so I've made a list and it's a really gloriously helpful list indeed in my almost two decades of
experience as a graphic designer I've come to realize that having a successful design career
boils down to these categories of being fulfilled and also mastered and I'm going to show you what I
use to make each of these categories highly useful and how they work for me in my design career so
firstly without a good design process you probably won't make good designs right the first tool I
used was e-draw mind which is an insanely useful mind mapping tool now this especially helps me
out when I'm actually working on Logo Design Concepts and I'm trying to generate concepts
of via keywords it's actually a free download initially and I do think it's really useful to
utilize as a graphic designer and then the second one is Miller nodes so I use this thing to design
projects and mood boards to actually working on content right here on YouTube and even to things
like my nutrition and my day-to-day activities if millinote would disappear tomorrow I'd literally
feel naked as a designer then the third tool that helps me in my design process as a whole is chat
GPT now the main way I use this in my process is to research things like Target markets of
specific Industries or maybe to gain insight into different ideas and expand on existing ones that
I already have for things like this chat GPT is just a really good foundation and a good starting
point and it also saves a boatload of time okay so the next sector we have to have down to a t as
designers is the financial game boring I know I know I know but hey it's really important
so I often use DocuSign when I need to shoot over a contract to a design client but also for other
things that people might hire me for in my work business it's a great and inexpensive way to get a
digital signature securely but also fast and when it comes to keeping track of money in and also
money out alongside taxes there are accountant softwares out there but for me personally I just
hire an accountant for bookkeeping and my annual tax returns I think actually having a certified
accountant just gives that extra layer of peace of mind again super boring but also at the same
time it's super important the tax man they always win if you try and mug them off they will get
you if it's not this year next year in 10 years time they'll probably get you I also use Google
Sheets and other spreadsheets to track my money coming in and my money going out and then I just
dump all of that information on my accountant to work through and I don't even be here being the
slightest that's for sure so next it is the client pitch it's often said that a bad design and can be
sold in a pitch and a great design can be rejected in a pitch so basically yeah we have to get this
thing right ironically enough I sometimes use a tool called pitch yeah go figure this thing offers
templates and a great service to construct your pitches so you can get that resounding yes that
we all yearn for as a graphic designer now aside from that I simply use Adobe Photoshop to make my
own storytelling pitches and I download a bunch of mock-ups from movato elements in fact I downloaded
a lot of things from Nevada on a daily basis and I find it great for video production and also my
design projects too nothing in today's video has sponsored today's video and that is apart
from the next tool we're going to look at which has been touted at making dye lines and mock-up
generation to the next level in 2023 and that is pagdora I mean just get a load of this thing
right here it gives you real-time 3D mock-ups that you can generate yourself pretty easily
and in double quick time the 3D real-time preview is a great tool to use for pitching designs to a
client because they can actually visualize your design in the real world in a 3D space mock-ups
can be easily generated with just one click and the mock-ups on Pandora are actually really high
quality as well there's a huge library to choose from when thinking about mock-ups with a ton of
subject categories next to fonts my second biggest addiction as a designer is actually
downloading and keeping mock-ups so yeah pactora plays right into my deepest darkest desires when
it comes to designer addiction also has industry standard Precision with their die lines and they
automatically created based on your Dimensions that you enter and this is awesome for projects
that might require large-scale Printing and Manufacturing and pagdora is already
inexpensive but because they're sponsoring today's video my Satori viewers you guys can grab a 50
discount using the code Satori 50 an uppercase lettering it's probably worth it just for the
mock-ups alone but the facts there are also templates and die lines a 3D design generator
and printing connections too well it just seems like a no-brainer for people who are serious
about their craft and their career in this niche so yeah check out Pandora linked down below and
use that discount code Satori 50 at the checkout so a huge part of being a designer and actually
growing as a designer is future planning now for that I again simply use millinate I create to-do
lists I set myself realistic goals to hit and I Leave Myself notes Here There and Everywhere
just to keep myself moving in the right direction simply put if you don't set yourself goals as a
designer then you're not going to push yourself as hard as you probably should be in this career and
you won't have a firm strong direction to head in and in my long time doing this I've learned just
how powerful goal setting is and how important it is so yeah for that I simply just use Miller note
keeping up to date with how the design industry is evolving and being a part of the community is
a big big thing I like to check up on Becky boy's blog from time to time because the new section is
interesting and there often are freebies to be had on this blog yeah granted it's more inclined
towards ux and UI design but I still find it useful as a general designer then there's moosli
which is a hotbed for news and all things creative I do like to dip my toes in there once in a while
so back in the day I actually used to buy the creative review magazines when I was in college
and today I just used their website quite often I find it to be almost like my second design home
from home and then something I've spoken about before HTTP stare and wow they've actually added
a cool update of a chronological meter on the side when you scroll down that's pretty
cool but anyway this site is an awesome place for inspiration and just to see how people are
pushing the envelope and what's actually possible with website design these days but yeah let me
know what tools you're using your design career and also if you want to grab some more freebies
then just click that video on screen and until next time guys design your future today peace
thank you