Illustrations are commonly used in branding and marketing because they are expressive and compelling. While free illustrations are accessible online, custom illustrations boost your brand’s identity and maintain branding consistency. Penji is an on-demand graphic design service that creates unlimited custom illustrations for your brand. Meanwhile, we’ll give you the 12 best custom, free, and paid illustration websites for personal and commercial projects.
1. Penji
If you want to scale your brand, Penji is the ultimate choice for the best illustration service. It’s an on-demand graphic design service that can deliver unlimited illustrations and revisions. Subscribing to Penji means all your illustration designs are created for your brand. Unlike the other illustration sites where you choose and download ready-to-use templates, working with Penji is like working with an entire team of illustrators. You’ll do everything on Penji’s convenient design platform.
Some illustration designs from Penji:
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2. Shutterstock
Shutterstock is best for ads and website design. This illustration website is one of the OGs when it comes to vector illustrations. With over 50 million illustrations, you will find every illustration design you need for every project. The website also has other template editing tools like Image Resizer, File Converter, Shutterstock Editor, etc. Plus, you’ll find Shutterstock’s interface easy to navigate as illustrations are categorized by style and topic.
Some illustration designs from Shutterstock:
3. unDraw
Whether you need branding, podcasting, marketing, or data analytics illustrations, unDraw delivers them to you for free. You can select illustrations from a straightforward website, download the file, and use them for your projects without attribution. All images from unDraw are customizable, and you can transform them to make them solely for your brand. Incorporate your brand colors, symbols, and tagline, and be close to having custom illustrations.
Some illustration designs from unDraw:
4. Vecteezy
Deemed one of the biggest and best illustration websites for vector graphics, Vecteezy is a strong contender on this list. These illustration and graphic designs are also royalty-free with free licenses, which means you can use the images for commercial projects. Vecteezy offers more than 650,000 vector illustrations and many stock videos you can download, too. It’s best for presentations or tutorial videos for your business.
Some illustration designs from Vecteezy:
5. Pixabay
Pixabay illustrations are free to use for commercial projects. It’s the best illustration website to create compelling videos for your brand’s social media pages, offering more than two million royalty-free and copyright vector images. This illustration marketplace is your best bet when creating marketing materials and branding visual assets.
Some illustration designs from Pixabay:
6. Openclipart
Openclipart is one of the best illustration websites open to the public domain. The illustrations on this platform are created by the website’s plethora of talented artists. Openclipart’s illustrations are beautifully more complex compared to other websites with simple icons and illustrations. Choose from the website’s over 160,000 clipart available.
Some illustration designs from Openclipart:
7. VectorStock
VectorStock is the best graphics website for your logo design needs. It’s a repository of more than 250,000 vector images with emblems, monograms, and logos. Searching for your desired graphics on VectorStock is easy, as the logos and vectors are categorized by color. That way, you can search for your brand colors and ensure you’ll have illustrations that match your brand identity.
Some illustration designs from VectorStock:
8. Open Doodles
Open Doodles is another unique illustration website that offers sketches from the founder himself. These doodles are scanned sketches in his notebook during meetings or work downtime. Moreover, the founder believes in the idea of open design, so all illustrations on this platform can be copied, edited, remixed, shared, or redrawn. The founder also encourages other artists to improve the website by accepting feedback and exploring how it was created.
Some illustration designs from Open Doodles:
9. Icons8/Ouch
Icons8 by Ouch offers beautiful free vector and 3D illustrations perfect for modern brands. This graphics company is comprised of a team of 40 who resell files and produce content for the website. This team comprises illustrators, UX designers, 3D artists, icon designers, retouch artists, makeup artists, photographers, and more! Rest assured, you’ll get unique illustration designs suitable for every niche and project. Icons8 doesn’t give every file format because the platform involves 80 percent coding and only 20 percent drawing. It’s relatively different from other illustration websites, where you select the illustration and hit download to save it on your computer.
Some illustration designs from Icons8:
10. DrawKit
DrawKit is one of the best illustration websites for your website, app, or next personal project. It offers PSD illustrations in two styles that you can customize. This company consists of a diverse team of creatives from over 15 countries that provide users with remarkable results. You can use free and paid illustrations for your commercial projects or edit the colors, layout, composition, etc. However, you may not re-upload DrawKit’s content to another platform or website without their permission.
Some illustration designs from DrawKit:
11. Freepik
Freepik lets you download free illustrations in various formats, such as AI, EPS, and SVG. You can use these resources for social media profile pictures, logos, website graphics, etc. This reliable illustration website also lets you use a built-in template editor to customize illustrations based on your ideas, concepts, or brand specifications. This is one of the top illustration websites to visit if you need infographics and website graphics.
Some illustration designs from Freepik:
12. Flaticon
If you need icon illustrations, Flaticon is the best illustration platform for your website or app. With more than two million vector icons, you’ll find the most relevant icons perfect for your brand’s personality. The icons are grouped in similar themes and can be downloaded for free. Choose from SVG, PSD, PNG, EPS, and Base64 formats and customize if you wish!
Some icon illustration designs from Flaticon:
