Graphic Design has come on in huge leaps and bounds over the past decade. Just look at the stock price of the leading graphic design software company, Adobe. Its price jumped over 600% in the past couple of years. From $100 to pushing $600 a share as of today. This is another reminder of how powerful content is becoming in the 21st century.
Being a business owner no longer means staying behind the scenes and counting figures on your abacus. Today’s successful business entrepreneurs need to wear many hats….sales team, accountant, HR department and now designer!
1. Adobe Creative Cloud
Industry standard! For a very good reason too. Adobe has been ahead of the curve with their products for many many years now. The final iteration to their standalone Creative Suite software was back in 2012 when they switched to the subscription model of Adobe Creative Cloud. This allowed Adobe to expand their lineup into every possible corner of the design field. With over 50 applications to choose from, we pick out a few of their top programs :
- Adobe Photoshop
One of the most powerful and expansive imaging tools, Photoshop is the industry standard when it comes to anything to do with photo manipulation. The program itself has made it so easy to create some stunning content with just a few clicks of a mouse.
- Adobe Illustrator
A key tool in any designers software toolbox is a vector program. Allowing designers to create all sort of shapes, scales, illustrations and logos. Illustrator is one of the leading programs for vector editing. Not suitable for photo editing but its the bees knees when it comes to creating graphics, posters and the like.
- Adobe InDesign
A typesetters dream. InDesign has been taking over the print world for quite some time. Primarily designed for creating books, brochures and all things print related, Adobe InDesign is your go-to program to get your brochures ready for printing and out to your customers.
2. Canva
While the Adobe Creative Cloud is an industry standard game changer, the learning curve can be quite steep. Graphic Designers spend years learning each program inside and out to create their designs. It’s one of the main reasons for the explosion in online graphic design platforms. Sites like Canva are competing with each other to make life easier for your business.
They do this by making their drag and drop software super easy to use. An intuitive workflow alongside a huge selection of templates make online design platforms like this very appealing. They give the control back to you, letting you decide how you want your content to look, without the steep learning curve associated with other design platforms.
The downside is that you end up using templates a hundred other companies have used before. While Canva makes it extremely easy to create your latest Facebook banner, the nature of using pre-made templates like this means you will end up with something that looks pre-fabricated. Working closely with a graphic designer to achieve bespoke content will benefit your business more in the long run.
3. Sketch
UI and UX are the buzz words on every designers lips in 2021. More commonly known and User Interface or User Interaction design, it’s a hot topic that has every talking.
With over 132,000 apps being released every month, the need for UX/UI design has never been greater. Apps are becoming the way forward and every one of these apps needs a designer!
This is where Sketch comes in! Sketch is a vector design program, primarily used for user interface and user experience design of websites and mobile apps. It’s built from the ground up to help you build the best looking website or app that you can.
4. Affinity
Affinity Suite is quickly moving up the ranks to become a major player in the graphic design application world. It ditches the software as a service model, charging a once off fee for its application instead. This suits quite a lot of people as there are tonnes of service charges (Netflix, Amazon, HBO….you name it!) emptying your pocket, you don’t need another one!
Affinity takes it one step further and allows you to switch between vector and rasterisation profiles within the one app. This allows you to work on images and vectors in the one workspace…game changer!
The selection of tools available to you here are excellent and Affinity are keeping the app up to date on a regular basis. This comes highly recommended!
As you can see, there are a tonne of choices out there. As we have said before, your content needs to be better than good, your content needs to be outstanding. Our graphics designers here at Thud have years of experience in this field and can guarantee curated content that will be instantly engaging for your target audience.
Contact us now to find out more!