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karthik2206
karthik2206

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Open-source, free, high-quality illustrations - a new one each day!

I have been working on this for a few months now. This was(is) a side project, so I could only dedicate so much time :(. But it has been a really fulfiling journey and today I am launching it πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰.

Here's Scale: A new, free, open-source, high-quality illustration each day! No attribution required 😎.

Here's the story and future of scaleπŸ‘‡

I've found custom illustrations to be super costly. Moreover, quality visual designers are tough to find!

Sometimes you just want to make a quick page or a marketing collateral. You can't afford to hire a designer for this. Well, now you don't have to because it is free πŸ˜‹

1. How did I build Scale (product)?

I am not a super-skilled developer, so Scale is built in Webflow. Of course, I had to use quite some custom JS to get things moving in terms of:

  • Dynamic colour changes when a person chooses a colour picker
  • Also to enable an easy download of SVGs and PNGs

But Webflow takes care of:

  • Responsiveness (well majorly, as SVGs are a pain to handle)
  • Storing data in their CMS
  • Search (with a plug-in called Jetboost)

I am currently not sure how this will "Scale" when I add hundreds (and then thousands) of illustrations. I presume some aspect of lazy loading will have to be added.

2. What can you use Scale for?

Basically, use it anywhere. As long as it is not to replicate it or sell the illustrations itself, no restrictions.

Typically, I would imagine you could use it to:

  • Bring your new ideas to life
  • Beautify your current websites
  • Create attractive marketing collaterals

3. Why did I build this?

I've found custom illustrations to be super costly. Moreover, quality visual designers are tough to find! Now, you can do all of that for free πŸ˜‹

There are some other resources available. However, I didn't find the illustrations to be detailed enough. So, illustrations on Scale are made to tackle that. They are highly detailed, quality illustrations.

4. What's on the roadmap?

a. Gender options
We already have a good mix of male and female characters in our collection. But for single-character illustrations, we will also be introducing a gender option. πŸ’ πŸ’β€β™‚οΈ

b. Skin tone options
Beyond diversity in gender, we currently also have characters across different skin tones. We plan to add a colour picker so that you can change the look of the characters for your illustration! πŸ™ŒπŸ» πŸ™ŒπŸΌ πŸ™ŒπŸ½ πŸ™ŒπŸΎ πŸ™ŒπŸΏ

c. Illustration packs
As a next step, we plan to release illustration packs for specific industries. We have started with the recruitment industry and have the remote working space in our radar next. πŸ‘¨β€πŸ’»

Would you like us to cover a certain industry - just tag me and make a request πŸ€“

Closing thoughts

I am just getting started here, so any feedback would be great :). Hope you find this useful and decorate your websites with it. Cheers!

P.S. If you feel like supporting the project, you could just retweet my launch tweet thread.

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