By: Mitchell Godbold
Entering the design field opens up a world of creative freedom, but navigating the numerous apps, tools, and websites that designers use can be confusing. The Design Studies Institute is here to help put you on the right path by recommending the most relevant tools that’ll be essential to know as you continue to learn in your respective design field. Here are five essential graphic design softwares for new designers:
Description: Adobe Illustrator is part of the Adobe software family of products and is one of the most widely used applications amongst designers. Adobe Illustrator specializes in creating and editing vector-based graphics, which are mostly used in logos, icons, artwork, and special shapes. Vector-based graphics are special because they maintain precise data, ensuring that any element you use remains sharp regardless of the scale. Whether you’re placing a logo on a business card or on a billboard, it will appear nice and clear to match the brand.
Pricing: Subscribe for a monthly or annual plan.
Where it is available: PC, tablet, Apple Desktop, and iPad.
Pros:
- Great versatility, can be used to create anything from data insights to artistic comic book covers.
- Supreme color accuracy.
- Top-tier software for illustration.
Cons:
- Doesn’t work super well with photos.
- An intermediate level of illustration ability is helpful to effectively use the software.
Description: Adobe Photoshop is part of the Adobe software family of products and is great to use for graphic design. Although its best-known use may be retouching and color correcting photos, it’s also great for creating illustrations, animations, 3D works, etc. This flexibility is, in part, thanks to its interface featuring a mixture of tools that are used across the entire Adobe family of products. The shape or pen tools are used across products to create nice and unique illustrations. From making video thumbnails to 3D product mockups, Photoshop’s flexibility earns it a spot on this list.
Pricing: Subscribe for a monthly or annual plan.
Where it is available: PC, tablet, Apple Desktop, and iPad.
Pros:
- Advanced features for photographers, such as color correction & grading.
- Great mobile platform for on-the-go edits.
- High demand and great flexibility across design disciplines.
Cons:
- Complicated learning curve.
- Cannot adjust batches of photos at a time.
Description: Adobe InDesign is part of the Adobe software family of products and is great to use for creating publishing layouts for designs intended for print for digital publishing.
Pricing: Subscribe for a monthly or annual plan.
Where it is available: PC & Apple Desktop.
Pros:
- Industry leader for creating a diverse array of print-ready documents (magazines, newsletters, posters, etc.).
- Can create high-resolution (300+ dpi) images in large print (20+ inches)
- A variety of different image formatting options are available that allow more freedom than other design tools.
Cons:
- It is a bit more resource-intensive compared to other creative software.
- Not available for mobile devices.
Description: Canva is a design tool that can put anyone in the design seat. Its offering of thousands of different templates can be a great tool in the arsenal of small to medium-sized marketing campaigns trying to reach an audience. Additionally, its abundance of AI tools used to streamline any tedious task is seemingly very ahead of other competitors in design software. If you want to hop onto the future of design, Canva is a must.
Pricing: Subscribe for a monthly or annual plan.
Where it is available: Android, iOS, macOS, Windows & web browser
Pros:
- Advanced AI tools
- Strong demand from companies
- Large catalogue of templates available
Cons:
- Feature-set feels a bit constrained for more advanced designers.
- Noticeable paywalling for template libraries, AI tools, etc.
- Difficult to encapsulate a brand identity in.
Description: Figma is the newest design software on this list, released in late 2016. Its utilization of an entirely cloud-based approach sets it apart from the rest of its competition, as collaborative efforts can seamlessly work in one design workspace, which is still unique in the scene. Figma's growth was most significant during the pandemic, where remote teams and quick productivity spiked in demand. Figma is primarily used to create prototypes for digital products from scratch in product design and user experience fields, using shapes, layers, vectors, plug-ins, etc. to craft unique experiences.
Pricing: Subscribe for a monthly or annual plan.
Where is it available: Virtually all platforms (Web-based version available)
Pros:
- Well-optimized and runs smoothly on most platforms
- User experience is great compared to other established design platforms
- Very popular and demand is still rising
Cons:
- Noticeable paywalling (if you don’t have a professional plan or up)
- Limited illustrative ability
- Smaller feature set compared to other design platforms
Which new design tool will you try first? Learn to use these design tools, and more, when you begin your studies at the Design Studies Institute!
