Online platforms set the stage for invention and creativity, similar to how a chef employs cooking utensils to craft delectable cuisines, or how musicians formulate harmonious melodies using musical instruments. Likewise, builders depend on specific gear and infrastructure to erect bridges that connect spatial expanses. In parallel, digital artists require more than inherent knack or proficiency. They capitalize on digital design tools, both rudimentary and advanced, to transform their vivid imagination into captivating visual narratives.
1. Pen and paper
The fastest, cheapest, and easiest way to transfer design ideas from your head to the real world is to use a good old pen and paper. Besides giving you a chance to stay off the grid for a few moments, analog sketches also serve somewhat like the sacred link between the great graphic artists of the past and the new tech-enabled designers of today.
More importantly, using pen and paper allows you to “intuitively draw” the design concepts in your mind and quickly discover problems and solutions as your sketches take a rudimentary shape. Research even shows that taking notes, doodling, and writing by hand enhances focus, creativity, and openness to learning.
2. Stylus and graphics tablet
Creatives who have a dominant tech gene in their DNA will likely prefer the digital equivalent of pencil and paper for their sketching and doodling tasks. When it comes down to it, even their more traditional cousins who sleep with analog pens in hand sometimes seek the souped-up functionalities of an electronic pencil and paper.
So if you find yourself craving a hybrid tool that allows you to continue making hand drawings like a classical artist but using the tools of a tech geek, don’t be embarrassed nor feel that you are betraying the trade. Instead, check out state-of-the-art tools such as the industry standard Wacom tablet/Pro Pen and the versatile iPad Pro in tandem with the Apple Pencil.
Either could simulate the authentic feel of drawing sketches or creating wireframes, in addition to giving you some wicked capabilities (instant color, filters, eraser, storage, superb editing, etc.) that you just can’t execute using ordinary pen and paper.
3. Smartphone
This gadget helps us connect with peers, customers, and the World Wide Web. It also hosts your favorite apps — including really handy on-the-go drawing and image-editing tools. Plus, the smartphone doubles as a decent camera for unexpected moments when you need one and your sturdy Canon or Nikon is snug as a bug inside its case back at home.
For web designers, a smartphone on hand is also the easiest way to find out whether a specific web page design properly renders on small screens. As can be expected, graphic designers don’t agree on which smartphone model is the best for their profession, but you’ll find loud voices supporting either Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S phones as well as Apple’s latest iPhone iteration.
4. Graphic design applications
This is the largest and arguably most important part of a digital artist’s tool stack. Whether installed to run from a desktop computer or offered as a cloud-based service, these software applications enable graphic designers to create, edit, store, and manage their creative output: photos, images, videos, presentations, brochures, and other visual formats.
The Adobe Creative Cloud sets the standard for this tool type, providing a full suite of applications for creating and manipulating raster graphics (Photoshop), vector images (Illustrator), videos (After Effects, Premiere Pro), and different desktop publishing formats such as posters, magazines, brochures, and ebooks (InDesign).
Paid alternatives to specific applications in Adobe’s subscription service include Serif’s Affinity Designer (vector) and Affinity Photo (raster), CorelDRAW (vector), and the macOS-exclusive Sketch (vector).
5. Artificial Intelligence
Generative AI like ChatGPT and Google Gemini have already taken the world by storm. This highly disruptive technology closely replicates the human ability to reason and create, capable of quickly producing magazine articles, frame-worthy imagery, danceable music, computer code, and compelling videos. For graphic designers, this might seem threatening. AI services like DALL-E and Midjourney can generate images from natural language descriptions in mere seconds -- something nearly impossible for even the most prolific human artists. But take heart. A growing number of practitioners opt to view generative AI not as an existential threat but as a powerful tool for augmenting the human imagination, improving digital workflows, and enhancing creative outputs.
6. Camera
For creatives who need to take, edit, and manage hyper-precise photos and videos, nothing but a decent DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) will do. And when DSLRs are concerned, two iconic brands — the Canon EOS and Nikon D-series — lead the pack. Both are pricey of course and if budget is a big issue, there are more affordable alternatives in the market that are also capable of capturing pixel-perfect shots.
7. Color space reference
8. Monitor calibrator
Another way to control runaway colors is to use monitor calibrators. These devices ensure that the colors you see on your screen will be exactly the same ones that come out in printed outputs such as posters, brochures, and magazines.X-Rite and Datacolor are the leading monitor calibrator brands, with ColorMunki Smile and Spyder5EXPRESS as their respective entry-level models.
9. Storage
While cloud storage is already available, many graphic designers still opt to have physical backup storage devices close at hand. Because entire libraries of images and videos can easily eat up storage space, you may want to invest in high-capacity, portable models such My Passport series from Western Digital and MiniStation Extreme NFC from Buffalo.
Choose models with at least a terabyte of storage. Designers who have larger budgets and prefer super-fast plug-and-play processing will likely go for solid-state drives (SSD). If you belong to this group, then Samsung’s T3 SSD — which comes with 1terabyte of storage space — is a good option.
10. Online graphic design services
With the advance of cloud computing technology, several companies have started offering web-based graphic design services that primarily target general consumers (i.e., non-professional/occasional designers).
Foremost among these providers is Canva, a simple drag-and-drop online tool that allows anyone to quickly author, edit, and share images. The website is perfect for non-designers as well as hardcore creatives occasionally looking for a quick way to create images for various purposes (e.g., blog illustrations, social media posts, etc.) and in various formats (e.g., infographics, presentations, header images, etc.). Snappa offers a similar service and interface, or you might consider Design Wizard to quickly create both images and videos.
For logo and branding-specific design options, you can try ZillionDesigns' free logo creator. They offer a ton of templates with an easy-to-use interface.
11. Resource sites
Creatives are arguably the subset of professionals most in need of inspiration. Besides getting that from their immediate environment (hopefully), these professionals can visit design-focused websites that publish advice, tips, and doses of inspirational materials that can help motivate stressed-out or low-energy designers. Behance, Abduzeedo, Uncrate, and Google Arts & Culture are some of the best places in cyberspace that can ignite that creative spark in you.