Five Favorite Design Tools: #2 Free Textures

stripe texture, originally uploaded by nrillustration.

I'm crazy about textures (if you can't tell by how often I post them on this blog), so textures certainly rank among my top design tools. I use them for most everything: photos, repeat patterns, backgrounds, etc. The one above is from Bittbox's recent "Free Texture Tuesday". Besides Bittbox (which is great), some of my favorite texture sites are:

CG Textures- Cleanly organized, I especially like their "Manmade Textures".

Deviant Art- The quality varies but there's some really nice work here if you look.

PSD Tuts- High quality work and some unusual textures, like "Dark Blue Rust".