Designing your site yourself? Here’s a complication of helpful design reference links that I’m constantly updating. Let me know if you have something to add.
Colors
- Specific color reference
- Color scheme/palette generators
- Gradient generators
- Finding colors on other sites
- Reading & color theory
Typography
- Google Fonts (if downloading them to self-host or use on your computer, try the Google Webfonts helper)
- Font pairing
- TypeScale – for setting your font sizes for headings
- TypeTester
- The Anatomy of a Thousand Typefaces
Imagery
- Envato Elements contains a large library of photos, graphics, templates, fonts, and also audio and video available for a subscription fee. (Available for my clients 🙂 )
- Royalty-free photography:
- Unsplash (there is also a WP plugin)
- Pexels – Foca Stock – Pixabay – Reshot – Freepik
- Fine art from the Rijksmuseum – a hidden gem!
- Icons and illustrations
- Iconmonstr – library of svg icons so you don’t need to load another font
- unDraw – library of free illustrations in any color you want
- UI8 – Buy illustrations and icon sets
- Image editing tools
- Photopea – online photo editor that works with both raster and vector graphics. Can read and save PSD, AI, XD files and more.
- Remove.bg – removes the background from images
- Pixlr – free online photo editor
- Tinypng – If you’re not using an image optimization plugin, you can use this to optimize your images before uploading them to your site
- SVG editor / SVG optimizer
- Haikei SVG shape generator
- Creating graphics for social media and more: Snappa – Canva – Crello
- Make awesome product images – Glorifyapp
- Mockups: Smartmockups – Placeit
Design Inspiration
- Design Shack
- Land-book – Dribbble
- Lapa Ninja – landing page designs you can filter by category or color
- Saaspages.xyz – SaaS landing pages you can filter by section
- The Qubely section library can give you section layout ideas even if you don’t use Qubely
- UI8 – Buy illustrations and icon sets, or look for inspiration
- The Best Designs
- Collect UI – if you’re looking for a specific element
Ready-Made Website Templates
If you’re looking for a pre-made site that you can import in a few clicks and customize to fit your needs, check out:
- Generate Press Site Library – To import these you’ll need the pro version of Generate Press ($59 for an annual license)
- Kadence Theme with Starter Template plugin – For these there are options that are completely free, as well as premium sites that are available for those with Kadence membership.
- There are some beautiful feminine Kadence child themes available from Restored 316 Designs.
- More Kadence starter sites are available from Isle of Themes
- Qubely starter packs – free and paid options
- Astra – I wouldn’t pick Astra for a new site build these days, but they’ve been around awhile and have a large library of importable sites.
I do not recommend the WordPress themes available for purchase at Theme Forest. With very few exceptions, they’re built with clunky page builders and might amaze with all the “features” included, but these come at a heavy price of the website’s performance, bulking up your site with far more code than is needed or desired.