If you’re involved in any type of creative work, and especially if you manage a creative team, collaboration is essential to your success. None of us works in a vacuum, and if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that there are many different ways for us to work better together. In this article we share our picks for the top collaboration tools for creative teams.
Many graphic designers spend their entire careers mastering Adobe Creative Cloud solutions. But, as is often the case with creative work, bottlenecks can arise when you want to share your work with a colleague or get approval from a client.
That’s where Creative Cloud libraries come in. Collaborate with your team members and other stakeholders on projects across the entire family of Adobe Creative Cloud apps. Explore Creative Cloud libraries and try adding them to your workflow today.
For our next collaboration tool, a bit of context. I started at Extensis the same week quarantine began in March 2020. So, I’ve never met 80% of the people on my team face-to-face, and I was wondering how we would brainstorm new ideas and prepare for new product launches.
The first time we used Mural it blew my mind. Not only is Mural responsive, intuitive, and easy to learn, but it sparks genuine conversation. Mural helps you see everyone’s unique perspective as well as where you have common ground. That makes is incredibly valuable for working together, wherever you are.
Many of us look at a whiteboard and see a clean slate. But fans of Miro see limitless potential. Miro makes it easier for you to share your creative ideas with a wider audience. From brainstorming to strategy, Miro has you covered.
Looking for a way to map out your entire workflow in one place? Creative teams all around the world have found a better way to collaborate in Dropmark, especially when it comes to web design. Dropmark gives teams a simple way to tag different webpages, add graphics to note improvements, and leave comments about what to keep and what to change. This is the essence of collaboration: an easier way to create great work together.
“What will this look like once we publish it on our website?” It’s an age-old question that has only become more urgent now that so many of us work remotely. Fortunately, InVision lets you test out new versions of your website pages, email layouts, paid ads and more so you can design better, faster.
Like many companies, Extensis frequently creates new materials to improve our branding and announce new products. We rely on InVision to share designs with team members and stay on schedule, no matter what new projects lie ahead.
Sometimes great ideas come from personal inspiration, but the real magic happens when everyone gets together. For any web designer who has ever wanted a simple way to share their ideas with their team, there’s Figma. When collaboration is easier, you can ship new designs and see the impacts of your work more quickly. Like any great tool for collaboration, Figma helps you avoid busywork so you have more time to create.
When was the last time you created a design masterpiece on your first try? It’s a nice thought, but it’s totally unrealistic. The best artwork is often a product of dozens of drafts, and often the higher the stakes, the longer it takes. This is where Sketch shines, giving designers an easy way to work together so they can produce their best work faster.
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” It takes a compelling story to cut through the noise of modern media, and the best brands know they can’t cut corners on imagery. Affinity gives teams a comprehensive solution for photo editing, graphic design, and publishing. If you’re dreaming of a better way to create artwork that converts more customers, Affinity shows that teamwork makes the dream work.
It takes more than creativity to execute a new project. It also takes foresight and planning. And believe it or not, it’s totally possible to manage projects without feeling bogged down or overwhelmed. That’s where Asana comes in. Any project can be improved with better organization, and Asana brings this mindset to everyone on your team. And with an intuitive design that lets you see all your planning in one place, Asana makes project management easy and enjoyable.
While each image in your project is worth a thousand words, you need more than images to push your creativity to new heights. Fonts can convey and amplify the tone of each element in your design, but finding the right font can feel like walking a tightrope. And when you have to manage fonts for a team of designers, that’s when things can get really tricky.
Or not.
It’s easy to share the right fonts with your team through Suitcase TeamSync. Save time and ensure font consistency across all your projects. Better font management is closer than you think.
Whatever your workflow looks like, you’ll always need to combine different resources to achieve your goals. Style guides, creative briefs, and images all have their part to play. But the more time you spend looking for these files, the less time you’ll have to do actual work.
Invite everyone on your team to work together in Extensis Connect. This is a cloud-based digital asset management system for small teams, and it gives you an easy way to find files fast. Extensis Connect automatically applies relevant keywords to documents when you upload them to the system. This way, you can spend less time organizing and searching for your assets and more time making magic. And no matter what other design tools you use, you can store all your files in Extensis Connect for one central source of truth.
Not only is it possible to be both highly creative and highly organized; it’s within your reach. Whether you’re left-brain dominant or right-brain dominant, you’ll do your best work when both parts of your brain are engaged.
