Best Apps for Designers and Illustrators
I want to share my favorite tools that helped me work efficiently as a creative over the years. For your convenience, I’ve included links as well. I will be updating this list from time to time, so feel free to recommended apps you’d like me to try!
Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe — the world’s industry leader when it comes to creativity and innovation — is ofcourse on the top of my list. I’m here to break down everything for you to easily digest which specific platform is best used for what. Unfortunately, the creative suite is an expensive subscription. Read the gist below to help you decide which ones you’d need. They also offer a 7-day free trial!
Photoshop (desktop) - The program every designer need to learn first. Photoshop is best for single-page graphic design, photo manipulation, digital paintings, frame-by-frame animation, and short GIF creation.
Photoshop (ipad) - I use their ipad version a lot when designing and I prefer using this app over others simply because I can seamlessly sync files across all my devices, even as a .psd file. Their ipad version is more for digital painting or surface pattern creation as you can use photoshop brushes with your Apple pencil.
Illustrator (desktop) - Another design program known for creating logos, typography, icons, flat illustrations for both mobile and print, and packaging. Key feature is that this software is vector-based, meaning you can scale your artwork up to billboard size and it will remain sharp. You can also use this to design multi-page layouts such as tri-fold brochures and presentation decks because you can customize the size and number of artboards you need.
Illustrator (ipad) - Adobe created an ipad version and it is so awesome! Their new version has so much flexibility and you can easily turn any sketch into vector graphics.
InDesign (desktop) - Layout and page design software best for creating print and digital publications like magazines, annual reports, books, and newspapers.
Fresco (ipad) - I see this as a free alternative to Photoshop for those into drawing and painting digitally. It’s specially made for ipad users to use with the apple pencil. You can start with a starter plan and upgrade to unlock premium features.
Lightroom (desktop) - A photo-editing app where you can edit photos simultaneously. You can easily adjust the brightness, contrast, etc and copy and paste the settings to other photos so you won’t need to adjust them one by one. If you’re very particular and detail-oriented, you can also use the brush and gradient tool to edit just a portion of the photo no matter how big or small it is.
Premiere Pro (desktop) - The best video editing software used for cutting and stitching video and audio clips, color correcting, and adding built-in special effects. You can create stunning videos, and even films with this software.
Rush (ipad) - A video editing app good for beginners! This is a quick way to edit videos for social media as it is easy to drag and drop files. It also automatically crops the videos to 1:1, 4:5, and 9:16 ratio in seconds. Functions are limited, but good enough for producing raw organic content for social media and ads. You can always transfer it to Premiere Pro if you’d like to take it even further.
After Effects (desktop) - This software is all about motion graphics and visual effects. Best for fluid logo and character animation, cinematic movie titles, exciting transitions, and more.
Those apps with both desktop and ipad versions can sync editable files when saved in Adobe’s cloud — how cool is that! I can geek out and dive deep into each of these, but I’ll save it for next time. This is just a snapshot of what these apps has to offer. If you’re a professional creative, investing on the creative cloud subscription can save you time, and you can earn a living from it too.
Apps for Design & Brainstorming
I recently bought an iPad Pro, but you can use any kind of pen tab you own. Here’s a shortlist of apps you need to try.
Concepts (ipad) - This app’s infinite artboard makes it so much easier to jot down ideas and sketches. The color palette is also unique as it is tied with kurecolor markers perfect for interior, industrial and fashion designers. You can download this for free with optional in-app purchases. I upgraded mine so I can export my artwork in any format I want, and avail other premium features.
Procreate (ipad) - Very popular on Instagram and that’s how I discovered it. This app is best for illustrating and creating frame-by-frame animation. For a Photoshop user like me, I’m not used to the app’s minimal interface and toolbar. There’s still so many hidden features I need to learn, but this app is definitely worth the $10 I paid for.
Pixelmator (ipad) - Another app for illustrators. I haven’t tried, but there’s a lot of great reviews and it was recommended by my illustrator friend.
Paper by WeTransfer (ipad) - Cute interface for journaling and collaging.
Canva (website) - Yes, I know there’s been a huge discussion about “Canva vs. Designers”. I included it here because it is quite useful when designing for social media. It’s a quick way to optimize your time especially when you’ve created templates. You can create assets in Photoshop, and import everything to Canva so anyone on your team can quickly edit the content.
Apps for Color Nerds
We’re all color nerds! These apps are helpful in building color palette for both physical and digital products.
Pantone Connect (website | ipad | can be integrated inside Adobe Ps, Ai, and Id) - A new platform where you can access the official Pantone color libraries and color values. You can easily convert HEX codes to Pantone codes, and extract colors from an image. It is free during their intro period so hurry!
Pantone (website) - You can still use their color finder directly on their website if you don’t have an Adobe subscription or ipad.
Pocket Palette (ipad) - If you don’t need the Pantone code, you can easily get away with Pocket Palette. It’s a quick and easy way to build color schemes. It can convert any colors to HEX, RGB, and HSL codes.
Khroma (website) - This site uses an AI to decipher which colors you love and suggests color palettes based on your preference. All their colors have names which is fun and helpful when you need some help with naming a collection or product.
Color Hunt (website) - They’ve readily available color schemes for you to choose from with Pantone codes.
Apps for Inspiration
If you’re stuck in a rut and need some quick pick-me-up, this is for you!
Pinterest (website | app) - A very popular pinboard platform where you can save and organize visual ideas for just about any topic you can think of.
Behance (website | app) - A portfolio platform for all types of creatives. It is now one of the largest creative network, and scrolling through thousands of projects are always inspiring! They have loads of great branding, ad campaigns, publication, and illustration projects.
Vimeo (website) - A video-sharing platform. Unlike Youtube, it’s more streamlined for creative outputs like cinematic films and animated videos. They don’t put ads before, after, or on-top of videos which is nice. This platform can also be used for live event streaming, and for sending videos up to 7TB.
Dribble (website) - I don’t use this a lot, but I should! Over the years, they have integrated new features like you can hire designers straight from this platform. It’s like Behance and Upwork combined. The creative work uploaded on here are mostly UI/UX, animation, branding, and illustration.
Collect by WeTransfer (ipad) - It’s like Pinterest, but you can save any images, videos, articles, pdfs, and links from anywhere.
Paste by WeTransfer (ipad) - An alternative to Google Slides, but more fun and modern. You can upload, paste, or drop any type of file including GIFs and figma. It’s great for presenting your ideas to clients.
Masterclass (website | app) - Everyone is so inspiring! Dianne von Furstenburg’s and Kelly Wearstler’s classes are my ultimate fave. They both shared their creative processes in detail and I admire them so much. I still have free 7-day guest passes so message me if you’d like a link.
Skillshare (website) - I subscribed to skillshare years ago to watch Sarah Beth Morgan’s illustration for animation. She’s one of my favorite illustrators, and it’s so fun to see her animate her work step-by-step.
Apps for Project Management
Tired of Google sheets? Here are a few apps that can satisfy your organizational urges (for managing assets, planning content calendars, creating systems, documenting processes, and more).
Airtable (website | app) - My favorite! This is the best app for organizing workflows and assets. It’s customizable and has a well-designed interface. I still use the free version, and it has helped me a lot for the past year. I’ve influenced my colleagues to join me in this platform and they’re loving it! It’s definitely user-friendly. It syncs across devices as well.
Asana (website | app) - I use Asana before I discovered Airtable. It’s mostly for to-do lists and assigning tasks to certain team members. I love how you can set alarms, and can color code everything.
Monday (website) - This is my third choice for project management. It’s also user-friendly and simple. This is perfect for you if you don’t need too much customization like Airtable. You can assign tasks to members, build pipelines, and color code everything.
Dropbox Paper (website) - It’s an alternative to Google Docs, but with more features. Added benefits include: adding timelines, and assigning tasks directly inside the document.
Evernote (website | desktop | app) - This is another alternative to note-taking, and I use this a lot for drafting blog posts, recipes, and even saving GIFs. I love how you can easily organize by creating notebooks as folders and it syncs on all your devices from desktop to ipad to mobile.
These are all the tools I’ve used and you have to try everything to know which suits you the best. Are there apps you use that I haven’t mentioned in here? Feel to comment down below if there’s something you’d like to add and I’ll give you a shoutout. I’m always on the lookout for tools that could help me grow better as a creative. I hope this article helps. See you next time!
If you need any design help, feel free to view my list of services here or contact me at reeseystudio@gmail.com.
♡ with love and sunshine,
