This is part 5 of the Design Toolbox Series where I interview top designers about what tools they use to help them create their art. 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 Matt Ward

Matt Ward is a digital artist who lances freely under the moniker Echo Enduring Media. He specializes in design, illustration and writing, and has several articles published here on MyInkBlog. He is also currently employed as the Creative Director for Highland Marketing, a direct marketing company based out of Waterloo, Ontario.

On a more personal note, Matt is married to his best friend and the love of his life, Kelly. Together, they have one beautiful daughter who is already showing signs of her own creative genius (at least from a parent’s perspective). Matt plays a little guitar, a few video games and is highly involved in his local church.

Matt Ward – Design Toolbox

Computer/OS

I have a 13″ MacBook, running Leopard, which I use to do pretty much everything, from designing to writing, to general web surfing. I also have a Toshiba Satellite laptop and an Acer desktop, both running Vista, which I use for the few Windows-based things I still need to do – like testing sites in IE.

Browser

I use FireFox. Despite the fact that both Safari and Chrome are faster, I can’t seem to give up old Foxy. It’s like an old friend that I am the most comfortable with. I do open up Safari every once in a while though, usually when I want to work with a site as a logged in administrator and just a regular visitor.

Code Editor

Coda rocks my world. I used to use Dreamweaver for a while, just because it came packaged with CS4, and before that, when I was working on a PC, I used a program called HTML Kit. Those were both okay, but Coda is just more lightweight, and easier to use. It makes it a breeze to manage multiple websites, and I love the way they integrated Transmit, allowing me to move files to and from the server without having to open a separate FTP app.

Mail Client

The default Mail app that comes with OS X has been fine for me. It allows me to download my emails, read them and organize them (though I need to get better at the later). I don’t really need anything more than that. Plus, it integrates nicely with the rest of the operating system.

Billing App

I use Billings 3. Again, another beautiful Mac app that, though its lightweight, is still powerful enough to meet all my needs. I can manage my contacts and projects, create estimates and invoices, add payments and track everything through a wide range of built in reports.

FTP Client

I already mentioned the way I use Coda to transfer files when developing websites. However, if I need to upload or download other types of files – like artwork to a commercial printer – I use FileZilla. There’s nothing all that fancy about it, but I it has worked just fine for my needs.

Twitter App

On my computer, I use Tweetie. I used to use TweetDeck, and while I like some of the features it offered, I found that it was a real drain on my system. Tweetie isn’t quite as robust, but it’s prettier, and much more lightweight.

RSS Reader

It seems like I’ve gone through a number of different RSS readers over the years, but right now I am using NetNewsWire, and am relatively happy with it.

Task Organizer

Again tried a few different apps before finally settling on Things, which I absolutely love, especially with the ability to synch it to the app for my iPhone. Now I can take my to do list with me wherever I go, and sometimes even knock a few items of while I’m on the move. So far it’s been the perfect solution for me.

Photo/Design Editor

Photoshop for sure. I know it can be bloated and buggy and is prone to crashing, but as far as I’m concerned it is still the defacto application when it comes to image editing, photo manipulations and so on. I’m constantly being amazed at the new things I am figuring out how to do. I also love the smooth integration that I have experienced with Illustrator.

Vector/Illustration Program

Definitely Illustrator these days. I actually started out with vector art in Corel Draw 6, way back in high school and used a copy of Corel Draw 8 for years. When I first made the switch to Illustrator, it took me a while to get used to it, but now I use it on an almost daily basis, for various forms of illustration, icon design and so on.

Any other apps you’d like to share

There are really only two other apps on my Dock that I use a lot. The first is Evernote, which is a slick little application that allows me to throw together. I can write notes, include websites and all kinds of other information. Even better, I can also synch it all to my iPhone through my Evernote account, allowing me to keep all my notes right at my fingertips.

The other application that I use is MAMP, which basically simulates a local apache server running both PHP and mySQL. This has allowed me to install a local version of WordPress, so that I can easily develop themes even without an internet connection.

Connect With Matt

• Echo Enduring Media
• Echo Enduring Blog
• Highland Marketing
• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

This is part 4 of the Design Toolbox Series where I interview top designers about what tools they use to help them create their art. 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 Jeff Finley

Jeff Finley is an artist, designer, and creative entrepreneur. He is part owner of the creative agency Go Media and lives in Cleveland, OH with his wife Kim and their bunny Cocoa. He plays drums in Parachute Journalists with Adam Wagner, also of Go Media. He’s also founder of the art, film, and music festival Weapons of Mass Creation Fest taking place in Cleveland this year on May 22 and 23.

Jeff Finley – Design Toolbox

Computer/OS

Windows XP, but I’ve been using Windows 7 and I love it. Once I can, I plan to switch all my machines over to Windows 7. People might be surprised I don’t use a Mac, and frankly I don’t have a very good reason other than they cost a lot and I already get my work accomplished on a PC. I don’t really care for the whole debate, I’ll work on whatever!

Printer

Xerox Phaser 7750 is our big color printer at Go Media. We also use a few Brother laser printers for black and white documents.

Browser

Firefox, but lately I’ve been using Google Chrome a lot more mostly because it’s just faster. My firefox has too many addons going on and I like the simplicity of Chrome.

Code Editor

Notepad2 and Dreamweaver. I like using Dreamweaver because of the shortcuts and it’s faster to write HTML and CSS. But Notepad2 is better when I don’t feel like opening up yet another bulky Adobe app.

Mail Client

Microsoft Exchange. I use Outlook 2007, but will be delighted when I can use 2010. I like Exchange because I can easily access all my emails from anywhere. I used to use Thunderbird with POP3/Imap years ago and I would have issues when working at the office and then at home. Exchange makes this easier, and it works on my PalmPre.

Billing App

We use Quickbooks Pro 2009, although I personally don’t work in it. My wife Kim does Go Media’s bookkeeping and our project manager Heather uses it for invoicing clients.

FTP Client

Filezilla and/or WinSCP. I actually used FireFTP quite a bit, but I’ve found these other two are much faster. WinSCP is kinda old school, but it’s great for editing files directly on the server w/ Notepad 2.

Twitter App

I’ve been using HootSuite quite a bit lately, but I’m still a fan of DestroyTwitter. I love the DT interface, but lately I’ve been managing quite a bit of Twitter Accounts and Facebook Pages. I love how HootSuite lets me do all of that. I’ve got Facebook pages for Go Media, The Arsenal, ShirtMockup, Parachute Journalists, Myself, and a few random others. Same with Twitter. It gets overwhelming, HootSuite is the only way to keep it organized.

RSS Reader

Google Reader. I used to subscribe via email, but my inbox just would get cluttered and overloaded and I spent more time deleting posts than reading them. Google Reader is much nicer for this. However, I find myself not logging in and honestly it’s been like a month since I last logged in. I’ve been swamped so it’s easy to forget about keeping up with your favorite sites.

Task Organizer

We’ve got an in-house project management app called Prooflab that we built to run the ins and outs of Go Media. We’re actually working on a complete overhaul and will release it to the general public. But I also use Basecamp, Highrise, and somtimes Outlook for task management.

Photo/Design Editor

Photoshop, it’s just the standard. I’m good at it and wouldn’t use anything else.

Vector/Illustration Program

Illustrator. Same as above.

Any Other Apps You’d Like to Share?

My fellow Go Media colleague Adam Wagner has turned me onto a few neat apps like YadaByte Subtext for text replacement. For example, I can fill a text block w/ Lorum Ipsum just by typing “lorum2” for two paragraphs. It recognizes what you type and replaces it with whatever text you want. If you say the same things to people in emails, this is handy. He also pointed me to a handy app called “FolderMenu” which adds middle mouse button functionality to access your frequently used folders and files. It has saved me tons of time navigating through client folders and directories. I also like using “FolderSizes” for seeing how much disc space particular projects are taking up on our server. When we’re reaching capacity, this app shows me what clients are the biggest disc space hogs. Like “oh wow, this client is taking up 22% of our entire server, better back it up and delete it). When you have tons of files, this stuff can get out of control.

Connect With Jeff

• Go Media
• Arsenal
• GoMediaZine
• Shirt Mockup
• WMC Fest
• Parachute Journalists
• Portfolio Site
• Twitter
• Tumblr

That’s A Wrap

Feel free to comment and add your tools of choice for any or all of the categories above.

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

• Website
• Flickr
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Vimeo

Feel free to comment add your tools of choice for any or all of the categories above.

About Tim Smith

Tim Smith is the editor of Fuel Your Blogging. He has a passion for writing and loves to share his thoughts and experiences for the benefit of others. Here are the tools that he uses to design and create.

Computer/OS

I use an Apple 17″ iMac. My computer is ancient though. I’m always joking around that it’s going straight to a museum when I’m done! It’s still running Tiger! I’ll hopefully be upgrading soon.

Printer

Actually, I just bought a new printer. I’m using a Brother MFC 6490. I love it. It does everything. It scans, copies and prints. I definitely recommend it.

Browser

I use the latest version of Firefox. Version 3.5, right? One of my favorite features of Firefox is Personas. You can have a different skin for the browser everyday if you want.

Code Editor

I’m more of a graphic designer than a web designer but I love to get my hands dirty with code. I use a very simple app called Smultron. It doesn’t have a lot of features like Coda or Espresso but… it works for me.

Mail Client

I use Postbox. I love Postbox. I started using it when it was still in beta and I just love the features and UI. Even though it’s features are sophisticated, I like that the user experience is simple.

Billing App

I use Billings. I love apps that are simple to use and Billings saves me of a lot of work and headaches.

FTP Client

I use CyberDuck. Again, I love simple apps and CyberDuck lets me setup my FTP information quickly and without hassle.

Twitter App

I’m using TweetDeck. I love using it. I can have my various groups, accounts and I can also update Facebook from it. However, what I don’t like is that it hogs a lot of my RAM and it limits the apps I can have open at once. As soon as I upgrade to a new Mac, I most certainly will begin to use Tweetie if TweetDeck doesn’t make some major changes.

RSS Reader

I don’t use an RSS reader right now. But, I do think that I should start using one. I usually send all my feeds to my inbox. It makes a mess because I’ll wake up to over 80 messages; only counting the feeds. Starting the day with the number 110 on the Postbox icon isn’t really great.

Task Organizer

I love Things!! I recently wrote a review on their app and I gave it 5 out of 5. Again, the app is simple to use and I love that. I was able to learn all of the features of Things in like five minutes. That’s great! It has helped me be a lot more productive.

Photo/Design Editor

Photoshop of course! I use Photoshop everyday for Fuel Your Blogging. I make thumbnails, lead images for our articles and recently I’ve been doing some photo retouching.

Vector/Illustration Program

Illustrator. I make sure I use it everyday. I’m usually working on a logo, some text for a wallpaper or just messing around. I love it!

Parting Shots

Feel free to add your tools of choice for any or all of the categories above. I’d also love to hear your suggestions for genres that I should add to the next designer’s toolbox.

About Grace Smith

Grace Smith is a talented blogger, designer and the owner of Postscript5. She was kind enough to take the time to share some of the tools she uses and some insight into why she’s chosen them. Check out her thoughtful responses below.

Browser

At the moment it would be Safari 4, however I’ve been testing out Google Chrome over the last few days (having downloaded the developer preview for OSX) and I think once it’s in Beta I will be switching. While I appreciate how useful Firefox can be, I switched to Safari because of the stability problems I was experiencing with Firefox, It was just one crash too many!

Code Editor

I’ve used both CSSEdit and Espresso but always come back to Coda. It integrates everything that I need; namely a code editor, css editor, preview pane, SSH Terminal, website management and an FTP client.

Mail Client

I run all my mail accounts through Google Apps as a desktop app using Fluid, with all my accounts streaming into a single inbox. Previously I used the native Mail app, however I switched to Google to better streamline my email and process.

Billing App

I was a Freshbooks user for several years but recently switched to Curdbee as I needed a simpler, more cost effective solution. Curdbee is an excellent service, offering the necessary functionality and features which suit my needs perfectly.

FTP Client

Coda, although I had been using Transmit for some time before getting into Coda. I do love it’s simplicity and functionality, a great standalone FTP app. I still make use of the ‘droplets’ which are great for recurring uploads.

Twitter App

I use Tweetie because of it’s speed and slick interface although I long for it to add the ability to create groups as that’s the feature I miss most since switching from Tweetdeck earlier this year.

RSS Reader

Google Reader
as a standalone app using Fluid and styled with the exquisite Helvetireader. It’s simply a beautiful and useful piece of kit.

Task Organizer

After longing for a super simple, ‘get your stuff done’ to-do list app, I knew my search was over once I found TaskPaper. No bloated complex software, just a fast, simple app that makes sure I keep up to date with my tasks.

Photo/Design Editor

Photoshop – I’ve been using it since the days of Photoshop 6 and can’t see myself usng any other app. It’s where every design I work on is created and polished.

Vector/Illustration Program

Admittedly I don’t use Illustrator all that often, but when I work on a logo or illustration, it’s my app of choice.

Final Thoughts

Feel free to add your tools of choice for any of the categories above. Also, I’d love to hear your suggestions for the categories I should add to the next designer’s toolbox series (I already have a couple of ideas).