As a web designer I am always happy when I come across icons, stock photography, fonts etc. that I can use for free on my websites, it cuts out a lot of work for me and makes my templates or client websites look a lot better.

Below is a list of my top freebies, these include sites to get templates, icons etc. Some of these will require you to link to the site but in most cases it is worth it. It is always good practice to get in touch with the person who created the media to see what you can and can’t do.

ICONS

1. Everaldo Crystal Icon Set
   
   Over 1300 icons means that whatever you need an icon for you will be able to find one that performs that purpose really well. The icons are released under the LGPL license and can be downloaded at http://www.everaldo.com/crystal/. This is by far one of the best icon sets around so snap it up now.
2. RSS feed icons
   
   These nifty looking RSS icons can make your blog look fantastic and more importantly direct their eyes to the RSS feed link, which means that you may well get more visitors coming back. You can download the icon set here: http://fasticon.com/freeware/?p=86
   
   
3. A selection of 35 iconsets
   
   Probably one of the best icon set lists on the internet. From smashingmagazine.com, it lists 35 of the very best icons that you can use for your web designs and in other things like your computer desktop. You can view the full list here: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/06/35-really-incredible-free-icon-sets/. Smashing Magazine is also a great site for freebies to help with web design, so make sure you check it out.

STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY

1. Wikimedia Commons.
   Not the best stock photography site around but most of them require you to pay a fee for each image and this is not the case with wikimedia, you can use most of the images for nearly every purpose and in most cases not even leave credit. You can go to Wikimedia Commons here: http://commons.wikimedia.org
2. Stock.xchng.
   
   This is one of my personal favourites. It has over 350,000 images in the index, some have restrictions and some don’t, there is a link on each image details page to the license and you can contact the creator to ask questions. All the creators that I have got in contact with have been very helpful and friendly so a great site and a great community. To go to stock.xchng click here: http://www.sxc.hu/

TEMPLATES
Free templates are a great way to get inspiration for new designs. In this section I will be showing you a number of sites where you can see some great templates or website designs to help with your designing.

1. CSS Mania.
   
   One of the biggest CSS showcase websites is CSS Mania, it is regularly updated with some of the best website designs. You can view the template here: http://cssmania.com/
2. WP-THEMES-FREE
   
   Personally I find this the best wordpress themes directory out there. Wordpress templates are one of the biggest areas in web design today so it is worth seeing what is available for free, there are many fantastic wordpress themes that provide brilliant inspiration for designers and you will find a lot of them on this site. You can view the site here: http://www.wpthemesfree.com/

There you have it, a number of great freebies and good sites. If you know of any other then please do leave them as comments.