No Web Designer? No Problem: 5 Free Web Design Resources

One of the best things about working for a small staff association is that I get to do so many things–some of which I still have a lot to learn about. Web design is definitely one of those things. While I know plenty about some aspects of web development, design is one thing I have never had to do, and I’m not particularly good at it. Yet. : )

One of the projects I’ve been working on is launching a digital publication, a task which involves designing a responsive html email template and a microsite. NBD…not. Creating a new website–that I’ve done, in WordPress, but a microsite template in html? Nope.

As I’ve been researching how to do these things, I’ve discovered some great resources I never knew about before so I figured I may as well share them here.

• Need to build a WordPress site for your org’s magazine or news publication? Here’s a list of more than 30 free responsive WordPress magazine themes.
• Wish you had access to Adobe Creative Suite but it’s not in the budget? Here’s how to build your own Adobe Creative Suite with free and cheap software.
• Looking for a free Dreamweaver alternative? Try Microsoft Expression.
• Looking for a free Photoshop alternative? Apparently Gimp is for you. If installing on Windows, you’ll need to first download and install UTorrent or another Torrent client. I’ve installed this but haven’t tried it yet–since I don’t know how to use Photoshop I guess I’ll have a bit of a learning curve.
• Need to build a responsive html email template? Here are a bunch of great resources you can try. The best, easiest one by far, IMO, is Campaign Monitor’s Template Builder–I am obsessed with how easy it was to create a really great-looking template. Then all you have to do is download the html file, copy the code and paste into whatever email platform you’re using and instant awesome responsive e-newsletter or whatever kind of email you need.

So I guess now I need to find some time to figure out how to use Gimp and Microsoft Expression. If only every design program were as easy as Canva. Speaking of which–Canva for Work is coming soon! I can’t wait to see what it offers.

Any other free web design tools you’d recommend?