Must-Have Apps for Boosting Creativity: Design, Organize, and Inspire 📲✨

Hey besties and happy Thursday (or whatever day it is when you see this)!

I wanted to share with you my favorite apps that I use for my creative process. These are helpful tools that can facilitate that process for you and make it easier and more enjoyable as well. I've separated this post into a three categories: content creation apps, apps for organization, and apps for inspiration.

Apps for Content Creation

Photoshop

Photoshop is the industry standard for photo editing and graphic design, allowing you to manipulate images with precision and creativity. Whether you’re editing photos or creating digital art, it offers powerful tools for professionals and beginners alike. There are a ton of tutorials that you can find online, for free on YouTube. This it the application that I mainly use for the graphics that I use, so that's why I had to place it first.

Illustrator

Illustrator is perfect for creating vector-based graphics, from logos to detailed illustrations that can be scaled without losing quality. It’s a must-have tool for designers who want to create crisp, clean visuals for any medium.

Canva

Canva is a user-friendly graphic design tool that simplifies creating professional-looking visuals with its drag-and-drop interface and pre-designed templates. Whether you're making social media posts, presentations, or marketing materials, Canva is great for both quick projects and detailed designs.

When getting started, I definitely recommend Canva because of the inspiration you can gather from the templates that are already done and the basic experience you can get from the way the app is designed.

InDesign

InDesign is the go-to tool for creating complex layouts like brochures, magazines, and e-books, offering professional typesetting and design options. It’s ideal for creators who want to bring their long-form content to life with beautiful, polished designs.

In the sports world, we used it for creating newsletters to send out to coaches and patrons, we used it also for creating the game notes that we were to hand out to game officials. It's definitely worth it to explore it and to at least know the basics. It also has a pretty cool tool that creates QR codes for free, so you should definitely try it.

Apps for Content Organization

A very important part of the creative express, especially if you work as a creative or a freelancer, is the organization process. Here are my favorite apps that can help you with that!

Notion

Picture from Taskable

Notion is an all-in-one workspace where you can organize notes, tasks, and projects, perfect for managing creative workflows. Its flexibility allows you to customize pages, databases, and calendars to suit your creative needs.

If you just use this app, this is basically all that you'll need. Notion is such a powerful tool that for many it can be really overwhelming due to the amount of things that you can do. However, similarly to Photoshop, despite the complexity of it, there are a ton of free tutorials online that you can use. Not only that, but many creators create templates that you can use yourself instead of trying to figure out the app on your own.

Notion Calendar

Picture from Notion

Connected to the previous app there's Notion Calendar. You should be able to use it by itself without the app, but it adds so many more features if you combine both. For example, I use Notion to track my homework assignments for Grad School and for my content calendar. With the Notion Calendar, I have the option to display both of those things alongside my Google Calendar, which means I can see when everything is due. It's a great tool for planning.

The Notion Calendar feature allows you to visually organize your tasks, deadlines, and project timelines in one integrated workspace. It's a great way to stay on top of your creative schedule and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

And also, if you work as a freelancer, it also has a tool where you can send your clients your schedule for the week and they can pick a time to meet you. It looks incredibly professional and it's very easy to do.

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is an easy-to-use scheduling tool that syncs across all devices, making it perfect for managing your time and creative projects. It’s simple to set reminders, schedule tasks, and collaborate with others on shared projects. This was my number one tool until I found out about Notion Calendar. I use Google Calendar for everything because basically, if it's not in my calendar, that event doesn't exist in my brain. It's a great, free alternative to any other fancy apps that you can find out there and it allows you to keep track of all your deadline and events.

Apps for Creative Inspiration

Another vital part of the creative process is inspiration. I know that people talk about discipline, and trust me when I say that's also important, but sometimes discipline isn't enough to get your brain going so you can finish a project. Sometimes things just look ugly and there's that. No amount of discipline can fix that. However--- I'm a big believe in inspiration. Not in waiting until inspiration hits in order to finish a project, but to get inspired by the other amazing and talented creators we have around us to keep our brain fresh with new ideas.

Below are my favorite apps that I use to make sure I'm up to date with trends and keeping my brain fresh and filled with ideas.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual discovery platform where you can find inspiration and save ideas for your creative projects. It's the perfect tool for creating mood boards, collecting design inspiration, and sparking new ideas for your work. I go on Pinterest daily, sometimes right before starting a project, because I have mood boards dedicated to sports graphic design, my own creations, sports team branding, marketing, magazine layouts, ... Literally everything. It's a great tool that you can use to save pictures you see online and creations that help you get inspired.

Instagram

Instagram is a visual platform where creators can share their work, build a personal brand, and connect with a global audience. Use it to showcase your portfolio, share behind-the-scenes content, and engage with other creatives. I also love using it to meet new people in my industry and to connect with like-minded individuals. I've met some of my best friends on the app, so I definitely recommend you to use it as a platform not only to inspire you but to use your work to inspire others!

TikTok

I know that TikTok doesn't always have the best reputation, but I had to include it here. I also think that, just like Instagram, it's a powerful tool for connecting with others and sharing your passion.

TikTok is a video-based platform that allows you to share short, creative content, perfect for engaging your audience with quick tips, tutorials, or insights into your creative process. It's an excellent tool for showing the fun, real-time side of your work and building a community.

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Do you use any of these? Do you recommend any others? Please let me know down in the comments. I truly appreciate your support and I hope that this was helpful to you.