Free Digital Design Assets from Smashing Magazine: A Guide to Available Resources

Smashing Magazine provides a variety of free digital assets designed to assist web designers, graphic designers, and developers in their creative projects. These resources, often referred to as "freebies," include graphical user interface templates, icon sets, and illustration kits. The available materials are intended for use in both private and commercial projects, subject to specific licensing terms. While the primary focus of these resources is digital design rather than consumer product samples, they represent a distinct category of promotional offers available to the creative community.

Facebook Fan Page GUI PSD

One of the available resources is a Facebook Fan Page GUI PSD, designed by Hike and released for Smashing Magazine readers. This PSD file is designed to speed up the process of creating previews for Facebook fan pages. It allows designers to customize texts, buttons, and data without needing to draw compositions from scratch. The file includes vectorized layers, enabling users to scale the graphical user interface without loss of quality. The mock-up is described as 100% pixel-accurate and includes four viewing modes: default wall, wireframe wall, default tab, and wireframe tab. All layers are labeled and grouped, and smart guides are included. The PSD is compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS3 and later versions.

According to the source, the designer reproduces updates to Facebook's fan page design within 24 hours of release and updates the download link with the latest version. The main purpose of this PSD is to provide designers and agencies with a tool to improve their workflow when preparing Facebook-related previews for clients or internal presentations. This resource is available for free use in private and commercial projects.

E-commerce Icons

A set of 33 flat e-commerce icons was exclusively designed for Smashing Magazine by the team at Responsive. These icons are suited for e-commerce projects and include representations of popular payment providers, including Bitcoin. The set is designed to be flat and minimalist, with the goal of creating a multipurpose set where icons can function as buttons for payment options and navigation.

The icons are available in various PNG sizes: 32 × 32, 64 × 64, 128 × 128, and 256 × 256 pixels. The set also includes Photoshop and Illustrator files containing all icons. The resource is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, making it freely available for private and commercial projects.

Summer Icons

Smashing Magazine features an icon set designed by Elena Genova, consisting of 50 icons intended to help freshen up designs with color. Specific details regarding the themes of these icons are not provided in the source data, other than the indication that they are suitable for adding color to designs. The availability of file formats and specific licensing terms are not detailed in the provided text.

Workspace Illustrations

A set of 60 workspace illustrations is available, depicting items commonly used by web and graphic designers. These items include tablet and desktop computers, Apple Watches, cameras, Moleskine notebooks, headphones, pens, pencils, pairs of glasses, coffee cups, and cookies. The illustrations were designed by Anastasia Kolisnichenko.

Users can customize elements such as stroke width, size, color, and shape. Each illustration is provided in five different formats: AI, PNG, PSD, EPS, and SVG. This variety allows users to work with the illustrations regardless of whether they use vector graphics software. The kit is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. The license permits the use of illustrations for various needs, provided that bundles of illustrations are not resold.

World Landmark Icons

Smashing Magazine offers a set of 18 world landmark icons, including the London Eye, the Eiffel Tower, and the Empire State Building. These icons are designed to show architectural elegance without adding chaos and are intended to work well in both digital and print media. The set contains 18 line icons available in five file formats: AI, EPS, PDF, PNG, and PSD.

The set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Similar to the workspace illustrations, users are permitted to use the icons for anything needed, as long as bundles of illustrations are not resold.

Web Design and Development Blogs

Source data also references a compilation of top web design and development blogs that offer freebies. The list includes Smashing Magazine and Webdesigner Depot. Smashing Magazine is described as a leading blog offering articles on coding, design, web development, graphics, WordPress, and UX design. Webdesigner Depot publishes articles on web development, UX design, responsive design, branding, and usability, and offers graphic and web design freebies from time to time. While specific details on how to access these freebies are not provided in the source text, the mention indicates that these platforms are sources for design assets.

Licensing and Usage

A recurring theme among the free resources is the use of Creative Commons licenses. Specifically, the e-commerce icons use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, while the workspace illustrations and world landmark icons use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. These licenses generally allow for free use in private and commercial projects, often with the requirement to give appropriate credit and to share derivatives under the same license. The source data explicitly states that users should not resell bundles of the illustrations provided by Smashing Magazine.

Conclusion

Smashing Magazine serves as a source for free digital assets, including GUI templates, icons, and illustrations, primarily targeting web and graphic designers. These resources are designed to facilitate the creation of digital content and previews, offering customizable and scalable files in various formats. The availability of these assets under Creative Commons licenses allows for broad usage in commercial and private projects, provided that the terms of the licenses are adhered to, specifically regarding attribution and the prohibition of reselling asset bundles.