Backgrounds are an essential aspect of most creative projects, adding atmosphere, context, and a sense of a world beyond the frame that is being shown. This can be key if it’s important to present other settings or contexts that the illustration or project isn’t directly about. A background might contain a desk, on top of which the main elements of the illustration, photo or video sit. By choosing suitable backgrounds for projects, producers can quickly enhance emotion and interest of products to make it eye-catching visual collateral. Backgrounds also add depth to visual works, offering the potential for multiple visual narratives to unfold.
1. Introduction to the Importance of Backgrounds in Projects
It may often be necessary and practical to retain a creative to make hand-crafted backgrounds but in the digital world where speed and flexibility is important, it can be necessary to be able to turn to digital resources for clean, high quality backgrounds. There are several places to find online creative resources for these backgrounds, such as Unsplash, FreePik, Pixabay, Flaticon, Pikbest, Vecteezy, Vectr, Creative Market and Adobe Stock. Some sources are streamers showing off their speed-painting techniques, some are stock background websites and some are more general purpose illustration or graphic asset websites. Many of the background assets are vectors, to allow for extra ease of use in any project that they may be required in.
2. Free Backgrounds: Overview and Benefits
Creating an interesting and diverse project is a difficult task that involves various tasks and the intermediary creation of elements. Any project should possess diverse backgrounds that move viewers to another time and place, thereby attracting their attention. Free backgrounds are cost-effective and fit seamlessly into the project, making them great choices for off-project presentations or costs. However, this way of procuring backgrounds is hampered by more technical restrictions in terms of what is possible and accessible. With the lack of money, or those who are new to projects, this is the first course of action in the context of backgrounds. Occasionally, it may be better to access these resources first before allocating time to create our own solutions.
With our creative world slowly expanding on all sides, additional resources are needed. These backgrounds allow easy access to different presentation options, animation work, as well as backgrounds and wallpapers. Though the collection may be large, withdrawing was the best choice, as the one money raised differs from helping an assortment of background creators or, the effort is reused in commercial projects, access to multiple background creators, rather than redistributing these goods to a third-party sale.
Benefits of Full Backgrounds:
✓ Does not require an associated cost. ✓ Common project presentation or showcase. ✓ Resold and repurchased without restriction. ✓ Different platforms offer free licensing. ✓ Standard commercial products can also be used. ✓ For mobile devices and 16:9 displays, the use of free items is permitted.
2.1. Websites Offering Free Backgrounds
Chapter 2 – Sources of Inspiration: 2.1. Websites Offering Free Backgrounds: A common way of obtaining background images for any creative productions is to take photographs specifically to suit the purpose. However, sometimes it may be better to select and use other pre-existing images. There are a large variety of these available for free from multiple websites.
Here’s a brief overview of five more popular: Co-op from the United Kingdom: This Bristol-based design consultancy puts together a range of totally free backgrounds of all shapes, colors, and sizes. Vecteezy or Eezy Inc.: The Minnesota-based stock image company allows anyone to sign up and access an exclusive range of free stock images, including plenty of highly creative and artistic backgrounds. Patterns, as one of them, are free, but vectors are not. Squidfingers: Named because their free backgrounds are about “60 percent Lucy Glitter, 30 percent small grunge, and 10 percent Zillon”. You can nab 102 patterns, perfect for websites or even social media posts. Calligritype from Salt Lake City in Utah: The “slash” in the name says it all – this website is dedicated to free background patterns that fit into a range of themes. FreeBackgrounds: Fun fact – FreeBackgrounds is the export arm of Storyblocks and provides access to over 100 small image files of all types actually free to use. For larger and high-res images, users will get the benefit of a seven-day free trial.
2.2. Types of Free Backgrounds Available
Aside from general strategies, psychologists, designers, and other professionals tend to utilize when selecting backgrounds, there are various types of backgrounds available for free downloading by the public. There is such a variety of options for creative designs, from artwork with various themes, styles, and colors to 3D morphing designs, color schemes, and photo designs. The elements and objects featured in designs can range from colorful water worlds to serene landscapes, or the use of common objects from reality, such as car touches and scratches used for text. Numerous background designs are available as free downloads on commerce platforms or personal websites belonging to background providers.
Styles: 1. Abstract Artwork 2. Blending Designs 3. Ocean World 4. Hair World 5. Culture Designs 6. Watercolor 7. Other Styles
2. Color Schemes: Diverse color schemes
3. 3D Designs: Morphing
4. Photos: Such as Excellent, Bokeh, Bubbles, Vectors, Dots, Fireworks, Galaxy, Glitter, Grunge, Light, Plaid, Stars, Smoke, Stripes & Patterns, Soft, Text Designs, Animals and Nature, Christian backgrounds/symbols, Holidays, Seasonal, sports, and other patterns. For the most part, many more interesting designs are out there!
2.3. Potential Licensing and Usage Restrictions
Depending on the source and creator, there may be some licensing and/or usage restrictions involved with acquiring digital backgrounds. Even if the photo is free and for open commercial use, limitations may exist in this regard. For instance, use may be allowed only after a fixed amount of time has lapsed. Creators may also request author attribution and/or that works are reshared under the same licensing conditions through the designated Creative Commons licensing systems. Others may limit the use of their works for personal and educational purposes, disabling commercial use.
In order to avoid legal issues, it is important to always read and fully understand usage, distribution, and licensing terms before attempting to acquire creative backgrounds for projects. Doing so ensures that a person is legally able to adapt and share, or share only (a use also permitted under almost all Creative Commons licenses) the project they create. As underlying factors vary from case to case, it is also essential to keep in mind that all digital backgrounds are subject to copyright laws and their underlying terms.
Failing to read, understand, and adhere to appropriate usage instructions – or by willfully breaching these terms – can result in legal implications. Authorities offering digital backgrounds often have laws and regulations in place to curb legally dubious activities, the production and distribution of counterfeit goods, and the infringement of intellectual property rights more broadly. Depending on national law, users may be fined steep penalties if the rights of content creators are violated.
3. Strategies for Finding Unique and High-Quality Free Backgrounds
Advertising agencies and web developers work in the field of designing media, so they need to find the best backgrounds for their designs. One of the most important parts of a media design is finding the right background. An ordinary look at a background can transform any ordinary design into something extremely special. One of the simple ways to do this is to get the background for free. There are sites where you can view a wide variety of free background images in one place. There are also many sites that list many good backgrounds. However, the possibilities are that these backgrounds are used all the time. The professionals’ mission is to find free creative backgrounds that are unique and not used by everyone.
It is best to start by looking at every picture instead of looking for more pictures when choosing a background. Sometimes it is best to take a look on the stock exchange website. The stock exchange sites sell their images cheaply. If the images they have are too expensive, just contact the photographer of the image and use the image without spending the money. It is possible to use high-quality free images for a small investment. The creative strategy is to look for a local or regional artist to take pictures of. Look for artists who have anticipated the desired shots and then convince them to sell the images at an agreed price. That way, the overall price of the advertising or website will be kept to a minimum.
3.1. Utilizing Search Engines and Image Libraries
One of the simplest and most obvious options that come to mind would be to take advantage of some of the best tools we have at the touch of a screen. Search engine results are some of the best ways to kickstart your search for backgrounds of various types. Open your preferred search engine, type in something related to the type of background for your project, and proceed to click on the Images tab that generally exists in the toolbar below the search box to discover an array of potentially useful beginnings. This can give you a great range of potential backgrounds, photographs, landscapes, textures, and so forth to choose from. Not only does this give you a variety of visuals to work from on various websites, you can then proceed to pinpoint the type of background you are looking for and possibly use a copyright filter for “reusable” or “free to use” images. Otherwise, you may receive several options with a watermark if you forget to adjust the settings of the search engine image grid. If you seek to embark on a royalty-free route, you should also consider the plethora of image libraries available on the internet that offer free-to-use, CC0 images for commercial and noncommercial projects.
Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay are popular libraries, among others, that allow users to download high-resolution photographs that are completely free to use. These images may sport a watermark or a download requirement like the websites mentioned before, but these libraries’ offerings allow you to download the image in a wide range of sizes to best accommodate your needs. What is particularly useful about these websites is the “Collections” feature that allows you to browse images by author, the type of background or photograph uploaded, browse by week/month/year, and search within this refined collection for certain keywords to narrow down your potential selections. For instance, will provide an additional grouping of visuals akin to the photographs provided. If you simply typed “fireworks” into the search bar, you may not receive the abundance of suitable backgrounds and editing resources as you would if you use these tools.
3.2. Leveraging Social Media and Creative Communities
In addition to the hands-on steps required to generate creative project backgrounds mentioned in the previous section, below are two other common sources and strategies for identifying new and compelling ideas.
Social Platforms – Free resources can be found all over the pop culture web, via platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Searching hashtags that include themes like “graphic design”, “texture”, “patterns”, and “background” can lead to posts featuring artists looking to share their works as backgrounds, or references to works they find inspiring.
Creative Communities – Websites and other platforms for creative professionals often have sections of their websites that are dedicated to people showcasing their own work (either in galleries, personal projects, or directories). These resources are also great for finding numerous creatives’ work conveniently located in the same space. These many “master lists” — which include things such as ‘best free fonts’, ‘great textures’, ‘sites with the best stock photography’, ‘photo manipulation tutorials’, and the like — can also be sources of potential backgrounds. Just as with galleries and directories, creatives tend to showcase what is most inspiring to them (or, showcase their own work) in these lists. The “free” designs and resources may include backgrounds that are usable as-is or easily manipulated to suit project needs as well.
Surfing the recommended links from these pages can also be time-consuming, but is a way to select works from a smaller pool of people who are most motivated to see their work appreciated by a broader audience. By engaging with the community of content creators, project managers can either commission original works to expand a project’s range of imaging options, or gather a host of potential starting points for unique visuals.
4. Tips for Customizing and Integrating Free Backgrounds in Projects
There are many background images to be found on the internet for free. We can easily grab them, and then these extracted backgrounds can be made part of the different designs and projects we involve ourselves with in daily routine. However, it’s necessary to customize and optimize them before incorporating them into projects.
1. Select the right colors For website backgrounds, background of a specific image or template, and few other designs, make sure to apply the combination of background colors that go with the overall project or idea.
2. Adjust and optimize After integration of background, possible changes should be made. Darkness, saturation and brightness can be adjusted to give the desired look.
3. Crisp presentation Draw shapes, blend and then create boundaries. Rounded corners can give softened look.
4. Blend and update with photos Use pictures to blend with the backgrounds to use them onto website or in brochure for giving a rich and appealing effect.
5. Match with clipart and drawings It is a very general form of website, template, and presentation slide technique and is generally used by webmasters and designers. We use images, illustrations, clipart to dramatically build abstract and artistic backgrounds to match the creative concept or subject. Use more of it and become its expert. Techniques to create website backgrounds, header and footer for completing the template and badge designs also depict the same logic for interactive websites.
These are really simple ideas, but can make a significant difference in designs. You may come up with many new, creative backgrounds. Do share it with us. We would be happy and thankful.
5. Conclusion and Final Considerations
In this essay, we have looked at how backgrounds are a fundamental part of any project as they add visual cues and give an indication of not only the location but sometimes the time the project is set in, be that modern day or in a different era completely. They also give the opportunity to experiment with colour schemes and can help the other colours and objects used to either complement or contrast the work to create an even greater impact on the viewer. But to use these backgrounds, you need not be up until 3 am painting them from scratch in Photoshop as I once was when I started in SL. There are many sites which give out free backgrounds that can be downloaded and used in your projects with fantastic results. They can be used as a final background or can be used as part of a larger piece, your choice.
As we can see, it is a very important decision whether you make your own background for your graphic work or draw it from Internet resources. Drawing your own backgrounds can be rewarding, help with your observational drawing, and give a uniqueness to your work that others won’t be able to have. However, using Internet resources like the ones listed above can speed up the production of work you need on the spot. It is easy to get going, first establishing the requirements, a quick spell in Google to find a background for a particular room, landscape, etc. We now live in a very ‘instant’ world where time efficiency is a key factor in every move we make. With that being said, the Internet can deliver a great amount of help to make artwork that is not only time efficient but looks greatly effective. We have to remain careful not to abuse this usage as it is a talent that should still be fueled by our own creative intellect. In summary, it seems the Internet is great for top tips to apply to your background if you spend the time drawing them, but if you’re wanting the Internet to draw them for you, better make sure you add more to them to make them more original.