| Name | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
Unsplash | FREE Stock | Free stock photos and videos. |
Pixabay | FREE Stock | Â Free stock photos and videos. |
Pexels | FREE Stock | Â Free stock photos and videos. |
Freepik | FREE Stock | Free vector art, illustrations, photos, mockups, etc. |
Noun Project | FREE Stock | Icons galore. And more! |
flaticon | FREE Stock | Millions of free icons. |
icons8 | FREE Stock | Millions of free icons. |
Flim.ai | Reference & Mood Board Tools | NEW* |
Designspiration .net | Reference & Mood Board Tools | Like Pinterest, but with less mommy blogger content. |
[FILMGRAB] | Reference & Mood Board ToolsFEATURED | Really high quality movie stills for keyframes, mood boards and general deck vibes. |
Refsee | Reference & Mood Board Tools | An extremely powerful search tool for finding quality reference imagery. What makes this better than just searching google images is the ability to search specifically for commercial or film imagery. |
Same.Energy | Reference & Mood Board ToolsFEATURED | This is a cool site that automatically curates photos similar to the one you paste in or click on. It's mood board wizardry! |
Spectacle.is | Reference & Mood Board Tools | Like Pinterest, but for videos. Has a great search tool for finding specific video styles. |
Yarn.co | Reference & Mood Board Tools | Search words or phrases of dialogue from movies and TV shows. Right-click the video to download. You can even convert the clip to a GIF with a click. |
Art of the Title | Reference & Mood Board ToolsFEATURED | Beautiful movie & TV show titles. |
Eagle | Reference & Mood Board ToolsDesign Tools | A powerful image reference manager. Pinterest on steroids. It costs a one-time $30 for life. How refreshing. |
Frame Set | Reference & Mood Board Tools | Search thousands of stills from commercials, music videos, and movies. |
Power Thesaurus | Reference & Mood Board Tools | The all-knowing place to find out all the ways to say "learn more" or "experience" |
Deck of Brilliance  | Inspiration Tools | Trying to crack a brief? Just give this site a whirl. |
Reddit | Inspiration Tools | This is where the REAL insights are born. Search for a thread related to your brief or product to stay grounded and hear from the people. Check out some of these subreddits to get started:
•     https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/
•     https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/ |
Dribbble  | Inspiration Tools |  Dribbble is a little more focused on vector art and motion design, but the members are invite-only so it's all pretty high quality inspiration. |
Awwwards | Inspiration Tools | The awards for design, creativity and innovation on the Internet. |
Vimeo Staff Picks | Inspiration Tools | A great place to find film inspiration across cinematography, animation, documentary, etc. Vimeo seems to highlight films that push craft and originality.
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(Vimeo is going through some changes, so we’ll see how long this resource lasts.) |
Behance  | Inspiration Tools | There’s a lot of amazing creatives sharing work on Behance. A great place to get inspired. |
The Verge  | Inspiration Tools | You can never have too much tech news! |
ActivationIdeas.com | Inspiration Tools | It’s like you don’t even need your own ideas with this site! Lol ok no. But lots of good references. |
Ads of the World | Inspiration Tools | The site is constantly updated with the best, most recent ads in the world. |
LoveTheWorkMore.com | Inspiration Tools | The Cannes Lions organization has historically pay-gated all of their past shows, archives and links to award winning work. Well, this site gives you access to all of that same work for FREE. |
EYECANDY | FEATUREDReference & Mood Board ToolsInspiration Tools | A visual technique library for
visual technique lovers. |
Mockup World  | Mockups & Prototyping Tools |  Tons of free mockups; tech devices, packaging, social media, etc. Most of these mockups are easy to use PSD files that you can quickly insert your images into, and they automatically populate onto the mockup. |
GraphicBurger | Mockups & Prototyping Tools | MORE MOCKUPS! These are all pretty high quality. Seriously been so surprised at how many people I see not using mockups to make their comps look better. The work has already been done for you! Use mockups and get back to the fun stuff— coming up with cool ideas!
|
Facebook Creative Hub | Mockups & Prototyping Tools | Here you can make Instagram or Facebook ads. It’s super helpful to see all of the current available ad types and sometimes best to start your mockups here so you don't have to do things twice. |
Botframe  | Mockups & Prototyping Tools | Free, and simple chatbot mockup tool.
I even use this for just mocking up text conversations because making all the bubbles and text boxes from scratch is way too time consuming. |
Botsociety | Mockups & Prototyping Tools | The free tier lets you use the platform quite a bit and even export one video/gif animation demo of your chatbot. Will definitely save you some time. |
Photofunia | Mockups & Prototyping Tools | Ok this one isn’t a tool you’re going to brag about to your friends… BUT it has come in handy on many occasions! Photofunia is a (lol I can’t even type the name without cringing!) a website that auto-generates fun, weird, and occasionally cool picture effects. I will admit, I’ve created my fair share of “Cannes boards” using just Photofunia (lol) and a little touching up in Photoshop. It pains me to admit it, but I've saved plenty of time and impressed unsuspecting CD’s by using one of these random templates.
Have funia! |
Sketchfab | Mockups & Prototyping Tools | Search 3D models. Rotate, screenshot, and cutout for better oriented Photoshop comps. |
Cool Text | Mockups & Prototyping Tools | Generate text graphics and logotypes online for free. |
Smart Mockups | Mockups & Prototyping Tools | Both free and paid. Online. No photoshop needed. |
Coolors | Design Tools | Get a quick, auto-generated color palette. |
Paletton | Design Tools | Explore color palettes a little more manually. |
Typewolf | Design Tools | Explore what’s trending in typography and fonts. |
Free Fonts - Awwwards | Design ToolsFEATURED | An awwwesome collection of free fonts. |
LottieFiles | Design Tools | A massive collection of web/icon animations. If you aren’t familiar with lottie or .json file formats, not a problem! I still find this super useful for adding animated GIF icons to decks to spice things up. |
Spline | Design Tools | A free web-based 3D app that is actually surprisingly powerful and fairly beginner-friendly! If you’ve been wanting to dip your toes into 3D but are a little intimidated by other apps like Cinema4D or Blender (which is also free btw) then give Spline a try! |
Photopea | Design Tools | Is this even legal? It’s basically photoshop for free in a web browser. Cancel your personal Adobe CC subscription. jk lol but really… |
ClipDrop: Image Upscaler | Design Tools | “Enhance” like in those spy movies, except for real. |
Palitra | Design Tools | Search brand color palettes. |
SlidesGo | Design Tools | Tons of free Google Slides templates. |
Brandfetch | Design Tools | Search your clients brand logos, fonts, colors, socials, etc. |
Previewed | Design Tools | Easily turn iPhone screenshots/mockups into 3D images or animations. |
EZGIF | Design Tools | All the GIF-related tools you could ever need. |
Wordmark.it | Design Tools | This site allows you to type a word/phrase to preview with every font on your computer. You can select options you like and then filter your selections to find the best typeface for your project. |
Facebook Ads Inspiration | Platform Resources | Resources and creative examples of Facebook and Instagram social ads. You can search by format. |
Facebook Ad Library | Platform Resources | Ever get served an ad but then can’t find it again!! Happens to me all the time. WHY DIDN’T I SCREENSHOT THAT??
You can access all active ads, even ones that may not have been shown to you because you weren't part of an advertiser's intended audience. |
Twitter Ads Transparency Center | Platform Resources | Same thing as above, but for Twitter.
Twitter allows you to search for any brand’s ads currently being run on their platform. Also helpful for knowing whether your client has started the social media campaign you slaved over. |
TikTok - Top Ads | Platform Resources | Search the massive library of ads being run on TikTok. |
Google Rich Media Gallery | Platform Resources | This is a gallery of Rich Media examples, which are basically fancier, more effective banner ads. Check out what’s possible and start making digital ads that don’t suck. |
Moat | Platform Resources | This is a banner ad searching tool, similar to the tools above. Search for a certain brand you want to reference and stop wasting your time on banners. |
Adweek | Ad Industry News | Obviously…read this.
Some articles are paygated, but you can Google ways around that. |
AdAge | Ad Industry News | Yeah. Just follow these. |
Agency Spy | Ad Industry News | More nitty gritty. Sometimes a little spicy.
Just make an Adweek account to get free access. |
The Drum | Ad Industry News | More ad news. |
Yeah, That’s Probably an Ad | Podcast | Weekly industry news, trends and insights. |
Fearless: The Art of Creative Leadership | Podcast | Listen to creative leaders. It’s pretty inspirational. |
Don’t Get Me Started | Podcast | One of the few advertising podcasts that focuses on what students and juniors need to hear. Hosted by a professor from The Creative Circus. |
The Futur | Podcast | Chris Do talks design, business and freelance topics. |
Breaking & Entering Advertising | Podcast | Interviews with advertising people about how they broke into the industry. |
School of Motion Podcast | Podcast | This podcast caters more to those interested in animation, but also super applicable to any creative discipline. Highly recommend especially if you’ve ever considered doing freelance work, or starting your own creative business. |
Talking to Ourselves | Podcast | Interviews with some of the most successful creative leaders in the industry. |
Banter with BUCK | Podcast | If you don’t know about Buck, then first go visit buck.co. Then come back and enjoy interviews with creatives in and outside of our industry–creatives of all kinds. |
Real Creative Leadership | Podcast | Adam Morgan is an ECD at Adobe and dedicates this podcast to filling the learning gap between being a creative and being a creative leader. |
#AdTwitter | People to Follow | You’d be surprised at how much networking and ad related conversations happen on Twitter. You might not find your next job there, but you’ll definitely find people to talk to and learn from. Dig around and join in on a more unfiltered industry conversation than what you find on LinkedIn. |
@StuffAboutAdvertising | People to Follow | In case you haven’t already transitioned your entire life of continued-education to TikTok, start here. |
Zoe Scamon | People to Follow | Zoe Scamon is a creative force that is worth a follow (Twitter, LinkedIn, all of it). Her thoughts and industry influence are constantly at the bleeding edge of innovation and disruption. She runs a strategy studio called Bodacious which produces work that is so forward-thinking it makes me feel like I’m working in the Stone Age. |
Aisha Hakim | People to Follow | Aisha Hakim is one of those creative forces in the industry you should be following on Twitter. She created this deck about making decks that will maybe bring your decks up to the standard of the directors treatments we all drool over.The Art of Deck Making |
Walter Geer | People to Follow | Walter is an ECD with a mission to create a more diverse ad industry and is even doing the thankless work of keeping agencies and companies accountable for their lack of diversity in leadership.
Follow him on Linkedin at the link above and Twitter at @3rdGeers. |
Sai He | People to Follow | Sai is more than just his popular parody account, @dong.draper. He is creating some of the most creative work in the industry. |
Patrick Maravilla | People to Follow | Patrick has worked with some of the biggest creative leaders at the best agencies, and consistently shares tips and advice on LinkedIn about how to navigate your career, the industry, and making great work. |
Jeremy Carson | People to Follow | Jeremy writes a ton of helpful articles about things he wishes he knew starting out in advertising. He’s also worth following on LinkedIn because he’s constantly sharing helpful advice. |
We Are Next | Education & Career Tools | We Are Next is an open resource for students and junior talent beginning their careers in advertising and marketing. Props to Natalie Kim for changing the game and making this industry more accessible and diverse |
One School | Education & Career Tools | Organized by the One Club and some incredible creative leaders, One School is a free, online portfolio school specifically for Black creatives. They are doing an incredible job breaking down barriers for Black creatives trying to enter the ad industry |
Mt. Freelance | Education & Career Tools | Mt. Freelance is an online course, podcast and community that teaches the in’s and outs of freelance from people with decades of experience. The course isn’t entirely free, but they do offer a lot of free content. You may inevitably find yourself in the freelance world, and I think Mt. Freelance is one of the best resources. |
The Futur | Education & Career Tools | Content, courses and tools for creative professionals. How to freelance, what to charge, how to value your work, etc.
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They also have a YouTube channel with tons of free advice about the business of design.
The Futur | YouTube |
No Film School | Education & Career Tools | It’s 2018 people. Creatives should have some production capabilities. Didn’t go to film school? Not an excuse! Learn how to make, edit, animate, and your creative director will be impressed when you flex those skills. |
Open Door Creative - YouTube | Education & Career Tools | Open Door Creative is one of the only YouTube channels dedicated to helping students, interns, and juniors at ad agencies. He offers really valuable advice on how to build your portfolio and grow your career in advertising. |
Real Agency Salaries | Education & Career Tools | I am a huge advocate of salary transparency. If you have a chat with me, I am an open book and will tell you everything I know about getting paid what you’re worth. This resource has helped me on numerous occasions as I’ve looked at new cities, or new job titles trying to figure out what I’m worth. It also highlights some huge discrepancies based on gender, race, and nationality that I hope we can eliminate. It starts with sharing. |
namelix | Writing | Generate short, brandable business names using artificial intelligence. |
Visual Thesaurus | WritingThinking Tools | When you need to find new ways to express something or just wanna find adjacent words for a branding/naming project. |
Synthesia | Writing | Want to create a quick video of your script or see how your first draft would work with a narrator? Just have AI read it out for you. |
QuillBot | Writing | Stuck with your writing? Use QuillBot to have an AI rephrase your paragraph. Also comes with a Grammar checker and Plagiarism avoider tool. |
Grammarly | Writing | Distraction-free writing environment with top-notch spellcheck and more advanced features like grammar checks and suggestions for improved writing (even in the free version) |
Untools | Thinking ToolsInspiration Tools | A great collection of thinking tools and frameworks to help you solve problems, make decisions and understand systems. |