I have just created your design team for free

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to present Scale to all of you.

Scale's promise is simple: One new high-quality, open-source illustration each day. Of course, absolutely FREE - no attribution required.


1. What's with that promise?
I learnt that Unsplash started with a tagline: "10 photos every 10 days". This made users more inquisitive about the next 10 photos, so I thought of borrowing a similar strategy in marketing :)

2. How is Scale built?
Almost entirely No-Code.

  • It is on Webflow.
  • I had to use some Javascript for the easy colour changing functionality
  • Filters use Finsweet's free script for Webflow

I detailed it in this tweet here: Tweet link.

3. What's special about Scale?
I felt that some of the existing platforms to find free illustrations didn't offer great quality illustrations. On Scale, each illustration has required a lot of work and has a high degree of detail.

  • Further, each illustration has a gender choice which can be selected using the filter at the top (I will be adding gender alternatives for some remaining illustrations too, starting tomorrow)

  • I plan to add a skin tone option as well, pretty soon.

  • I have covered the Hiring, Product building, Remote working and Insurance industries/categories. Next, am moving into Travel. I plan to cover many industries and then organise them as illustration packs too.

Closing thoughts
I do have many more ideas and really hope that Scale can be useful to you all. Do let me know your thoughts too :)

  1. 2

    This is amazing! I'm always curious though every time I see this free illustrations websites - how do you plan to make money?

    1. 1

      Great question :)

      At this point in time, I am not trying to monetize Scale.

      1. I just wanted to build this product and see people using it.
      2. If it helps me get a few customers for my startup, Flexiple, I will be happy.

      Once Scale grows bigger (fingers crossed), I will think if I want to monetize it and then how!

  2. 1

    Seems really nice. Would definitely use it myself. I can see that with Flexiple, you are going with Toptal's headline, only being 1% for a certain job types. Good luck :)

    1. 1

      Thanks - do let me know how it goes!

  3. 1

    I look at it and all it comes to my head is Undraw.

    Very generous though.
    What's your win, traffic to Flexiple?

    1. 1

      I think our illustrations have a lot more work and detail. Also I've many more additional features planned. But sure, you can still compare Scale to Undraw.

      Yes :). Currently, traffic to Flexiple would be great.

      1. 1

        Sure features are good, but ot stills looks like Undraw.

        Good luck buddy.

  4. 1

    Curious about why "no attribution required"? Seems like a no brainer: you don't have to enforce it, but you'll get a few people who promote you for free. Cool and generous idea though!

    1. 1

      Hey Dagobert,

      Don't get me wrong, I would love if someone attributes it to Scale - it is just not required though :)

      The reason, I have stated that explicitly is that most illustration websites say that illustrations are free, but then mandate an attribution. This discourages the use of those illustrations.

      I would rather people use it and if they are feeling good about it, also attribute it to me. Even better give me a shout out on Twitter :P

      1. 1

        Oh yeah, I didn't know other illustration services had that. In that case it can be a competitive advantage indeed 😉

  5. 1

    Awesome work! Are there any plans to add an API or programmatic access to the illustrations? I would love to embed these in generated images I’m using for Mugshot Bot.

    1. 1

      Agreed. That would be a great feature!

      1. 1

        You were one of our first users Brayden (I know you have paused work on Buildfaster, but still :) ) - so this feature gets a bigger boost!

        1. 1

          Yeah, I plan to use your illustrations on a future project of mine. Still coming up with an idea then I'll let you know :)

    2. 1

      Thanks Joe!

      With this built on no-code for now, that kind of feature is not immediately on the cards. But this is good food for thought. I will work towards this too!

      Mugshot Bot looks great :)

      1. 2

        Sounds great and thank you!

  6. 1

    Like the idea and the diversity options. Good job!

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