Recently, I posted a tweet linking to an article on freelancefolder.com. 27 Indispensible Resources for Graphic Designers. The article had a lot of really great icons, photoshop and illustrator brushes, textures, and more. Shortly after this tweet a friend of mine who is not a designer, but a fisherman commented telling me how awesome the brushes were. This got me thinking. Is using free brushes cheating when it comes to design?
In some cases, designers may enjoy making free brushes available to the public just as a way to be a giving person. Yet, the majority of designers create brushes and make them available to the public as a way of showcasing their work and to hopefully come across a piece of artwork on the internet that they spot their brush used in. I have seen a lot of creative and inspiring brushes on the web, and I think they are a great way to add to any design depending on the project. Personally, if I see a brush on the web that I think is really neat I use it as inspiration for my own. By the time I am done making my new brush it looks nothing like the free one I found on the web. There is a sense of accomplishment when you create your own assets and elements. It feels good to know that you can use them as many times as you want and however you want to use them.
The problem I have with free brushes and any designer-created content available (even vector art you purchase on stock photo sites), is when people use them as points of actual design in their work opposed to just unnoticed elements of design that make the piece more balanced. So, when my friend the fisherman told me how awesome the free brushes were and how he was going to load them into his ‘free’ copy of photoshop it almost upset me in a way. I knew instantaneously that he would be using the brushes to create an actual design instead of elements in his own design. It bothers me to know that there is published work out there with design assets in them that are not 100% original. The thought that anyone can download free or paid for artwork from the web and throw some text over it and call it their own doesn’t sit well with me.
So, I ask you: Is this cheating? Is this evolution of downloadable and useable content from the web changing our world of original and creative design? Are we as designers adding to the problem by offering thousands of new free design assets on the web daily? As a designer, how do you hope your brushes are being used by others? And if you are a design who uses brushes from the web, how do you use them?
I’ve actually argued with myself about this, as well, and largely avoid making anything someone else has created the centerpiece of a design (though when collaborating with, say, a photographer for a magazine piece, you don’t really have much choice!), but then I think about collages. And found art. Marcel Duchamp. Some of the amazing assemblage pieces I’ve seem recently. It makes me think, even though it’s not really my thing, I can definitely see the value in something that starts with something created by one person and ends with something created by another person (or thousands of other people, as is usually the case with the more popular brushes!).
It’s a bit like that drawing game, Exquisite Corpse, where one person will draw something, then pass their paper to the next person who will draw something, and on and on and on. You end up with something that would not have existed otherwise, which still, to me, shows creative value.
All that being said, I definitely understand where you’re coming from on this. When I was in college, I always felt like I had worked too hard when my classmates would come in with something they cobbled together using old Dover book images and ink splatters and they’d get the same grade as my very meticulously constructed and illustrated piece.
I totally agree with you. You have made some very valid points on this topic. If a designer uses another designers work, I think it is important to make it your own. Just like any other design element you use, whether it be type, images, or color it must be altered to work for your project. It is difficult to create every single asset you use in a project. When you are hit with designers block it is good to have something to start from by using designer created content and ending with something totally original and now your own. Using another designers work is justifiable to me if you are using it in your work, opposed to as your work.
Thanks so much for your point of view on this topic. It is really nice to how other designers feel about this topic and how they approach it.
Hmmm I guess I mostly agree with you on your point of view. There’s a lot of free resources out there, and it would be ridiculous not to use them. The point of not basing your entire design on it is of course the key element… then it defeats the point.
I think it defers when you’re using things as a project of ‘Hey look what I designed’, or when it’s an element used for a purpose that is more functional than artsy. For example, for the new web app I’m creating, I’m using icons often found in web apps these days, as I see no reason to redesign the wheel when readability and usability has been measured and created for me with gorgeous icons I can use to my advantage.
However you do more ‘art’ work than I do, and you should/would definitely avoid using almost anything created by others for any purpose aside from highlight and accents of basing your own creations off of them.
I would have to agree with you. I look at icon design a lot like you do. Icons and buttons are looked at in a different light just because you do have to consider usability and readability. There are so many similar elements you find on very different websites. The reason you find them there is for the most important reason of them all…they work. Art and abstract work are supposed to be carefully looked at and critiqued. Some of the most beautiful and unique artwork you find today may have text that is nearly unreadable, but that is OK because it’s art. If you had illegible buttons on a site I could guarantee you that your site wouldn’t live long on the web as a creditable source. Sharing is caring when it comes to functionality.
Thanks Nick! That was a very great point to bring up. I never even touched on using designer created content for web elements. Thanks for bringing this up. Yay for web designers and developers!
I think you all have great points about this. Although this is about brushes, I think stock illustration is on point as well. I have been on the cheating end in the past, and the anti end as of the last year or two. I look back at some of the logos I have done in the past and I took short cuts, which I do not do now. I am actually re-doing my site now and any logo that wasn’t 100% illustrated by me is gone. For example a library contracted me to do their new logo and they were very specific about what they wanted. A book opening with a globe inside of it. The typography and the book I did in illustrator, but the 3-D globe with all the continents I was not going to recreate when there was 200 on istockphoto. Now I did completely alter it, the colors, took out certain land areas and got rid of certain gradient overlays….but looking back now I realize it was cheating, but at the time it was too easy. At the time I felt it had been “customized” enough to where I wasn’t using a stock illustration in someone’s identity, but looking back I would not do it again.
I think the key is to not let any stock art or brush define your design and let it only be used as a design element. vector background textures, filligree, and even palm trees (I am not illustrating a detailed palm tree) I use all the time, but would not use in someone s identity or as “my design” anymore.
On the flip side, the resources online are pretty amazing when you are in a production environment and you are pushing deadlines. If I am laying out a magazine article I am hitting a stock site for any vectors I need. The $1-$5 for them out ways the hour spent illustrating them by far. But I think the layout, imaging and typography are all up to you to make it your design. I did however download some nice web icons from istock for a site I am working on…. I’ll make sure I change the colors
I couldn’t have worded it better myself, Mike. I think you are spot on here. It is like you almost feel guilty when someone tells you that they really like a certain logo you have created because in the back of your mind you know you didn’t create certain elements of it. I’d like to think textures, filligree, and other assets such as are ok to use. When I do use them I think to myself, ‘One day when I get the time I am going to create my own to use.’ It is a nice thought, but I am always pushed for time. The key definitely is not let other design created content to define your design and only be used as elements. I couldn’t agree with you more.
Thanks so much for your feedback. I really appreciate your thoughts on this topic. I honestly couldn’t agree with you more. Make sure you change those web icon colors mister!! Haha
I will…LOL. I look at it this way, there are people who do nothing but illustrate, and rely on it for a living. We should take advantage of their skill, because basically it is the same as us hiring a freelance photographer for a project b/c we are not photographers. But like we have all said, there’s a fine line of using it in your design or as your design. By the way my favorite illustrator is Simon Oxley, he does all the crazy figures and illustrations of istockphoto… here’s his site http://www.idokungfoo.com/
Yes, there is no shame in using the resources that are available out there as long as you are using them as elements. I think that web icons are a bit different. There is almost no need to even change the color of them as long as they match the site you are designing. It’s all about usability when it comes to the web. Takes a talented designer to be able to create a usable, functional, and beautiful icons!
I wouldnt be ashamed of using brushes or any stock resource.
Thats like saying, the painting created by an artist is good because of the brush he used. The brush is available to everyone, it is how you use the brush.
Stock can be used in many different ways with diff techniques, colors, layout etc, it is how the stock is composed which is important.
Those are my 2cents.
Kumail.H.T
Thanks for your input Kumail.H.T. I’d like to think that its not using the brush that is an issue, but how you use the brush. It is all about making it your own. I agree completely that with you that is it how you display your brushes or stock assets in composition to make it work and function properly. Stock assets should me merely that…assets, not your design.
The question is, would it be possible to “make it” your design. You would have to apply it to a particular project which means you choose the right brush for the right project.
Bit of an issue this for me but I suppose it all depends on the job at hand I suppose.
I personally have a bit of a disorder with design, I don’t like using stuff like the brushes and vector packs because I do feel like I’ve cheated. I especially won’t touch them on a project that I want to put a lot of effort into, it’d feel insanely wrong for me to sit back looking at a logo or graphic I did that had all those wings and scrolls on that I just took from a brush set and say ‘yeah I created that’. I suppose a good designer can ‘arrange’ the elements better than a chump could, but still, you’re using the same elements.
You can use them well in backdrops to create a piece of a texture or something but I just hate to see a lot of these so called ‘cool’ clothing labels clearly slapping a few GoMedia sets together as a centre piece and claiming awesome design status.
The brushes are fine if used well but I have a bit of a hatred for these vector packs as they’re everywhere now. Creating silhouettes and doing them well can be a bit of a skill in itself but that has all been blown now by these being too easy to get your hands on.
Save time, yes. Look good, yes. But would I?
Na.
Thanks for sharing your view on this Al. I’d have to say it is much easier to make a brush yours opposed to some kind of vector element. People who are using vector elements are using them as part of their design which is a bit over my head. I would never go there. As for brushes, if you are a skilled enough designer I’d like to think you can incorporate a brush in a way that it is almost unnoticeable, yet helps balance your composition.
Great blog by the way. I am really enjoying some of your posts!
Thanks Antonea for visiting my blog and commenting. I’ll be posting up links to more of my own work soon rather than having pure links to selected sites, I just need to get my crap together and get a good selection to show off.
I hear what you’re saying here, I suppose my arguement isn’t against brushes as they are a basic tool for creating if used properly, but more the vector packs. Really tricky subject this as sometimes you really do need something in a hurry but don’t have the time to create it so I suppose this is where they really do become a great designer aid. I just hate all these designers who claim awesomeness but are really only slapping some stock vectors together without doing anything else to them, like creating a unique pattern or using them within a bespoke design.
This is a subject that worries me everyday and makes me feel uneasy using free brushes.
Great Article!