How do designers use creativity tools

You can sync it to the cloud or leverage a local drive, as long as you have a shared project directory. This tool allows designers to share styles, colors, and symbols, which are synchronized across your team so that you can always keep them up to date. Have you ever futilely struggled to find the perfect font for your project? Ideally, all designers would rather design their own custom fonts but in reality the process could take months.

This is where Prototypo comes to play, helping designers create bespoke fonts in a matter of few clicks. With Prototypo, designers basically start with three basic fonts- Prototypo Elzevir, Prototypo Grotesk, and Prototypo Fell- and the incredible tool lets you tweak over 30 parameters of those fonts, including roundness and aperture, thickness, and fine-tuning the serifs. Once the user is satisfied with their custom font, the typeface can also be exported to the.

Want to meet the hot new bloke on the type foundry block? The latest F37 Foundry is the brain child of London design studio Face Designers can rotate, resize, and move text, while also adapting color, tracking, kerning, and leading before buying a font. You have got to get your hands on this pack of five high-res effects by DesignDell if you want to inculcate a rustic wood-burn vibe in your designs.

Design software Vectr helps you create vector graphics effortlessly and in no time. Vector is the most powerful, yet quite simple, cross-platform design tool that you can hope to find today.

Users can download the software on their desktop or work with its web-based version easily. The tool automatically syncs and saves files across all platforms in real-time. If you are someone who uses print a lot, the Pantone color library is your go-to guide to know how your fifth color will print exactly. The extra-ordinary reference library includes a wide array of color swatches in books which portray epic printed depictions of the colors present. The Pantone library can be a little hard on the pocket but it is a great investment as it lets you see beforehand how the colors you choose in Illustrator or Photoshop will print.

Not to mention, you can easily tear the switch out and show it around to your team. The tool gives you the option to match a 5th color to a CMYK value, which can come in quite handy when a client is working on a shoestring budget which leaves no room for a fifth hue.

This epic tool is designed for designers by designers. WireFlow is a streamlined tool that can help you build wireframes on Android. It touts rapid touch controls and a new Material-inspired UI. With a single tap, users can build linear screen flows and share them with others in a matter of seconds.

This free of cost program also offers a splendid curated assortment of minimalist icons and shapes which work best for professional, quick mock-ups. All it takes is a single click for the latest Glass layer style for Photoshop to balance right reflection with transparency to achieve a mesmerizingly realistic glass effect. It comes equipped with four PSD templates, one ASL file, a handy video tutorial to kick-start your projects, and a display of the style at various scales.

Adobe Spark helps designers create professional-looking animated videos, web stories, and social posts in a heartbeat. It is intended to replace the previous two creative social apps of Adobe: Adobe Voice and Adobe Slate.

There are two excellent tools that facilitate this communication. This user-friendly software allows you to gather feedback via forms and questionnaires. You can integrate the platform with services such as Google Sheet to speed up the gathering of information. And a selection of intuitive customization options helps to keep the user engaged — giving you the in-depth responses your design thinking project needs.

Video conferencing software Join. A comprehensive list of functions includes the ability to share your screen. You can also organize invitations and record your calls for future use. Claim a unique URL, and share it with all your invitees. Access to Join. And how do you communicate to your collaborators? Here are two design thinking tools that might help. Smaply is a user-friendly platform that allows you to manage and map the customer experience.

Create a customer journey, and share it in the form of maps or personas. Interactions are visible to everyone involved in the project, so everyone gains an understanding of what customers are thinking. MakeMyPersona is an intuitive service that helps you to structure customer data in a simple, accessible way.

Answer the questions asked during the set-up phase, and build your personas from scratch. They can be as simple as pencil, paper and any art supplies that call out to you.

Relying too much on the latest technologies can easily lead to getting stuck in a creative rut. Getting back to basics with the stuff we learned as kids takes us back to our creative roots and original artistic voice. Turn off your screens and break out color collage paper, plasticine and paint for an instant burst of inspiration.

This may not be an actual tool, but hear me out. Having a sanctuary to work in soothes the spirit. When the spirit is calm, the outer world follows suit and you are set to create your best work. Check out what it means for HeyEksa!

Having two or more separate screen displays allows for more efficient multitasking. Professional graphic designers and digital artists who maximize clients and spend long hours on projects will benefit from the organization two screens provides. There are tons of great chairs out there, you just have to find the one that fits you best. Designer Andrewzz recommends the ST Racing Gaming Chair, a super comfy high back chair styled to resemble a racing seat.

A great keyboard and mouse can make work so much more enjoyable. When it comes to your mouse, pick one that feels good in your hand and has the right functionalities for you. There you have it, the hottest graphic design tools today, recommended by designers who use them every day! Do you need the most expensive equipment in order to make good artwork?

Absolutely not. Remember, Harry Potter could perform some wand-free spells. Our newsletter is for everyone who loves design! Let us know if you're a freelance designer or not so we can share the most relevant content for you. By completing this form, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Designers, check out these contests so you can start building your career. Get a design. Software — 1. Procreate Design by Fe Melo created in Procreate.

The app responds well with the Apple Pencil and you can save as. No creative is ever without a notebook at home or in their bag. Smart notepads and other digital tools are great tools for graphic designers to have, but nothing can beat a good old-fashioned paper notebook.

Every creative has a preference between softcover or hardcover; between a small or large-sized notebook. Whatever your preferences, you need something that works for you—the perfect place for your spontaneous doodles, sketches, ideas and notes.

The quality of the paper needs to be strong enough to handle whatever type of medium you regularly use, while also convenient enough to carry around with you to school, a coffee shop or on a bus. Take your time and invest in a high-quality notebook. Many companies have come up with a variety of notebook designs that include grids, lines, dotted pages, pockets, page markers and more. It can be tempting to simply pick up a Moleskine at the nearest kiosk and call it a day, but with very little effort you can find a few gems that will not only warehouse all of your best ideas but might inspire a few as well.

You can sketch out a lot of designs and ideas in your notebook, but every designer should consider creative software as a necessary piece of graphic design equipment. Most are easy-to-use while also having more superior features depending on your experience level, but all give you more control in how you create. You know a few off the top of your head, like Adobe and Sketch but there are many others to look into before you choose your favorite.

Most will offer you a free trial so you can have a feel for the product before you commit to paying for it. Then, compare the features offered to the type of work you do most often. A large high-end monitor can seem more like a luxury than a necessity. However, the quality of the monitor you use can make a dramatic difference in the work you produce. When it comes to monitors, most people are pretty clueless about what to look for. Regardless of whether or not you buy a 4K monitor, you will need to pay attention to the resolution.

In this case, size does matter, so most designers will tell you that between 27 and 32 inches are ideal. No list of tools for graphic designers would be complete without a serious nod to Wacom and its line of digital tablets, styluses and software that have become an industry standard. As far as graphic design hardware is concerned, Wacom is a great fit for designers of all levels. Animations become richer and other visual effects are much simpler with pressure-sensitive pens and tablets.

Having a reliable external hard drive is a necessity for anybody whose work uses a lot of data or whose work depends on so many external files. Hard drives are portable, easy to use and can provide an immense amount of storage.

Another piece of graphic design hardware that often goes without mentioning but is such an invaluable tool is a monitor calibrator. No matter how beautiful your photos or video turns out, your project may suffer if you find yourself working with a monitor that warps colors I know, we just shuddered at the thought too!

Unfortunately, this kind of warping can be hard to spot with your naked eye and, at times, nearly impossible to adjust after the fact. Of course, this assumes that you are also using a quality camera and lens and that your monitor is up to the task of displaying images that are true to life. No amount of calibration can compensate for poor-quality tools.

However, using a monitor calibrator ensures that your images are just as beautiful after editing as they were when you took them, if not even more so. Of all of the graphic design equipment, you may have thought would be on the list, of course, the iMac Pro is one of them.

How could it not be? Whether you are a freelancer, student or employed by an agency, it is worth investing in an iMac. And it is an investment. This powerful tool is easily one of the most expensive all-in-one computers available to graphic designers, especially if you get the extras.