Best Hanukkah Design Resources

Hanukkah graphic design takes two things: knowledge about the holiday and master creativity. No matter your personal spiritual path, as a professional graphic designer it is critical to understand your subject in order to aptly – and sometimes even powerfully – capture the essence of its message through visual arts. And without creativity, it is impossible to craft original designs that play off of centuries-old themes. To help get you started, below is a list of some of the best Hanukkah design resources found on the web today.

Hanukkah history

The history of Hanukkah is a great starting point when you're brainstorming design ideas. The more you learn about the holiday, the easier it will be to come up with unique themes. Not only can you draw inspiration from traditional Hanukkah themes, you can probably find some obscure facts that would make excellent anecdotes for niche client projects. Good Hanukkah history resources include ]]>History.com]]> and ]]>Wikipedia]]>.

Hanukkah vectors and images

Every graphic designer wants to craft his or her own original creations, but sometimes a last-minute or budget client necessitates the use of existing images and vector art. If you need a menorah, dreidel or Star of David have no fear: There are plenty of online resources for these images, vectors, Photoshop brushes and even fonts. Some are free; others are available for a low cost (which, naturally, gets passed on to your client and is certainly less expensive than if you had to invest the time to design from scratch). You can get a vector dreidel at ]]>Graphic Leftovers]]>, a Star of David at ]]>About.com]]> or ]]>Flickr]]>, and a menorah at ]]>Graphic Leftovers]]>. You can find free Photoshop Hanukkah fonts at ]]>Easy Elements]]>.

Inspiration from others

Other designers can unlock your imagination – all you have to do is see their work. Running a Google or Behance Network search for Hanukkah designs is a good start, but you can also browse blogs and catalogs for examples of dreidel and menorah designs. ]]>Creative Fluff]]> has a great blog post with images of rather unique menorahs, and for the photographer, check out ]]>MCP Actions]]>, has whics a great tutorial on photographing menorahs  

Hanukkah recipes

Another great place for Hanukkah graphic design inspiration is any recipe site with a section devoted to the holiday's traditional dishes. Hanukkah foods can inspire shapes, images, context, entire scenes and textures. Try ]]>About.com]]>, ]]>All Recipes]]> and ]]>Epicurious]]>.

Other resources

Of course, these aren't the only Hanukkah graphic design resources you'll find online. Any stock image or vector art website is bound to have plenty of Hanukkah-themed materials for purchase. You can try StockXChange, iStockPhoto and Creative Commons, among others. Finally, don't forget that Hanukkah has also become a time of gift-giving for many families and friends, so you can create Hanukkah designs that take advantage of seasonal design trends such as wrapped packages, snow, snowmen, peace, kindness and more.