As a millennial, I'm part of a generation that believes we can change the world. But while some have the advantage of being creative prodigies, and not really having to try, the rest of us need a little help from creative tools to make our geniuses shine through.
The best tools are a little bit like a makeup for creativity: with the right ones we can all be dashing divas! Here, six creative professionals from around the globe share with me the tools that are helping them seize the day...
01. Colour Lovers (opens in new tab)
- Name: Daria Kazieva
- Job: Illustrator
- Location: London, United Kingdom
"I am addicted to Colour Lovers. It's my go-to source for unusual colour combinations.
"I could literally spend days just browsing pallets. Especially if I'm working on something super colourful and am trying to avoid coming back to the same shades all over again."
02. Dragdis (opens in new tab)
- Name: Felix Patrat
- Job: Interior designer
- Location: Paris, France
"I can be rather messy. Especially when it comes to my inspirations or sources for a design label I'm currently building to promote new designers.
"Dragdis is my answer to all of this. It makes collecting things online nice and easy. A sidebar with my folders pops up every time I begin dragging content from the web - image, video, links or text - I just pick a folder and drop it to my sidebar for safe keeping."
03. Pin Search (opens in new tab)
- Name: Ha-na Lee
- Job: Landscape architecture grad student
- Location: Busan, South Korea
"Pin Search is pretty much my new favourite Chrome app. It does 'background checks' on Pinterest images using Google search.
"With one click you can figure out where a 'pin' came from if the original pinner didn't give credit where credit is due, find similar images or more info about the person behind the image itself."
04. Color Thief (opens in new tab)
- Name: Sandra Pangonyte
- Job: Photographer
- Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
"As a photographer I find colours to be really fascinating in general. There are plenty of apps out there for searching or sharing colour palettes, but most of the times what I'm looking for is simply to capture one particular colour that caught my attention. Color Thief does exactly that."
05. Soundcloud (opens in new tab)
- Name: Nora White
- Job: Graphic designer
- Location: New York, USA
"As far as I can remember, I've always been very sensitive to synthesias: colours have a smell and a feel, a feel has a taste and a sound, all senses mutually inspire themselves.
"In a creative process, you got to remain receptive, you ought to leave all doors open, for that unpredicted, for that inconceivable variable to come along, express itself and materialize into ideas, shapes, rhythms. I rarely start a visual creative journey without good headphones and Soundcloud. Try this one and see what comes along: https://soundcloud.com/lautundluise/montagssorbet010 (opens in new tab)."
06. 'Social skills'
- Name: David Einar
- Job: Photographer
- Location: Linköping, Sweden
"Well I've been thinking and trying to figure out what my secret tool is. Beside all my inspiration moodboards on Pinterest and following other great talents on Instagram etc.
"I think my best tool for succeeding in the business is social skills. I know many great technical and great creative people who won't get a break 'cause of simple lack of social skills."
What's your top design tool? Let us know in the comments!
Words: Danutė Rasimavičiūtė
Danutė Rasimavičiūtė is head of communications at Dragdis, a new productivity web app for creatives.
