Many factors make Designious a great choice for home or beginning users of Photoshop brushes. The site is very easy to navigate, with many sorting options for better searching. The variety of brushes is extensive and will especially appeal to home scrapbookers. There are a number of help and support options, including links to external tutorials and helpful hints. Professional users will also find the variety of brushes and the numerous website features helpful, which led us to give Designious our TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award.
We were a bit disappointed to note that Designious does not offer packs or collections of multiple Photoshop brush sets. It is inconvenient to buy sets piecemeal, but it is often more expensive because brush packs are usually offered at a lower price than buying each set individually. Aside from this drawback, however, Designious' website seems to be full featured.
There is a small number of free Photoshop brush sets available, but the website truly shines in its large number of more than 130 premium Photoshop brushes. Brush previews are displayed in thumbnail versions on the main shopping page, and larger previews are visible when you open the set's info page and hover over the image.
You can use any of the Photoshop brushes you buy for personal or commercial purposes, which means that even professional designers can use these tools for any design without worrying about royalties. The site does offer sales from time to time, and also has a blog and a newsletter to keep frequent buyers informed. If you're a social media fan, you can connect with the company on both Facebook and Twitter.
Artistic and abstract elements such as brushstrokes, lines, doodles, fractals, radials, light effects and more are absent from Designious' repertoire of Photoshop brushes, although there are a few grunge and halftones sets that offer a few abstract options. Other types of brushes are well represented. The website more than makes up for what it lacks in breadth by providing several categories with great depth.
Undoubtedly, the category with the greatest variety of Photoshop brush sets is the Plants and Floral category. There are nearly 40 individual floral sets, each with 15 to 50 brushes. Some of the sets are just floral frames, while others are specific floral elements. There are also a few tree brush sets to round out the selection.
Looking for skulls? There are eight different brush sets devoted to realistic and cartoon-inspired craniums. If wings are your thing, check out any of the nine different wings sets, each with anywhere from a dozen to nearly 30 different brushes.
With numerous animal-themed brushes, Designious does not disappoint. From dragons and sea creatures to birds, butterflies and insects, there is plenty to choose from. Make sure to browse the hearts, buildings, garments and Japanese-inspired brushes for a little extra variety.
Heraldry-related brushes include an armory set, a battle set, a few crown sets, a couple griffins sets, a helmets set and a shields set. Scrapbookers will enjoy the five scrolls sets, and for some unique options, look for the Beaches set, the Wild West set, the Communism set or any of the multiple War, Tech or Music sets.
Although Designious' Photoshop brushes won't work with versions prior to Photoshop CS, any creative suite version from the original to the newest, 5.5, will support these brushes. If you're running Photoshop 7 or an earlier version, try downloading a free or sample set from the website and converting it with a file converter to use it with an earlier version.
We found Designious to be one of the easiest Photoshop brush websites to use. In addition to the standard, simple search bar, you can sort brushes by name, style, category and even popularity. There is a sort-by-price option, but since all the sets are priced the same, this doesn't actually help you at all. There's even an advanced search option that lets you look for something based on its name, description, SKU number, price or even the gender (boys, girls, women or men) with which it's affiliated.
If the typical grid view is a bit much for you, try clicking over to the list view for a more-streamlined display. Want to see more brushes at once? You can choose to display 50, 100 or 150 brush sets at any given time.
This site is one of the only sites to offer any kind of save-for-later options when you're shopping for Photoshop brushes. In this case, it's achieved through a wish list. To make a wish list, just create an account with the website – it's free and not a membership, just a way to sign in and buy faster – and then start clicking the Add to Wishlist link below any Photoshop brush set you want to bookmark. This is particularly handy if you're waiting for the brushes to go on sale.
The help and support link on the website takes you to a FAQs page that answers basic questions about the site, purchasing from the site and Photoshop brushes in general. The Contact Us link provides several methods of contact, including a U.S.-based phone number. Sadly, this is not a 1-800 number, so long-distance charges may apply for some users. If the phone isn't your preferred method of contact, you can use the online form to email Designious, or use the provided email address to contact the company from your own personal email account.
In the right-hand sidebar, about halfway down the page, there are a number of links to various external tutorials and resources regarding graphic design in general. While these resources aren't created by Designious, they are provided as an additional option by the website, which is extremely helpful.
Whether you're a seasoned pro or a newbie, Designious will certainly be able to help you find the perfect Photoshop brush. The designs themselves might be more useful to home scrapbookers, but some of the niche designs could be quite useful to any buyer. Add to the mix a well-organized and easily-searchable site, a number of great website features and a strong help and support base, and you have an undoubtedly great site.
