This might be obvious to some put perhaps not to others, so I’ll share the discovery: there’s a wealth of gorgeous vector graphics available online and it might be a good idea to use them for your website if you’re attempting to make one.

The way vector graphics work make them really easy to manipulate and move around, so you basically end up with a choice of ready made elements that you can compose into whatever lay out you like. Or put them in place of other elements to add this extra web 2.0 look (rss feeds icons etc etc). You only need very basic adobe illustrator skills – or equivalent although the graphics available on the net tend to be in .ai format. I tend to use photoshop brushes in any design work I do (see bottom of the page), but for compositional purposes objects-oriented illustrator is a lot better than photoshop, which operates on layers.

If you tend to use RSS feeds you might consider graphic design necessary evil, but even some of the most savvy non-techs I know tend to say they ‘don’t get them’ (God have mercy upon them). At the end of the day we’re all very visually oriented.

I dug all of the above used objects over at www.vecteezy.com. Few I liked best were: the authority dis-liking one, the one based on public domain space photos (gorgeous) and the slick icons, for elegance and usability. Oh, and the Jon Stewart for president – utterly useless, but amusing nonetheless.

Over at designbum.com Issara Willenskomer made available entire projects source files, and the projects are gorgeous. “It is my firm belief”, he writes “that when information is shared, everybody wins.” +1!

To my endless delight there is also a new vector pack form one of my favourite websites Eduardo Recife’s “Misprinted type” (look under goodies and definitely also check out the fonts).

Slightly distinctive look can really make a difference in the day and age that everybody and their dog have a blog. Don’t be lazy.

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