Why I Use All The Design Apps

In a given week I make use of many design apps including Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Sketch.

Chances are if you're reading this you might be asking yourself "Why would you do such a thing, Andy?"

Well, my not so easy answer is because I have to.

My choice in an application for design work varies based on the work to be performed. It also depends on deliverables.

For instance, Sketch is a Mac-only application. I can't just send a Sketch file to a developer or product team in hopes they too have Macs. If they do then that's awesome but sometimes (pretty often for me) they don't.

How to fix this issue? Sadly, but also happily, I adapt to my client's needs and use all of the design apps necessary. If you work a lot on a contract basis you probably work with a variety of people. This is both exciting an challenging as people come from all walks of life. Many are experienced with tech whereas others haven't touched a computer in their life.

This video is an open discussion about modern design applications and how I personally make use of them in my workflow. As time goes on I'm sure new applications will ship and/or evolve into something more and my opinions will change. My hope is to adapt to those evolutionary periods and scale my experience as a designer.

What applications do you make the most use of and why? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.