This is part 3 of the Design Toolbox Series where I ask top designers what design tools they use to help them complete their work. This series was largely inspired by Grace Smith’s “Show Me Your Dock Series.” It’s my hope that you can gain insight into what other designer’s are using, and hopefully find some new apps/tools to check out.
About Kyle Steed
Kyle Steed is an awesomely talented designer from in Dallas, Texas. He is refreshingly open, honest and humble. He’s the guy behind kylesteed.com (naturally) and works a full-time 9-5 job doing web + graphic design as well as work in his free time doing illustrations + web design.
Computer/OS
Computer/OS – iMac/Macbook running OS X 10.5 (Waiting to upgrade to Snow Leopard)
Printer
Epson Stylus Photo RX620 (I use it more for scanning than I do printing)
Browser
Safari is really my browser of choice
Code Editor
A mixture of Dreamweaver (Code view only) and CODA
Mail Client
Using Google Apps to manage my personal email through my domain
Billing App
FreshBooks (Still using the free version since I’m not full-time freelance)
FTP Client
Transmit (hands down the best)
Twitter App
Tweetie (I love the shortcut keys to switch from the main timeline to my @ replies and DM’s to search)
RSS Reader
Google Reader (As of just a couple months ago. Before then I didn’t really use RSS)
Task Organizer
My moleskin (Does that count?) ;)
Any Other Apps You’d Like To Share?
Cornerstone by Zennaware is my favorite Version Control software. Fluid is another personal favorite.
Connect With Kyle
Feel free to comment add your tools of choice for any or all of the categories above.
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Simon | Teenius
December 12, 2009
Cool idea to have a look at what the top designers use. Helps us get to know them a bit better, great idea! :D
I’m loving Kyle’s website design too, very minamilist! :)
Andrew Kelsall
December 12, 2009
Great article, here are some additional addons that I use:
Harware: Wacom Tablet and Backup Hard drive
Software: Billings 3, Fetch, NetNewsWire, Little Snapper and new free web service, http://www.teuxdeux.com
Tony
December 12, 2009
That’s almost exactly my list, only I use Things as my task organizer and I use Firefox more often than Safari (because of the add-ons).
Good to see others using DW, which definitely gets a bad wrap. It’s one of the best *text* editors out there. I never (ever) use the visual mode. The text editor is (at its core) the old Allaire Homesite editor, which Macromedia bought before Adobe bought Macromedia. They integrated Homesite into DW and added some new functionality. The site management tools are fantastic. (Ex: move a file from one directory to another and any links pointing to that document anywhere else in the site can be updated automatically.) I use the SVN for DW plugin, so it’s pretty much a one-stop-shop tool (built-in FTP and SVN…)
Chotrul Web Design
December 13, 2009
It’s always interesting to see what someone uses for web design and their general work.
It’s also vote for Firefox ahead of Safari … the add-ons for a web designer and for SEO work are simply unbeatable ….
poolcleaner
December 13, 2009
the task organizer should really count ^^.
Laurent Jouvin
December 14, 2009
The list is surprisingly very simple and slim. It’s refreshing. I’ll have to look into Google Reader. I use iCal for schedule. It’s easy.
Xpirt Web Design
December 18, 2009
Can’t forget Photoshop and Illustrator!
Victor Palajon
December 27, 2009
Well, that’s just about it. I use most of these tools myself, but still it gave me ideas on what else should I use. I hope you can share a tool where I can preview designs in different browsers.
MadeLikeThis
February 22, 2010
Good list, and for menubar apps, I’d add Caffine and Jumpcut. Very handy.