The Latest Tech Tools Every Designer Must Have
A designer is a professional who gets to see their ideas and concepts come to life once they are done working on their designs. If you are also a designer, you can make your job lot more fun and productive by having access to right tools/software. If you don’t, chances are you will end-up scratching your head and working endlessly in the hopes of creating a masterpiece. That’s why they say being a designer can be both tedious and rewarding at the same time. Now the question is: What are some must-have tech tools that no designing professional can do without? Well, here is the list:
1. High Functioning OS
Any designer, who is serious about his career, must have a fast machine to work on. Speaking of which, the first name that comes to mind is of course Apple. How can we forget about Apple's history of always providing super-fast operating systems? Apple computers come with excellent built-in support and an equally excellent operating system perfect for running all types of designing software.
The choice of buying a laptop (MacBook) or a desktop (iMac) will depend on your work needs. If your work demands you to travel a lot and if you want flexibility in work, then a laptop is of course going to be a better decision. If you have to work from a studio or office, then a desktop is good option.
2. Time Tracking Software
A time tracking application is another thing that every designer must have in his tool kit. You are particularly going to need one if your working hours are billable. Speaking of that FreshBooks is a great option in this category. It’s a perfect accounting tool that runs on cloud. It will let you record your productive hours across all the tasks. You can add your clients and use the recorded time-sheets to prepare invoices and bill clients.
On top of that it also comes with the option to make payments online. The tool is a must-have especially for freelance designers who work and get paid on hourly basis. There are two ways to make time entries in FreshBooks. One is to make manual time entries and the other one is automatic that tracks time using a timer. Just pick any of the tools present out there that works the best for you!
3. Proofing Tool
A proofing tool is every designer's best friend. Right from the initial briefing until the final usage, design samples go through a lot of reviewing. To streamline the reviewing process and make it pain-free for both the designer and the client, you are going to need a proofing software. Welcome, ProofHub! Just the type of proofing tool you need.
The fact that it’s really easy to use makes it a perfect choice for every designer. Simply upload a file, invite clients, and start the reviewing process. Add comments, annotations, and explain the necessary changes required with just a click. Other than that, ProofHub comes loaded with a plethora of several project management features such as assigning tasks, maintaining Gantt charts, automated timer, etc., that can make life easy for design professionals.
4. Editing And Prototyping
Adobe Creative Cloud is one of the favorite tech tools for designing professionals. It’s a great option for bringing your concepts and ideas to life. This SaaS-based platform has a collection of incredibly useful software at offer for the users. Whether you are into web development photography, graphic design, or video editing; it will serve your purpose more than perfectly.
For instance, InDesign by Adobe is perfect for creating works like flyers, magazines, books, posters, newspaper, etc. Similarly, Photoshop, as we all know, is already quite a popular editing software. The third one, Adobe Illustrator, is used for creating vector images. Take your pick depending on the nature of your work.
5. Color Picking
For a designer, a color is more than just a color. It’s what they use to send a message, to convey something. Being a designer means working with a lot of colors. Mixing up different tones and creating an entirely unique palette!
Speaking of that, Coolors is a perfect tool for getting access to huge spectrum of colors and experimenting with them. The cloud-based software lets you experiment with different combinations, customize them, and create beautiful schemes that work perfectly for your design samples.
6. Stock Imagery
Images are an integral part of a good design. And so, it goes without saying that a designer would need access to a good stock image library. Pexels is the perfect destination that will put an end to your search for high quality stock images. The website lets you find images for all types of themes such as business, people, abstract images technology, etc. If you want to express an idea with the help of an image, this is the place to go for excellent quality free imagery.
Those were a few tech tools that every single designer out there must have handy! Surely there are several other tech tools also for designing professionals. But, the ones mentioned above are the ones that no designing professional cannot live without!
If you are a designer, and looking for tech tools that can help you become better at what you are doing, then be sure to try these tools out!
