Design Smarter: The Toolbox
My top 5 design tools to work smarter, not harder
Designing any branded material can present challenges: deadlines, budgets, or just plain lack of inspiration - so to help keep your design projects moving and jumpstart the creative process, I've outlined 5 tools I use during my creative process to save time and money. Almost all of these are free, however I’ve noted an exception where I’ve found the membership totally worthwhile. I’ve broken this list into a few simple categories: Imagery, Typography & Color.
Imagery
Photo by Linus Nylund on Unsplash
Unsplash
Over 1 million free high-resolution images brought to you by the world’s most generous community of photographers. It sounds hard to believe but this truly is a treasure trove for free to use lifestyle photography, textures, moodboard imagery. I leverage this source of content for clients with low to no photography budgets, my presentations and especially love to source bits and pieces of this collection for collage projects.
Moyo Studio
Digital design goods & photo mockups for creatives by a travelling studio of two, Molly and Mark. I became a member and gained an all access pass to the ever expanding library of 900+ images and design kits. I chose to join because of the quality and consistency of their photography work, and I’ve loved the service ever since! Their mockups have stepped up my portfolio presentation game and I like to select multiple images from a collection to tell visual stories on Instagram.
Photo by Moyo Studios
Screenshot from Noun Project
Noun Project
Noun Project launched to build a global visual language that unites the world - a language that allows quick and easy communication no matter who you are or where you are. Since then, the community of creators has contributed nearly 3 million icons that are used and loved by millions of people around the world. My go-to reference when I’m short on time (read: budget) to create a suite of icons or need imagery inspiration for an identity project.
Typography
Fonts in Use
A public archive of typography indexed by typeface, format, industry, and period. Supported by examples contributed by the public, the team documents and examines graphic design with the goal of improving typographic literacy and appreciation. Designers like me use the site for project research, type selection and pairing, and font discovery.
Fonts in Use screenshot in a Moyo Carmen Mockup
Color
Screenshot of Canva’s Color Palette Generator
Canva’s Color Palette Generator
This tool is a super simple way to pull color palettes out of photography. There are more advanced palette generators but since I'm often just using this as a starting point, it’s all that I need. Plus, I love that it’s easy to use from the mobile site. As most of my clients know, I’m a strong advocate for Canva when a professional designer isn’t in the budget. For small businesses, I’ve found a sweet spot in offering Canva for Business setup & training workshops so team members feel empowered to create content that’s beautifully on-brand. I’ll dive deeper into why I love this content creation tool in a separate post.
Hope this was a helpful!
You may have noticed I left creation & project management software entirely off this list of tools, but that’s because there are just too many suggestions to cover in one post. Stay tuned for more in that department! Lastly, if you have any of your own suggestions for helpful tools to work smarter, not harder, please drop me a line, I’d love to know!