7 Visual Design Tools You Should Be Using in 2023 (From Beginner to Pro)

What you see is what you get. The human brain processes image 60,000 times faster than text. 80% of people remember what they see compared to 20% of what they read.

As communication or graphic designers, it is important to translate our ideas into visuals that are true to their message as well as appealing to the user. The visual appeal of our design is the first thing that catches the users’ attention. While our ideas and concepts are of prime importance, the right tools and software are needed to execute these ideas with excellent quality and efficiency.

What makes us choose a specific tool? A few factors that incline us towards a specific software are:

• Versatility
• Quality of output
• Quicker outputs
• Independence (not dependent on other software or people)
• Resources and plugins available
• Community

Here are a few tools and software that we at Razorpay recommend using in 2023:

1. Figma

(Free | Paid Subscription for additional features)
Output formats: JPEG, PNG, PDF, SVG, Digital medium

We, at Razorpay, use Figma as our primary design software. It is one of the most versatile tools out there.

Why do we love it?

1. It has design capabilities ranging from vector illustrations, UI design, prototyping, to image editing
2. It has the added benefit of collaboration and sharing
3. It also has a large community along with free resources, plugins, and widgets.
4. It is a desktop as well as a browser-based software along with a mobile app. Being browser-based, it allows us to access our files across devices. The mobile app helps us analyze our designs in mobile-view and make responsive designs.

Figma has a worldwide community that shares ample resources like templates, wireframes, icon sets, illustration sets, and plugins for any additional features which Figma doesn’t have. Plugins can provide design resources, help create quick animations, create flowcharts, and much more. The features are endless, there is a plugin for probably anything we require.

What doesn’t work for us?

The primary downside of Figma is that all the files are in RGB format. Figma doesn’t support CMYK color mode, which makes it unsuitable for print media. .

Figma also has limited export options that allow you to export files only as JPEG, PNG, PDF and SVG. In comparison, Illustrator provides all of the above options along with TIFF, EPS, TGA, TXT, DWG, BMP and more.

2. Adobe Creative Cloud

(Paid Subscription)

Well, this is a no-brainer. The Adobe Creative Cloud offers software that cater to all our design needs and is widely used by designers around the world. Adobe tools are versatile, provide quality output and they have a big community.

a. Adobe Ilustrator

Output formats: SVG, PNG, EPS, JPEG, PDF, DWG and more

While we use Figma for most of our scalable vectors, illustrations, and typography work, Adobe Illustrator comes in handy when we are designing our print collateral. Since Figma doesn’t provide CMYK color mode, Adobe Illustrator is ideal for any design collateral which needs to be printed. Currently, some agencies and external clients use Adobe Illustrator. Hence, we use the software when we are working with some external clients and agencies as well.

b. Adobe Photoshop

Output formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, PSD, EPS, TIFF and more

Photoshop is one of the first tools most designers get familiar with. Its usage is endless. From digital art to photo editing and quick fixes in images, Photoshop has it all. At Razorpay, we use it for various use cases.
One of its features in particular has been extremely useful for us. Photoshop lets us edit and export GIFs which are not only high quality, but are small in size. We highly recommend this feature since it is one of the best options of creating, editing and exporting GIFs which are ideal for usage across the web.

c. Adobe After Effects

Output formats: MP4, MOV, GIF, AVI and more

After Effects has got to be one of the most popular tools out there for editing and compositing. A highly functional software that we use for editing, motion graphics, complex visual effects, and animation. With this tool, we are only limited by our imagination. Want to add ninjas flying in from the moon in the background of your next family vacation video? It’s totally possible!
The best part of the software is that it directly syncs with our Illustrator files, which makes it seamless for us to work across other tools and automatically have the changes reflected.

d. Adobe Premiere Pro

Output formats: MP4, MOV, GIF, AVI and more

Premiere Pro is another tool we use in video production. While After Effects focuses more on VFX and heavy animation, Premiere Pro is a video editing tool. It features a simple timeline making it easy to clip and put together different videos. A few basic visual effects are also available to enhance videos.

3. Procreate

(Paid App)
Output formats: JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, PDF, MP4, HEVC, OBJ and more

Procreate is a digital art and animation software available on the iPad. A very intuitive dashboard, it comes with a variety of brushes and tools to create digital art. And from the latest versions, we can even create animated videos using hand-drawn key frames. One cool feature which is helpful is editing the existing default brushes to create new visuals. We can even combine two different brushes together to achieve a particular design.
We, at Razorpay, often use Procreate to create digital sketches, mood boards and quick illustrations.
Check out some of our work that we created using Procreate!

4. Jitter

(Free App with additional paid features)
Output formats: GIF, MP4, WEBM, Image Sequence

Jitter is a life-saving software for designers who are not well-versed with advanced animation software like After Effects. It is great to create small animations with the provision to animate each element of the design with different transitions to enter and exit the canvas as well as custom animations of changing size, position, opacity, or rotation. Frankly, this tool is more than enough to achieve most of the 2D animations that we have in mind.

What makes this tool even better?

• Integration with Figma: Figma has a plugin to export any frame into Jitter and the file is created with each design element as a separate layer that’s ready to start animating.
• Transparent background: Animations can be exported as transparent GIFs by selecting the “Design” mode and unchecking the “Background” option.
• Templates: Jitter provides an ample amount of templates available- from small micro-interactions to advanced animations.

Check out one of our videos we created using Jitter!

5. Webflow

(Paid Subscription | Free Version is very limited)
Output formats: Published websites and URLs

Webflow is a website building and hosting software. Their visual editor platform allows users to design, build and launch websites. Although it does require prior basic knowledge of HTML and CSS, this platform has drastically reduced our dependency on a developer to make the website live. It also automatically makes the designs responsive to mobile view as well. Webflow also has a great community that not only shares resources and tutorials but also has a forum for discussions.

Check out a few pages we created using Webflow!
https://rize.razorpay.com/
https://xproduct.razorpay.com/payroll/webinars
https://xproduct.razorpay.com/current-account-for-startups

6. Hubspot

(Paid Subscription |Marketing Emails)
Output formats: Emails

Hubspot is a tool with multiple capabilities that’s easy to use and create landing pages, campaigns, and even emails. At Razorpay, we primarily use it for creating and sending out emailers. We can create emails simply by dragging and dropping elements on the canvas. It allows us to add text, images, videos, gifs, buttons, etc…
It is a quick and easy tool to use. However, it does have limitations when it comes to responsiveness to mobile view and design in general.
Check out few of our emails that we designed and deployed through Hubspot!

7. Canva

(Free | Paid Subscription for additional features)
Output formats: PDF, PNG, JPEG, MP4, GIF

Canva is a browser-based graphic design platform, used to create presentations, social media graphics, posters, or any other visual content. The platform has a plethora of templates to use which makes the output look very professional and polished.
Canva has helped us take our everyday presentations from being monotonous and boring to something that stands out from the crowd and grabs our audiences’ attention. Canva also has a mobile app, which helps us make visual content on the go.
An interesting feature of Canva is the addition of small animations which adds a nice touch to the designs. It converts static designs into visuals with life.
Check out a quick and easy animated social post that we created using Canva!

Websites for resources and inspirations

We need to constantly look out for inspiration and stay up to date with the latest designs. While I believe inspiration can come from anywhere and anytime, there are a few tools that aid us to find some quick inspiration. Dribbble, Pinterest, Awwwards, Behance, CSS Nectar, or a simple google search usually gives us a lot of ideas and insights. Freepik, Shutterstock, Envato, and NounProject are a few of the websites we use for good templates, resources, and icons.

To sum up, these tools and websites have been very helpful for us to use as a team. It has allowed us to execute our designs the way we envisioned them and also deliver our designs quicker. Yes, tools are important to learn. Yes, we need to keep exploring new tools for the betterment of our designs. Yes, tools widen our horizons in terms of what we can achieve. However, the basic concept of the design is and always will be of utmost importance. It’s necessary to be user-centric and ideate concepts that are true to its purpose and the problems it’s solving. Tools are merely a medium to communicate these concepts. Knowing how to write doesn’t make us a writer or an author, similarly knowing design tools doesn’t make us a designer. It is the curiosity and the eagerness to find solutions to problems and the desire to make a user’s experience better with any product he interacts with.

There are 3 responses to a piece of design — yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.

~ Milton Glaser

So let’s keep translating our ideas into “wow” designs using the best tools out there in the market.