5 min read
Useful Tools For Both Novice And Expert Designers
Share
A few weeks ago, we communicated the importance of graphic design and its role in the competitive business environment. We discussed how it’s one of the most important foundations of a company and is crucial for standing out, building trust, and effectively communicating with an audience.
We realize that it can be difficult to find the right graphic designer, as well as communicate your vision to them. So this week, we’ll share some of our favorite tools and resources that our designers use, which are useful for both novice and expert designers alike.
Stock Photos
Photos convey what words can’t and can trigger emotions immediately. Whether they’re serving as a background, social media post, website hero photo, or mockup, there are so many uses for stock photos—especially when you don’t have much original content to work with.
- Unsplash (Free)
- Pexels (Free)
- Pixabay (Free)
- Adobe Stock (Paid)
- Shutterstock (Paid)
Mockups and Templates
Whether you have years of experience or no design experience at all, there are some online platforms that can significantly increase your workflow and help with mockups, social media post templates, brochures, report templates, and much more.
Font Inspiration and Sources
Typography is more influential than a lot of people think; besides, we can’t go a day without seeing several styles of typography. If you want to convey a particular mood or style, pay attention to which fonts you’re choosing. It’s equally important to select fonts that pair well together for headers and body text, as they affect information hierarchy and readability. Below are some of our favorite sites for fonts and font inspiration.
- Adobe Fonts (Free with Adobe Creative Cloud)
- Google Fonts (Free)
- What the Font (Free)
General Inspiration
Sometimes ideas come out of thin air, but most times you need some inspiration. There’s nothing wrong with looking to others for ideas! When it comes to design, making a mood board can be a great place to start. Here are some sites our graphic designers use for inspiration.
File Management
Staying organized with files is extremely important to us at Madak, as it helps our workflow. We store pretty much everything in Google Drive folders so we can access our work anytime and have the flexibility of working anywhere. WeTransfer is a convenient tool for sending large files for free. Bulk Resize is handy for decreasing image file size for multiple photos at once.
- WeTransfer (Free)
- Bulk Resize (Free)
- Google Drive (Free)
Freelancers
If you are in need of a designer for a simple project, there numerous freelance sites to choose from. If our design team doesn’t have time for smaller projects, we outsource them to Design Pickle. Fiverr is also a great place to hire freelance designers for cheap with quick turnaround time.
Because we work with a variety of clients who have their preferred platforms, we get exposed to several tools—some of which we end up using ourselves! Whenever possible, we like to hold in-person design workshops with our clients just so they can see how we use platforms, which often results in our clients picking up on shortcuts they never knew existed. Never be afraid to ask for help or advice on which platforms to use; in the end, it will usually result in a more efficient workflow!
Related Blogs
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostru.
Tactics: What Is SEO Marketing?
Search engines are undeniably some of the most useful tools of the modern-day, and tens of thousands of searches are conducted every second. In this digital age of business, having an online presence is essential, especially when you’re trying to build brand awareness and market yourself effectively. Thankfully, search engines can help your business thrive if you know how to use them to your advantage! The content you post and your website will be endlessly overlooked unless you make an effort for it to be found—this is where SEO marketing comes in. Keep reading to learn more about what SEO is, why it matters, and how it can help you get more web traffic.
Target Audience: How to Define Your Specific Market
Unless you’re in the business of selling air or water, not everyone is going to be interested in your product or service. Though some may think of this as a disadvantage, having a specific market can actually prove to be helpful since you don’t have to worry about catering to every single person on the planet—only the people that might actually care. Keep reading to learn more about what a target audience is, why it matters, and a few strategies you can use to determine yours.
Design Basics: How to Know When to Rebrand
Though your brand is more than just your business name, logo, and overall design scheme, these aspects are crucial to guiding public perception. If the thoughts and emotions that people experience when thinking about your business are not in line with what you want them to be, it might be time to rebrand. Keep reading to get an understanding of why rebranding is so important for a growing business in an evolving market, and to learn about 6 reasons why you might want to rebrand.
Reimagine Your Digital Impact
Transform your website, pitch decks, sales collateral and more, all with transparent, upfront, pricing.