The Best Gear for Graphic Designers (Sorted by Career Level & Price)

May 29, 2019

The Best Gear for Graphic Designers (Sorted by Career Level & Price)

Throughout your career as a graphic designer, illustrator or any other creative role you may have, there are generally three mile markers during your career.

When you’re just starting out when you’re most likely right out of college.
The mid-point in your career where you’ve had some success and have some great clients, but you haven’t reached the level of a seasoned pro.
When you’re a seasoned pro, you’ve been working in the field for a good amount of years, have a Rolodex that is bursting at the seams and loving life.

But at each of the three points, we started to wonder what the best gear for each stop along the way would be. What tools would not only help you succeed at that point but help you move to the next one as well? With that in mind, we crafted a list of the Best Tools for Graphic Designers including the best software, hardware and equipment and broke it down by each point in your career. That way, you can be at the top of your game no matter where you are in the game.

Before buying anything, there are three major points to consider before you buy anything so let’s start there shall we?

Things to Consider When Buying Graphic Design Tech

Cost

Depending on your situation, considering the cost of the gear that you use on a day to day basis could be very important. If you’re just starting out running your own business, funds may be at a minimum so the cost that the gear you use may come into play much more than if you have been running a successful business for several years.

Quality

With cost, comes quality. For many products, the higher the price, the better the quality the item has. This can also pertain to the way an item feels in your hands or when you are using it. Regardless of the price, a piece of tech that feels cheaply made when you use it will probably not last very long and you’ll be forced to replace it much sooner than you may have anticipated.

Comfort

We all love to feel comfortable right? Whether it is our favorite pair of jeans, chair or piece of gear, being comfortable while using it is perhaps the most important thing to consider. The gear you choose will be used repeatedly in your line of work. Choosing something that makes you uncomfortable will just make your work suffer over time.

The Best Gear for Graphic Designers in 2019

We know that when you’re in the market for new gear or simply window shopping for your next upgrade, going through list after list just to find the one product that you are interested in can become mind-numbingly painful.

Because the adage, “time is money” can ring truer for some people more now than ever, we wanted to provide you dear reader with a handy, clickable guide broken down into the different stages in your career to make finding the best gear as easy as possible.

Check below to see a full listing the Best Tools for Graphic Designers in 2019, for both beginners and professionals. Feel free to click the link for any product on the list to be taken right to it.

Extra Gear worth Considering

Color Guide: Pantone Swatch Book – $214
Monitor Calibrator: X-Rite ColorMunki Smile – $97
Smart Phone: Samsung Galaxy S8+ or iPhone $379 / $799
Dry Erase Board: VIZ-PRO Magnetic Dry Erase Board – $29
Noise-Cancelling Earphones: Bose SoundSport Free – $199
Standing Desk: FlexiSpot Standing Desk $280

If you’re interested in the full detailed list, please keep reading.

The Best Gear for Graphic Designers in 2019

While we all wish that we could be at a point in our careers where the clients keep coming, the money keeps coming and life is good, on Day 1, the reality is, we all start somewhere. Everyone has their own journey to success and the right tools can help you move down the career path and closer to that end goal.

With our focus on the three different points in your career, recommending a high-priced tablet when you’re just starting out might not be the best idea. Honestly, if you’re just starting out and can afford the best gear out there, go for it. It can only help you progress faster.

As Paul Arden, creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi put it:

“If you get stuck, draw with a different pen. Change your tools; it may free your thinking.”

Let’s get started!

The Essentials For All Levels

No matter where you are in your career, regardless of the creative industry that you work in, every role has those tools that when you start they should hand you in a welcome package. We call these The Essentials For All Levels. If you look over our list and aren’t interested in anything that you see, you should make special considerations for the items below.

Moleskine Classic

Moleskine Classic Notebook

If you’ve ever been in an office supply store, you have some idea what these very popular notebooks are. To many, Moleskine Notebooks are the Apple of notebooks, signified by the quality time and materials that go into each notebook.

With a variety of styles, including colored notebooks, smart notebooks, Moleskine offers notebooks that will satisfy just about any creative professional and can easily be a go-to choice for years to come.