://www.freeepik.com also offers daily design. Some are free for commercial use as well. Regardless it is a ton of inspiration and modifiable files. Be careful I wasted a whole day playing there.
Thanks for the link! It’s going to take a while to get through the 74,367 they say they have. Also going to have to work out some file organization to remember while files have which license types.
Free for personal use… how about non-profit redistribution? I am wondering if we could assemble a zip file for all Glowforge users which eventually contains a year or more worth of daily free items.
“You may not sublicense, resell, share, transfer, or otherwise redistribute the Item (e.g. as stock, in a tool or template, with source files, and/or not incorporated into an End Product) under any circumstances, not even for free.”
Yeah, you don’t want to get yourself in trouble by using something for personal use and later deciding to make money from it (especially since I know so many people here talk about forging some designs they’d want to sell as a business). ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT ON THE LICENSE!
That being said, there are some great websites out there that offer deals for design resources that you do have the rights to use commercially, so long as you don’t outright resell the resource. https://www.designcuts.com/ is one I direct all my design students to—they always have some high quality resources (fonts, vectors, etc.) at incredibly cheap pricepoints for what it would normally be to get your hands on them. And the fine print for them is pretty open for what you’re allowed to do with what you purchase: https://www.designcuts.com/licensing/…
EDIT: Although, even immediately after I post this, I double-checked further down the page and it does say using font to create graphic flattened alphabets, letterforms, wordart, digital alphabets (alphas), rubber stamps, embroidery letters, die-cut patterns or stencil designs is a no-no… So again, you need to always read your license. Guessing the stuff you create with these type of resources you could produce a product and sell with your own Glowforge, but you wouldn’t be able to submit your designs to the Glowforge catalog.
All else fails, ASK A LAWYER. You’re always safest creating your own original stuff (or if you’re serious about the business, partner with a good designer who can help you make the original stuff and then you both get paid more).