Here’s a quick guide to finding the best free vector art resources, including various useful designs you can download in preparation for future projects. Please note and respect the Creative Commons licence if there is one.
FreeVectors.net
FreeVectors.net is a fun community of vector-lovers who share free vector graphics. The most recently added vectors are displayed at the top of the page, and all are free for personal use (with most of them free for commercial use too).
BrandEPS
Boasting over 9,000 brand logos and more than 3,000 brand icons, BrandEPS is a great place to go if you need a logo in a hurry; its free downloads include files in SVG format, as well as JPG and PNG if you’re not fussy about scaling. It’s easy to search and if you’re not really sure what you’re after you can also browse the latest arrivals.
Brands of the World
Brands of the World is an invaluable timesaver if you’re designing for corporate clients and don’t want to sit around waiting for someone to forward you a hi-res version of a certain logo. You can just find it here.
Vectorportal
Vectorportal contains a wealth of free vector art, which designers can use in both personal and commercial projects. Easy to navigate, you can filter your search using the drop down category box or search bar. With an extensive library of artwork, you’re sure to find something of use here.
DeviantArt
One of the largest artist communities on the web, DeviantArt is full of free and useful resources, including vectors. However, finding exactly what you’re after in the crowd of chaos can be tricky. The search bar and Resources and Stock Images link will narrow things down for you, and no doubt you’ll come across lots of free vector goodies.
Dafont
Dingbat Fonts are essentially a collection of small vector illustrations. Simply type the letter you need and ‘Create Outlines’ in Illustrator CS6 to turn it into an object. Not all fonts are free for commercial use, so check the right filters before searching.
Freedesignfile
Crammed with thousands of free vectors and much more besides, including Photoshop actions and brushes, photography and fonts, Freedesignfile is a great place to quickly find vector design elements and entire vector images, ready to be edited in Illustrator. All its images are free for personal use, and most can be used commercially.
Free Vintage Vectors
After a properly retro look and feel for your work? Free Vintage Vectors is well worth checking out; it sources vintage illustrations from antique catalogues, books and magazines, then carefully vectorises them and makes available as PDFs for free download. The selection isn’t enormous, but it features a great range of imagery regardless.
Vector4Free
The collection at Vector4Free isn’t huge – at just over 1,500 free vectors it’s much smaller than many of the other sites featured here – but the quality is pretty consistent and everything is well tagged so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. All the featured vector images are free for personal use, but check before using them commercially.
Vector.Me
The team behind Vector.Me couldn’t find a search engine for free vectors with a complete collection and flexible searching capabilities, so they decided to build their own. It’s absolutely packed with over 280,000 vectors, and there are separate logo and icon sections in case that’s all you’re after.
Freepik
Freepik calls itself the “leading search engine of free vector designs”. Created to help you find free vector art, illustrations, icons, PSD and photos for use in your designs, Freepik produces hundreds of free vectors daily. In total, it offers over one million free vectors and photos, which can be downloaded in AI, EPS or SVG format.
Flaticon
FlatIcon boasts over 107,150 free vector icons. Its database is packed with free icons available in PNG, SVG, EPS, PSD and BASE 64 formats, so whatever type of vector icon you’re looking for, you’re likely to find it here.
1001FreeDownloads
The team at 1001FreeDownloads scour the web for the best free graphics for designers. With thousands of free vectors alongside photos, brushes, gradients, PSDs, fonts and more – as well as high-quality graphics produced in-house – it won’t take you long to find the vector you want.
DryIcons
DryIcons is an icon-developing website that creates unique icons and icon sets, vector graphics and web templates and – initially – gives them away freely, with its Free License.
That means you can use DryIcons’ icons, vector graphics and web templates in any publicly accessible website, web application or any form of publicly accessible presentation, according to some basic terms and conditions – which you’ll find on the site.