✏️ TREE 274: Beautiful tools

One.

I’m a huge advocate of starting cheaply with whatever you have.

Once you know you’ll stick with the thing you started, get the most beautiful tools you can.

I’ll explain.

The majority of graphic designers use Adobe Illustrator. I don’t, unless I’m forced to. I use Affinity Designer instead.

Illustrator is the industry standard. Illustrator is powerful. You can make almost anything with it. It is also bloated, slow, counterintuitive and ugly ugly ugly. Whenever I open Illustrator to work on a project, I do it with a sense of resignation. And impatience; it takes aaaaages to open.

Affinity Designer lets me do my work faster in fewer clicks. The interface is clever and lovely to look at. I feel like I’m working with my designs rather than working with software that works with my designs. Opening Designer to work on a project makes me happy.

It seems to me that happy productive working leads to better work.

That’s why I
write with a fountain pen and not a biro,
type my words into iA Writer and not Microsoft Word,
use a Mac and not a PC.

When you are doing a thing all day every day, you don’t want to be working with ugly broke-ass tools.

Beautiful tools
work reliably and easily,
simplify your work flow,
make you feel connected to your work,
look good.

Don’t underestimate the difference that last item can make.

Two.

Plot twist: Jack White likes to restrict his available tools (e.g. The White Stripes) to force himself to be creative and innovative.

Three.

Everyone appreciated Mr Jenkins’ intravenous drip stand ghost, but what really cheered up the ward was the view they got as he walked away.

With tools, what looks good is deeply connected to how well the tool works, but that’s not all there is to it. It’s also a matter of taste. You are not bound by what other people tell you looks good.

Grow slowly
Jeff