The world of design changed dramatically in the last few years. Back then, designers had to work for weeks and even months to have their designs printed on T-shirts, posters, and other printables. While today, you only need a smartphone and the internet to develop digital strategies that print onto anything. The tools for graphic design also took to a modern turn. An artist used to need only a pen, paper, and a few coloring materials to create unique designs. Nowadays, a computer set-up, the internet, and design software are necessary to produce striking designs.
The demands of the modern design industry now require more than just pure creativity and skill. Artists must also be adept at using graphic design tools that will stand out in their fields. Only those who have learned to take advantage of the different tools for graphic design will help hone their skills and successfully conquer the diverse challenges of being a modern designer.
Let us take a look at how tools that graphic designers use help build a successful career in the field of design.
The Evolution of Graphic Design
One of the earliest pieces of evidence of the existence of humanity is the colorful cave paintings from hundreds of decades ago. Those paintings depicted what life was like back then, and the characters consisted of humans, animals, and their surroundings. During the early civilizations, Egyptians used hieroglyphics for communication, and the graphics mostly contained icons of the sun, the pyramids, animals, etc. Even then, it was clear how humans respond well to visuals.
It was in the 20th century when images for communication started to become universal. Graphic signs use point directions, relay messages, and connect people with brands. Media growth is primarily the reason for the emergence of graphic design. Brands felt the need to stand out and knew that having stunning graphics to present their products is the way to go.
Moving on to recent years, graphic design has become an integral part of visual communication. It can be seen across platforms, both online and offline. It became such a rewarding career for artists and other visually-minded individuals.
As the design industry developed, the tools for graphic design also became more advanced. These tools are what designers use to highlight their skills, impress new clients, and build successful careers as modern designers.
Benefits of Tools for Graphic Design
1 – Saves money
Since the demand for graphic designers is high, you pay for professionals who will use their expertise in things like color selection and experienced know-how in areas like the psychology behind font selection to do the design work for your brand. This could set you back thousands of dollars in a year if you hire more people to be a part of your design or marketing team. Concerning this problem, a more innovative solution is to provide your existing graphic designer/s with the best tools for graphic design.
Most of these tools are much cheaper compared to paying for a full-time designer. Even if you are on a tight budget, you can find design software that is perfect for your needs. Removal.AI, for example, allows you to pay for only the number of images you need to remove backgrounds. It relieves you of the burden of paying a professional for a job that only takes a few seconds to complete when using the software.
2 – Saves Time
One of the most critical resources of a designer is time. There is only so much you can do in the number of hours you will work. Being limited with time can affect the output quality of your designs. You must also choose between spending more time on the design process or doing other vital tasks, like creating marketing campaigns.
With design tools, you can save more time since the design process reduces the time in half or even more. It gives you plenty of time to manage other aspects of your business without worrying about compromising the quality of your designs.
3 – Increases productivity
Creating any graphic design requires time, effort, and flexibility. This could mean a designer is limited by how much he can do in a certain period when completing designs. For this reason, tools for graphic design reduce time in the design process. Most of these tools utilize prefabricated templates that allow you to customize the design according to project specifications. All you need to do is choose the template that reflects your industry and then personalize it to fit your brand.
Good design software also has functionalities that are more than bringing good design to the table. Some software gives you access to analytics, allowing you to check your performance. As you monitor your design and modifications, you spend your time and resources wisely.
4 – High-Quality Visuals
Professional graphic designers design the top tools that graphic designers use. They are considered experts in the graphic design industry, so they know very well how important it is to produce the highest quality of visuals. Thus every tool is made with careful consideration of the final output.
With different tools for graphic design, there is more allowance for design innovation. It will be easier for them to experiment with new techniques using different design features. The beginner-friendly features also ensure that even design newbies can create stunning visuals without stressing too much about the process.
5 – Helps Streamline Design Workflow
The beauty of design tools is that they allow you to work better and not more complicated. It will enable you to see the flaws of your workflows so you can make smarter decisions and increase the overall efficiency of the design process. The most helpful thing about using design tools is that they let you automate repeatable steps, dramatically improving productivity. It also allows you to work on the more complicated tasks rather than get bottlenecks in doing repetitive actions.
You will feel more energized to create even better designs when you can improve your workflow. Every design becomes an adventure because you get to break down a formerly long design process and work out solutions to help you produce the best designs.in
10 Tools That MANY Graphic Designers Use
Since you are now aware of the benefits that graphic design tools can bring, it is time to start using them. Here is a list of graphic design tools that professional graphic designers use in creating noteworthy designs:
1 – Kittl.com
It used to be that only the most talented graphic artists can create stunning designs. When you have Kittl, you can create unique designs in minutes, even if you need to gain the skills and talent of a good designer. Kittl has plenty of design tools and access to hundreds of design assets, like illustrations, icons, and textures, that you can use to make mind-blowing designs.
Some of Kittl’s best features include advanced text editing that you can use to transform texts, magic recoloring that lets you choose trendy color palettes for your designs, and ready-to-use design templates that you can customize to fit both personal and commercial projects.
Billed annually for only $10 a month, you can access all premium templates, unlimited vector exports, and 1GB of upload space when you subscribe to a Pro plan. The expert plan at $24 a month and the Business plan at $79 a month, both billed annually, are the most cost-effective choices for professionals and experts that need more premium features and bigger upload space.
2 – Removal.AI
The background removal process is one of the most time-consuming parts of using images for design. Yes, anyone can do it using almost all kinds of design editing software, but it would take a lot of time and effort. Instead of wasting precious time, you can use Removal.AI to automate this tedious process. Aside from the superb image removal feature, this tool also works as a powerful image editing software. After removing their backgrounds, its built-in photo editor will let you enhance your photos further.
With Removal.AI, you can choose how many background removal credits you pay for a month. The more credits you pay, the lesser the cost for each image becomes. 40 photos per month credit, for example, will cost $5.99 or $0.15 per image. On the other hand, five hundred images per month credit will cost only $63.99 or $0.13 per image.
3 – Renderforest.com
Most brands are doing social media marketing because it is one of the most effective ways to increase engagement. Renderforest is one of the best tools for creating social media content, and it helps you create stunning visuals that can quickly drive engagement. From YouTube intros to mockup generators, logo makers, and even website builders, Renderforest has something for everyone. Whether you’re a professional creative or a beginner looking to make your mark on the web, Renderforest makes it easier than ever before to get the job done quickly and beautifully.
With a wide range of easy-to-use templates, you can create stunning visuals without worrying about coding or design experience. The drag-and-drop editor makes it simple to customize your design and play with fonts, colors, and images until you find what you want. Plus, you can access a library of royalty-free stock photos and videos to make your project stand out from the competition.
What makes it so valuable is that there are plenty of social media templates to choose from. They categorize by industry, which is also helpful.
You can choose the Lite, Pro, and Business plans at $9.99, $19.99, and $29.99, respectively. All plans offer attractive features and differ mainly in the amount of storage, video quality, and support.
4 – Designstripe.com
It is a bit daunting to design illustrations from scratch. After all, you need to mind not only each design element’s meaning but also the output’s quality and aesthetics. Good thing that Designstripe has plenty of illustration templates that are perfect for any design project. Aside from illustrations, you can also use Designstripe to create attractive mockups for your products, apps, and website.
Although it gives users free and unlimited access to freestyles, you can only fully appreciate Designstripe when you subscribe to the Pro plan at $20 monthly. With this plan, you can enjoy unlimited access to free and premium styles, full-scene customization options, and multi-format downloads.
5 – Drawkit.com
What makes Drawkit a little bit better than other illustrations creators is that it has plenty of illustration types. Aside from the simple illustrations, there are sections for 2D and 3D illustrations. You can also choose from hundreds of icons and animation templates that you can use to create exciting designs.
Drawkit offers two subscription plans, the Pro plan at $79 a year and the Pro-Lifetime at a one-time payment of $295. Both plans give you unlimited access to all content plus early access to new content. The only difference is that the Pro-Lifetime gives you lifetime access, which means you can enjoy all premium illustrations and mockup templates forever.
6 – Easil.com
Creating on-brand marketing materials is a common task for designers, and Easil is a great tool for such a task with its innovative drag-and-drop editor. With minimal effort, you can start any design using premade templates and use your brand kit to create branded images and graphics. It’s flexible locking permissions, and design workflow lets you define which design elements can be edited by other team members.
Aside from the 30-day free trial account, Easil offers the Easil Plus plan at $7.50 per user per month and the Easil Edge at $59 per user per month. Both plans give access to Easil’s innovative design tools, access premium templates, and the additional Edge Design Guarantee for the Edge plan. You may also contact the team for a tailored package with a dedicated account manager. 7 – Flexitive.com
Omnichannel design production is necessary for brands that delve into online marketing efforts. It is the only way to have a wider reach and ensure that target customers are well-informed about the brand, no matter what platform they are using.
Since it is time-consuming to create different design variations for every platform, Flexitive allows you to automate the process and help with omnichannel design production and distribution. With its Dynamic Design Production (DDP), you can quickly generate design variations that will work across platforms.
Flexitive has two plans that are perfect for any design team size. The Teams plan at $59 per user per month is ideal for small teams creating omnichannel designs for any platform. It has 100GB of cloud storage space per user, access to the design library, a responsive drag-and-drop design editor, and much more. For more prominent organizations that need design production automation, the Enterprise plan at $89 per user per month is the most suitable option. Each user will have 200GB of cloud storage space, access to global shared libraries, and other cool perks.
8 – Pixelied.com
You don’t need to hire a new designer when you want to create graphics for your business as long as you have Pixelied. This tool has a full suite of image editing tools that will help you instantly create stunning designs. Because of its easy-to-use online graphic editor, you do not need advanced design skills to make it work. It also has a vast library of professional templates you can personalize for branded content.
Pixelied has one of the most affordable subscriptions for online tools for graphic design. The Pro plan is only $4.9 monthly, while the Pro+ is only $8.25 monthly. Both come with many premium perks, like AI image generation credits, BG remover, access to premium content, priority customer support, and more.
9 – Adobe Illustrator
As a leading organization for photo editing solutions, we must mention Adobe before ending this list of graphic design tools. Adobe Illustrator sets the bar high with its powerful features for creating illustrations, logos, infographics, icons, and more.
The monthly plan costs $31.49 a month, but you can avail of the discount when you pay annually at only $20.99 per month. However, one of the downsides of using this tool is that newbies will have to deal with a steep learning curve. It is mainly suited for advanced users.
10 – Creasquare Creative Studio
Creasquare Creative Studio is an all-in-one creative design tool for creating stunning visuals. It offers a comprehensive suite of advanced and intuitive features that allow users to create eye-catching designs in no time easily. With Creasquare, you can turn your ideas into reality with just a few clicks.
Users love Creasquare Creative Studio because it allows them to easily create stunning visuals with access to an extensive library of professional templates, stock images, and illustrations. It’s incredibly intuitive for beginners but powerful enough for experienced designers. Plus, it’s available on both the web and mobile devices.
Creasquare also offers a range of features designed to help professionals achieve their creative goals. It includes an AI-powered background removal tool, vector drawing capabilities, and a range of filters and effects. Additionally, users can collaborate with others in real-time on projects, allowing teams to work together seamlessly from anywhere.
Conclusion
It is only with modern tools for graphic design that designers can create superb designs that improve the overall user experience and interface. These design tools are more than just a means to create innovative designs. They also ensure that designers work smartly by providing ways to improve their workflows and increase productivity.
The tools for graphic design also help standardize design practices to help brands deliver consistent designs across their marketing strategies. By being familiar with ground-breaking tools, you can enjoy numerous and lasting benefits as a designer.
About the Author
Name: Jenn Pereira
Email: jennpereira13@gmail.com
