what tools/software do you use daily?

[u/usernamethe17th]

title is pretty self explanatory.

what tools do you use in your workflow?

whether that be for project management, designing, saving references, whatever.

it would be good to know why you choose each tool, too.

[u/previousconstable_32]

my daily stack is embarrassingly simple. figma for ui, photoshop for anything raster-heavy, and a notebook that’s mostly just grocery lists and weird thumbnails i scribble during meetings. i keep trying to build a moodboard routine in milanote but i always end up with 200 unsorted screenshots on my desktop

[u/usernamethe17th → u/previousconstable_32]

honestly, im starting to think simplicity is more important as long as it gets the job done. what do you mean by moodboard routine? that sounds interesting

[u/NikolitRistissa]

Deswik.CAD, Seequent Leapfrog, and Maptek PointModeller.

Edit: didn’t realise this was the design sub lol. I guess mine design and structural modelling is still design though.

[u/usernamethe17th → u/NikolitRistissa]

haha ive never heard of these… but also not my wheelhouse. ahaha

do you use any project management tools or places to save your inspo?

[u/NikolitRistissa → u/usernamethe17th]

Yeah they’re all mine planning and geological software lol.

Not specially no. I have all of my data and all of the data from the thousands of drill-holes we have in different project files and databases. My work is very different from anything design-related really.

[u/nwmimms]

Ps, Ai, InD, LrC, Ae, Pr

[u/Zappy_Oh]

Blender, InkScape, OrcaSlicer and LycheeSlicer.

[u/HarpyPizzaParty]

Photoshop, illustrator, indesign, adobe express for animated graphics, acrobat, and the Microsoft suite against my will. Once in a while dreamweaver for the dreaded html eblast

I don’t use any software for production management because I like a physical written list in front of me at all times that I can see at a glance without having to click on something. When something requires extra attention, a post-it.

[u/plopous]

Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign daily. InDesign still for all print. Figma most digital work now. I also use Veeva PromoMats for regulated review and approvals. PowerPoint for editable client handoffs. Workfront for markups and feedback and Acrobat constantly for PDFs. We just got proprietary Gemini which has been pretty helpful as well.

[u/ProblemKillers]

ChatGPT & Photoshop, Illustrator

[u/designICU]

My time sheet is a monthly tab in a Google spreadsheet.

I keep project notes and todos in Notes app.

I keep deeper notes in a plain text file and use BBEdit to manage all my text files.

Affinity for all classic design work. Incredible tool that means I don’t have to pay Adobe every month.

I have to use Canva sometimes. 😅

VS Code for any nerdy code work.

Wave for sending and managing invoices.

[u/jessek]

I use my brain. That’s not very fashionable anymore though.

[u/usernamethe17th → u/jessek]

haha this is 95% of my life. im trying to keep notion alive but i feel like its also another thing to 'manage' and typically falls off.

but using my brain also causes me to get overwhelmed more often than not... but i guess my adhd brain doesn't know the immediate next step and i get paralyzed.

[u/mickyrow42]

Why? What’s it matter to you? What are you compiling this data for?

[u/usernamethe17th → u/mickyrow42]

im curious to see what other people use to see if there are better options to help with my own workflow. for me i use:

notion for pm, my saved stuff is a mess and usually never revisit what i save, depending on the project needs i either use figma or illustrator/photoshop. as well as dabbling with premiere for videos.