Go straight to being creative, with these free templates.
Are you spending too much time on the boring aspects of design work, and not enough on the fun, creative and inventive side? Then stop reinventing the wheel, and start checking out templates that can take the strain.
Design templates are sometimes mistakenly cast in a bad light, misrepresented as ‘not proper design’. But frankly, that’s nonsense. A well-designed template, created by a fellow professional, is simply a great way to save yourself reinventing the wheel every time you start a new design, and help you skip ahead to the part where you truly make it your own.
Stock templates save you a lot of time and money, so it can be a worthwhile investment to spend a bit of money on them. But here’s the best news: there are a ton of high-quality templates available through Adobe Stock that are absolutely free, no strings attached.
So whether you’re a graphic design, motion designer, web designer, animator or film-maker, free templates from Adobe Stock may be the productivity boost you’ve been looking for. In this post, we bring you 10 great examples to show you just what’s on offer.
If you've not used Adobe Stock before then don't worry: all you have to do is register for an Adobe ID, and that's free too!
01. Photoshop template: Handmade Halftone Textures By Design Spoon
Handmade Halftone Textures By Design Spoon (Image credit: Adobe Stock)
Halftone textures are super-hip right now, and perfect for a variety of projects, including handmade, vintage, retro, letterpress and screen printing-themed designs. This free Photoshop template from Design Spoon features superb set of 15 handmade halftone textures and comes with editable colours.
02. Illustrator template: Abstract Illustrations By Radoman Durkovic
A set of modern illustrations with abstract shape and colour combinations, this Adobe Illustrator template from 10 Radoman Durkovic includes 10 brilliant compositions for you to use in your designs. Featuring global colours for quick customisation and fully editable vector shapes, this is one super-flexible template.
03. Premier Pro template: Falling Orbs Background By Wavebreak Media
Motion graphics is one of the best arenas to take advantage of templates, as they can save you serious amounts of time laboriously putting together functional little animations. Here’s a great example from Wavebreak Media: a full frame background of glowing, falling spheres that truly looks the business. Including four styles, this beautiful template is a must-have for your toolkit.
04. Photoshop template: Vanilla Mobile UI Kit By Pixelbuddha
Vanilla Mobile UI Kit By Pixelbuddha (Image credit: Adobe Stock)
UI design is another discipline that’s just crying out for ways to speed up what can be a long and laborious design process. And so UI design kits like this one, which has been specially crafted for product and shopping applications, can be a boon. Vanilla Mobile UI Kit By Pixelbuddha includes 25 screens and smart objects for quick customisation. Note, though, that the photos shown in the preview are for display only and are not included in the downloaded file.
05. Illustrator template: Neon Overlay Graphics By Motionworks
Neon Overlay Graphics By Motionworks (Image credit: Adobe Stock)
Here's an eye-catching set of neon overlay graphics from Motionworks that you can use to add a touch of pizzazz to your projects. This superb Adobe Illustrator template comes with three overlay options, five colour options, global colours for quick customisation, editable accent elements and text areas... and all for free!
06. Premiere Rush and Premiere Pro template: Large Casual Quote By Jonas Hummelstrand
Most of the free motion graphics templates available from Adobe Stock are for Premiere Pro, but some are available for its (free) cousin Premiere Rush too. Here’s a superb example, which is actually optimised for Premiere Rush. Large Casual Quote By Jonas Hummelstrand features a customisable four-line quote that fills the screen in dramatic fashion.
07. Photoshop template: Vertigo Collection By RuleByArt
This eye-popping Photoshop template features a set of layered kaleidoscope compositions that let you create your own unique, layered overlay effects. Vertigo Collection By RuleByArt includes eight striking and eye-catching compositions overall.
08. Illustrator template: Social Media Sale Banner Layout Set By GrafVishenka
Producing visual assets for social media can be a repetitive, boring and frustrating time-suck on your work day, so here’s a great set of templates to the rescue. This social media layout set by GrafVishenka enables you to add your own text and create cool-looking sales banners, quickly and easily.
09. Photoshop template: Professional Trifold Brochures By Mischa G
This set of three trifold layout, based on US Letter page sizes, is a great way to get started with designing a brochure. Please note, though, that the photos shown in the preview are for display only and not included in the downloaded file.
10. Photoshop template: Shasta Responsive Page Layout By Mischa G
Whether you’re working on a website mockup for a client or a production-ready website, sometimes you need to nail the visual design of a website fast. Here’s a great example of a free template for a responsive web layout from Mischa G, specially designed for a product or services site. The template includes desktop and mobile views of 10 different sections. Note that photos shown in the preview are for display only and are not included in the downloaded file.
How to get MORE free templates
Inspired by our selection, and want to go hunting for your own free templates on Adobe Stock? Just do a search such as 'free templates', 'free Photoshop templates', 'free brochure templates', in the normal search box.
Be warned: some of the images this search returns may actually be paid-for templates that include the word 'free', so do check in the listings that the word 'FREE' appears in the bottom-right hand corner.
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.
