Pretty, inspirational and fun images are always a big hit on social media. People are more interested in your content when it's pleasing to the eye! And the great news is, there are several free apps and tools online that can help you design awesome, quality images for your website or social media without having a ton of design skills! Here's more about a few of our favorites:
Canva - A personal favorite of ours here at WAVA is Canva. We use Canva to quickly illustrate and design images for our social media channels, as well as our shareable images page. We like Canva because it's free, easy to use, and offers a variety of different pre-sized canvases to work on. Need a Facebook cover or a Twitter background photo? Don't bother looking up the sizes, Canva has them ready-made for you. Need some illustrations included in your photo? Canva offers TONS of free illustrations and photos for your use. You can also upload and use your own photos and graphics in Canva. There's no real learning curve in the program, the user interface is pretty self-explanatory. So feel free to jump in and play around!
Stencil - Super similar to Canva, Stencil is another free web photo-editing tool. Stencil offers a range of different graphics, fonts and tools for use as well. Stencil's claim to fame is the speed at which it allows you to create different types of graphics, so if you're heading into a busy day, this is the tool for you! You can check it out here. Stencil is free, but offers an upgrade option that will hook you up with a bunch of additional features.
BeFunky - Want the functionality of Photoshop in a free, online, easy to use tool? Of course we do! Enter BeFunky. BeFunky is a graphics design software, but also a photo editor and collage maker. If you have a photo you need to brighten, darken, or just change up, BeFunky offers a simple functionality to help you do so. Want to create a fun collage for your website? BeFunky makes it easy. You can also design original, branded images through their "Designer" function. This is another fun one to play around with, you can learn more about BeFunky here!
Design Wizard - Another alternative for graphics is Design Wizard, which offers thousands of templates, a free font library, and over 1.2 million images in their database. Need to design a new business card, poster, and SoundCloud banner? You can find all of those templates and more in their searchable database. The tool also integrates with a few popular online platforms (Hubspot, Buffer, and Marketo) to make sharing your creations easy. The basic plan is free, with additional storage space, templates, and more available with paid subscriptions. Check it out here.
There are so many more free online design tools on the market - we'd love to hear what your favorites are! Comment below and tell us what you use for your images and editing, and why you love it so other virtual assistants can check it out as well! Happy designing!
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