-
Published on
March 4, 2020
-
Updated on
December 17, 2020
-
Read time
12 minutes
- Category
If we talk about graphic and web designers, especially the ones who work on a day-to-day basis to hone their productivity skills, they are looking to get things done fast! Top it off with a predicament very much aligned with freelancing/sole proprietorship business and you are looking at people who don’t have much time to spare. Entrepreneurs can relate to the dilemma.
Therefore, we came up with this write-up where we get to talk about various tools and apps that have been known to help web and graphic designers with their work. That being said, this list is not conclusive. We just handpicked a few popular applications to get the conversation started. If you are looking to suggest something, feel free to use the comments section below after you’re done reading this piece.
If a designer uses a handful of tools, it will give a solid foundation for communicating the ideas and simplifying the work. So, in the journey to move from a good designer to the best one, all you have to do is have a set of tools with you.
Here’s a list of some of the best tools and apps to give you a head start in your online ventures. Some of the applications are not entirely web designing/graphic designing centric, but they are equally important because of their ability to help users multitask and keep up with their rapid workflow.
Everyone has used Photoshop by now. If you have used the program, at least you have heard of it. How could you not? It is hard to miss the slightest mention of Photoshop when we see celebrity pictures floating around at social media websites, and people commenting underneath, “Oh he/she looks so perfect and blemish-free. It has to be Photoshopped.”
That being said, Photoshop is considered a very efficient graphic designing tool. Here are some of the key highlights of the program that make it worthwhile.
Do you hate it when there is no consistency or transparency in the review process, and everything is spread over different tools and channels?
Without it, you can’t be sure that every file has been through a consistent process of checks and approvals. Filestage enables you to build and manage review processes the way you want to. Collect feedback from all reviewers in one place and ensure all files go through a consistent process.
Projects move faster when you’re not stuck chasing people for feedback or wading through your inbox. But getting stakeholders to review different file types via email is complicated.
Filestage makes it easy for teammates and stakeholders to give feedback on file types, eliminating the need for long email threads.
It is one place for all your projects and team collaboration. ProofHub is useful in the following ways.
DesignBold is designed for the creatives both professional and amateur. It is developed with an eye-catching interface for creating printed or digital images quickly and smoothly. With an intuitive and robust feature-set, even beginners can create graphics, documents, and images of professional quality.
If it is your first time using DesignBold, you can surf through YouTube videos to get a hang of what the program has to offer. It doesn’t matter if you are a graphics designer, a digital artist or a web designer. There is something in there for everyone; that’s how the Devs created DesignBold in the first place.
Illustrator is one of the best tools to date. Especially when you talk about using Vector images over conventional rasterized images, Illustrator takes it all to the next level. And trust me, Vector digital media is the latest trend. No one wants to see their images getting bombarded with pixels when they zoom in.
It has an intuitive user interface. Initially, it is a little hard to get a hang of things, but you will eventually get there with enough practice. Some of the additional features of this application are highlighted below:
Non-relevant functions do – not exist, so you only have buttons for stuff useful for web/app design. That’s what Sketch 3 and its predecessors are all about. They wanted to create something for users that’s not only clutter-free but also easy to use at the same time.
You don’t have the plethora of actions that you’ll have in Illustrator because you don’t need it.
Next up, we got Marvel Prototyping Tool. Of course, just like you, I wish it had something to do with official Marvel Comics Company, or the Avengers to say the least, but this program is something not related to the aforementioned entities.
Marvel Prototyping is an essential tool for web design workflow these days. With Marvel, you can create anything from scratch, sync designs from your cloud storage! Sketch.
Sublime text is the text editor that you are surely going to fall in love with. Sublime Text 2 is a minimalist coding editor that will let you focus completely on your code.
If you are working on websites, this will give your great power providing powerful shortcuts and tools to leap about a document, filter the file, and quickly make edits.
Webflow allows designers to create sites in a relatively short time period. You can design and develop at the same time, with minimal effort with Webflow.
Don’t worry about using coding to execute your work output. You can easily export and change the site’s HTML / CSS tags according to the customer’s needs.
Github is a very handy tool for Web Designers and website developers. That does not mean that GitHub doesn’t have anything for graphic designers. It does, but the abundance of “graphics” is not as much as compared to traditional Web 2.0 and 3.0 properties.
GitHub is a directory. Some people call it a repository. It’s your choice though. The crux of the tool is in its ability to offer a platform to hardcore coding communities where people can ask technical questions related to real-life use case scenarios and other experts answer them in comments format.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
In addition, GitHub can integrate with common platforms such as Amazon and Google Cloud, services such as Code Climate to track your feedback, and can highlight syntax in over 200 different programming languages.
Milanote is a tool for organizing creative projects into beautiful visual boards. By design, it feels a lot like working on the wall in a creative studio – visual, tactile and sometimes a bit messy – Milanote is a great fit for designers who work in teams remotely.
Having a multi-purpose editing app on-hand is key to making the most of any raw photos you use for digital marketing. Instasize is one of the most reliable out there, capable of applying essential post-processing to both photos and videos. It’s available for mobile phones and great for designers on the go.
Placeit is an online platform with all kinds of mockups ready to customize. From t-shirts, digital devices to books, and home decor. Just drag your design or select it from your computer and in seconds your mockup has been customized.
With templates for all kinds of themes, coupled with a drag and drop editor, PosterMyWall makes designing accessible to everyone, including anyone who’s just starting out. PosterMyWall also offers tools to streamline social media marketing.
Ziflow is an online proofing system that allows designers to centralize the review and approval of designs at all stages. Instead of wading through email chains, managing WeTransfer shares, Google Drive folders, and the many other ways clients and stakeholders send feedback or versions, Ziflow gives an all-in-one environment for reviewing, annotating, discussing, comparing, and approving design elements in many mediums, through many rounds of edits, to completion.
With Ziflow, designers can manage a structured series of design stages using workflow automation and clearly delineate the internal review process from client feedback. Plus, the ability to lock designs from modifications and change requests after decisions have been made is a huge plus. No more final hour feedback to throw a wrench in the design process.
PicsArt is an incredible online photo-editing software that creative professionals can use to create some beautiful imagery for the whole world to see. The best thing about the software is that you don’t even have to be an expert in the field of design and photography to make effective use of this software.
If you are a no-nonsense professional that just wants the best graphic designing tool in the market, then you need the tool Bannersnack. The application has an incredibly intuitive interface that you can use to create your content by just dragging and dropping things.
The design just got easy! With Design Wizard you can create impressive videos and image designs in minutes. Its library holds over one million premium images, thousands of high-quality videos, illustrations, graphics, and more. Every video and image has also been licensed for commercial use.
The Pro plan, starting at $9.99 per month, gives you 60 image design downloads, image uploads, font uploads, free previews, and 1GB storage. On the Business plan, which starts at $49.99 per month, you get unlimited standard video downloads, 1 premium video per month, unlimited image design downloads, video uploads, add text and images to video, and 10GB storage.
Since this list is not conclusive, we know for a fact that there are tons of tools that are not mentioned here. If you have a personal favorite app that you’d like to share with web and graphic designers on the internet, go ahead and use the comments section below. You can also write to us at fwilson@ntaskmanager.com for anonymous tips.
Manage your team, tasks, projects and more on a single platform. Sign up today, it's free.