Sourcing Mockups
Images above - Mockups sourced from Canva, Etsy, Pix Pine and Maja Faber)
Short on time or lacking confidence in your photography skills? I know both of these apply to me! With this in mind, I rely heavily on good quality mockups to present my work - predominantly prints for sale and also visualising my surface pattern designs on products (this is such a good option if you want to provide a context for your designs, and show potential clients what they can be used for). Just a note, my preferred format to use is .psd files with smart objects because these allow you to make unlimited changes without losing quality or the original properties of the layer.
It’s a bit of a minefield out there when it comes to mockups. There are plenty of free sites, but the drawback with these is often you’ll see the same mockup appearing time and time again. Whilst this isn’t a huge problem, if you want your mockup to stand out then I recommend setting aside a budget for these. The really professional ones don’t come cheap and can quickly add up. However investing in these is a really good strategy that can transform your work and make it infinitely more appealing to a potential customer or client.
You can also of course make your own - which will make them entirely unique, and I will share some useful resources on this below.
So here are some of my favourite mockup resources - none are sponsored, just what I have found myself and like to use :)
Free Mockups:
This site additionally offers premium mock-ups but their selection of free ones are really good quality and easy to download. I used many of these for the recent pattern challenge I took part in on Instagram. They are particularly good for branding projects and there are also many fabric swatches/rolls which is great for pattern design.
Again there is a paid subscription option but there are also some good freebies to be had. I found that some of the downloads didn’t work, so use with caution as links are a bit hit and miss. However if you persevere there are some great resources on here.
Canva has a ‘Smart Mockups’ app and there is no need to have Photoshop to use these - you simply upload your image and canva does all the work! A pro account will give you access to a wider library, but the free options are really great too.
Paid Mockups:
Creative Market - it’s the hub of high quality mockups, but be prepared to pay a high price and ensure you purchase the correct license so you can share these or upload to your website etc.
Some of my favourites include from here include:
Etsy - this is an endless source of good quality mockups, especially for art prints. A simple search for ‘Print Mockup’ will throw out so many options, and there seem to be regular sales by stores for these digital downloads. Just be aware that some mockups are only available as JPEGS, not .PSD files so be sure to check this if you want your mockup to be fully editable.
Creative Fabrica - a relatively new site that is similar to creative market. It offers affordable subscriptions to their vast catalogue of mock-ups, templates and graphics etc. I’ve not used this one personally yet, but will certainly be checking it out as it seems their files all have personal, commercial and POD licenses included, for a really reasonable price.
Make your Own Mockups:
I’ve spoken widely about my love of Skillshare in the past, but if you want to learn how to make your own mockups, it is the place to go! (Again, as I’ve mentioned before, be sure to look out for a free trial as they seem fairly easy to come by).
Some of the classes worth checking out include:
Make your Own Mockups in Adobe Photoshop - Maja Faber
Make your own Mockups in Procreate using Photos - Maja Faber
Create Mockups on your iPad with Procreate - Sandra Meija
Design Top-Selling Produce Mockups with your art (+ free downloads) - Cat Coquillette
Thanks for reading - I hope you find this overview useful and have fun making product mockups!