Are you sick and tired of using the same old web graphics for your website?
Millions of site owners just like you publish content every day with stock photos and illustrations that look no different from everybody else’s. Some even go as far as spending real money getting them professionally made.
But we don’t all have the luxury of hitting up our favourite graphic designer for a quick image. And it’s hard to find places that offer free vector images of a certain quality.
What if I told you there are plenty of places to secure free vector illustrations? And that they’re far from being dull and uninspiring, there’s some excellent quality to be found.
Today, you’ll discover 18 websites to source free vector art to perfectly illustrate your content.
The best Websites for finding royalty-free vector illustrations
1. unDraw
unDraw is an open-source project by Katerina Limpitsouni. It’s a stunning collection of SVG images free for use by anyone for any project including commercial use. The images are regularly updated with new additions and can be downloaded in either an SVG or PNG format.
An especially useful feature is the ability to edit the main illustration colour before downloading. This means you’ll always have a beautiful flat illustration to match your branding at all times. You don’t even need to attribute the designer.
2. Retro Vectors
For more vintage tastes, Retro Vectors is a great site for discerning creatives to download vintage graphic elements for their projects.
Made by designers for designers, all designs on this site are high-quality, commercial-grade stock. You can download these designs for free and each download contains JPG, EPS and PDF versions of the file.
The only real limit to Retro Vectors is that the owners do not allow their material to be taken and resold without their express permission.
3. Vector4Free
Vector4Free is a straightforward website offering hundreds of free vector images for download. Users can search for vectors by entering their desired keywords or selecting from large list of categories at the bottom of the page.
When downloading images from this site, the files are either delivered in an AI or EPS format, so it’s worth ensuring you have the correct image editing software in order to edit them.
All vectors are free to use, however, the site stipulates that you should provide an attribution link when using them.
4. DrawKit
DrawKit is a website housing a collection of beautiful MIT-licensed illustrations in two different styles. You can download either a coloured or monochrome version of each file which are delivered in SVG and PNG formats.
All illustrations are available for use on both personal and commercial projects without the need for attribution. And if you need something a little more detailed, there’s a range of image packs containing up to 100 images available for purchase.
5. Ouch!
Ouch pics is a project of Icons8 dedicated to providing free vector illustrations for user interfaces. There are over 20 different styles of vector category, each with a number of illustrations to use on your blog, website, app and open source project.
The illustrations are delivered in a PNG format for free users and require an attribution link in return. However, for a small fee $19.90 per month you can unlock attribution free access and other file types. I personally love the Clip image pack.
6. ManyPixels
ManyPixels is an on-demand design outsourcing service providing quality design services for a monthly subscription. They also offer a large library of royalty-free vector illustrations for download.
Their illustrations gallery is packed with gorgeous illustrations on a variety of topics. And all can be downloaded and used for both commercial and non-commercial projects without attribution.
Similar to unDraw, the images can be downloaded in either a PNG or SVG format. You can also alter the key colour before downloading too.
7. Lucasz Adam
Lucasz Adam is an independent web designer who every week releases free SVG images for anyone to use on their projects. The images range from illustrations to icons and all of them are MIT-licensed and free to do what you want with.
Each file once downloaded, contains and SVG, PNG and PNGx2 version of the image. This provides plenty of opportunities for you to use them on both your website and social media. My favourite is the Digital Nomad set.
8. Stockio
Stockio is a website dedicated to listing thousands of photos, vectors, icons, fonts and videos to use in your creative projects. All of their free vectors are for both personal and commercial use provided you include an attribution link back to their website.
The images themselves are available in a number of formats including AI, EPS and JPG. Users can also submit their own work for use on the site by getting in touch.
9. Freepik
Freepik is a site I use regularly myself. It hosts a fantastic array of vectors in many design styles created themselves and from user-submitted content. The images on Freepik are free for personal and commercial use provided you attribute Freepik with a link to their website.
All images are downloaded in a zip file containing AI, EPS and JPG file formats. If you would prefer to get rid of the need to attribute, you can sign up for a premium account for as little as €9.99 per month.
10. SVG Repo
SVG Repo has a collection of over 300,000 SVG Vectors and Icons that are freely available for commercial use.
Another open-source project, they feature vectors in both monochrome and multicolour as well as outlined, filled and rounded. Vectors can be browsed by category and downloading a vector provides it in an SVG file type.
While there aren’t any scenes to download, you can easily combine these vectors into a complete scene using a tool like Canva.
11. Absurd
If you like your illustrations to be a little more quirky and original, take a look at Absurd Design. The team behind the website offers over 10 absurd illustrations for you to download as a PNG and use for free. The only condition is that you attribute them with a link to their website.
For access to coloured versions, PNG and SVG formats, alongside not having to link back to them, you can sign up to their membership plan. This will cost you $57 per quarter.
12. Humaaans
Created by Pablo Stanley, Humaaans is a collection of flat vector illustrations designed to be mixed and matched for use on any design project.
On clicking ‘Get the Library’ you’re directed to a shared Dropbox folder containing all of the files you need to start creating something special. The file types include PNG, PNGx2 and SVG. There is also a Sketch artboard included for use with that platform.
These images are free for personal and commercial use with the CC 4.0 licence. This means you can use the images for whatever you like, as long as you provide proper attribution.
13. Paper Illustrations
Paper Illustrations is a project from Iconscout, providing a paper-style set of illustrations that anyone can use for personal and commercial use. The images can be mixed and matched and when combined make for some interesting scenes.
All vectors are compatible with Adobe Illustrator and Sketch, simply choose your file type when downloading an image.
However, you must be sure to credit Iconscout when using the files in your publications. This is easily done by copying the handy attribution text after downloading the file.
14. Whoosh!
Similar to the previous option, Whoosh! Is another illustration kit that makes it simple to combine images to create detailed scenes and graphics. Created by ls.graphics, these vectors are vibrant, colourful and are sure to make any website look amazing.
In order to use the kit for free, an attribution link should be provided wherever you publish the design. It’s also important to note that free users can only download PNG formats of the vector illustrations. Yet, for $29 you can acquire the entire pack including:
- Style setup
- Symbol library
- 2 colour variations
- No attribution needed
You’ll also unlock access to .ai, .sketch, .fig and .eps file types.
15. Delesign
Delesign is a graphic design company offering unlimited custom designs and stop-motion graphics to its customers. And recently, they’ve created a library of free customisable illustrations and templates.
The free illustration section is very similar to the likes of unDraw, where you can customise the main vector art colour before downloading your image.
The designs are available in either SVG or PNG format. What’s even better is you do not need to attribute the website. You’re completely free to use the designs for whatever you like.
16. Charcoal Illustrations
This next set of vector illustrations were put together by Karthik Srinivas. A mixture of bold colours and charcoal designs, that are both quirky and unique. The set includes 16 handcrafted illustrations you can use on both web and app projects.
In order to download the designs for free, simply enter 0 into the Gumroad checkout window and you’ll get a .zip file of all images in PNG format. If you’d prefer to have the PSD files, it will only set you back $10 which is totally worth it.
Needless to say, these designs are completely free to use and do not require any attribution.
17. IRA Design
IRA Design is a design kit that lets you build your own illustrations. By using their gradients and hand-drawn components you can combine illustrations in any number of ways to create your own unique design.
Every component included in this kit has 5 different gradient styles and they can be downloaded as either SVG, AI or PNG file formats. To edit the images, all you need to do is download the pack and open them in your favourite image editing software.
IRA Design is released under the MIT license, meaning it’s free for personal and commercial use with no attribution needed.
18. Mixkit
Mixkit is a great website offering royalty-free art and videos for you to use on any project you like. All of the art available to download is of high quality and features a wide range of topics and art styles.
When downloading your free art, you have the option to download the original PNG file or a size optimised for your desktop or mobile wallpaper.
And important to note, you do not need to attribute the website when using these designs in the wild. Although, they would appreciate it if you did.
Final thoughts
As style and design tastes change, it makes sense to take a long, hard look at your website and look for areas of improvement. Changing up your images and illustrations can go a long way to giving your site a modern face-lift.
Flat illustration is a popular design trend right now. It offers an almost minimalist approach, while still adding colour and interest to your website.
So, instead of settling for heavily pixelated graphics and stock photos used on hundreds of other websites, take a look at what the sites above have to offer.
