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Resources

Why Resources?

‘Resources’ is a directory of art and design tools, apps, and products I’ve personally used with great success. I receive many questions from customers helped by me and fellow creatives about how I go about running an art business. So I figured it would be awesome to share the wealth in this forum and make it available to anyone who would like to benefit from my experiences and research. Ive also included my most popular articles from my blog. you can view the complete blog archive here.

In the end, I believe these suggestions will help save you a lot of time, help you improve your workflow, and level-up your business. So here are the recommendations below, please enjoy!

Productivity Apps I use:

 

AppBlock (Android)

A nifty mobile app for android that allows for me to control the time limit and manage accessibility of all apps on my phone. In this tech age, all those wonderful ‘bells and whistles’ from the portable devices comes with a price – distraction. We take everywhere with us and they always seem to scream ‘Look At Me! Look At Me! Stop everything you’re doing, and just Look At Me!” so it’s important to silence the mobile demons, and manage the input and output.

Coldturkey (PC)

This desktop app will allow you to schedule times to block access to programs and websites at the root-level of your windows OS. In other words, once you activate it, you can’t change it unless you know how to manipulate host files. This is a powerful solution for me or anyone who wants to bar any unproductive impulses, and create a distraction-free working environment – because an artist’s focus is everything.

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Workflow

Adobe Creative Cloud (PC, MAC, IOS, Android)

(Who hasn’t heard of Photoshop?! Lol.)
Adobe leads the market in 2D digital and video rendering in my opinion, and Adobe products have been central to my transition to digital art and design. As a commercial artist, I use most of their adobe flagship products in my daily tasks, so instead of purchasing the apps individually it was more effective for me to acquire everything in bulk. So Adobe Creative Cloud is essentially a blend of all their creative products in one, and they added in extra programs in there I haven’t tested out yet, but here’s brief list of their main desktop apps included that I normally use:

3D Modeling & Animation

  • Blender
  • Zbrush
  • 3DS MAX
  • Cinema 4D
  • Autodesk Maya
  • Unreal Engine
  • Autodesk CAD
  • Substance Painter

These are all great standalone tools!

PandaDoc (Web, IOS, Android)

Pandadoc allows me to store templates of my documents, design and edit docs directly in the cloud-based software, assign them to their respective owners, send them digitally to the end-user for signatures, and review extensive analytics on user activity. At this time, I haven’t found another solution this powerful for my workflow, and I’ve researched all the digital signature and contract management services.

Google Apps for Work

A great combination of Google’s well-known products (and some lesser known) that allows for efficient workflow and communication internally with my people and with my clients.

Microsoft Office 365

  • Outlook
  • Powerpoint
  • Word
  • Onenote
  • Excel
  • Publisher

Mailchimp

One of the email marketing solutions I use for keep my subscribers up to date on the latest on tips, tools, and my career.

Dropbox

Dropbox is one of the best workflow tools I use every single day for my business. For any freelance professional, I consider this to be a ‘must-have,’ because it’s the best in third party cloud storage and secure delivery of project files to clients. Also, I encourage everyone to store their project files on the Dropbox cloud and work the files directly from their servers, it will protect you against losing your work should your computer or external hard drive fail on you, which has happened to me quite a few times.

Evernote

An app I use often to organize my notes on the research i do for projects & presentations

Microsoft To Do

I’ve tried most of the popular task lists, from Any.do, Google Keep / Calendar, Remember The Milk, etc and these were all great products, but for my personal taste, I felt these missed the mark of a well-designed interface with easy navigation. Enter, Microsoft To Do… which merged with the Wunderlist. Awesome App! I have a lot of things I do every day to run and expand my business, so I’ve created list categories where I store the task under the appropriate category, and all day long I’m completing those tasks and scheduling new ones.

Pantone Studio

A Fantastic app that i use for inspiration when I am putting together different color palettes for my design work.

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Notable Mentions

  • Asana
  • Confluence
  • 1Password
  • Scrivener
  • You Need A Budget
  • Screenflow
  • Apple Pages
  • Aweber
  • Mailchimp
  • Infusionsoft
  • Ontraport

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Programming 

  • HMTL
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • React & Redux
  • Python

Ui + ux Design Tools

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Color Schemes

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Font

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Lifestyle

Pandora Radio (Web, Android, IOS)

Always need good vibes to fill the space when its work time! Here are my top stations I listen to for maximum focus.

  • John Coltrane Radio
  • Portishead Radio
  • Asura Radio
  • Zero 7 Radio
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

FitnessPal (Web, Android, IOS)

I exercise every day in the morning before I begin my freelance work, so I like to log my calorie intake to make sure I stay disciplined throughout the day with what I’m putting into my body.

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Accounting

  • Freshbooks
  • Mint

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Presentations

  • Cisco WebEx
  • Teamviewer
  • Skype
  • Join.Me

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Office Tools:

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