10 Most Essential Equipment For Indian Freelance Designers
Tools and equipment are daily drivers that enable a designer, freelancer & digital creator to do their highest form of work and attend to their creative flow by accelerating the creation process. From getting inspired to creating something unique, proper tools and equipment can help us get things done efficiently.
The tools, equipment, tech, and software below are the ones that I personally use and would recommend to my friends and family (Amazon links provided).
My Laptop
This is the best laptop in the 60–70k INR range in terms of performance. I would strongly recommend it.
My PC
My PC has Ryzen 3 3200G, the reason behind the choice is the price and the better performance of its iGPU and intel nowhere comes near it in this price segment with integrated graphics performance. I get 70–90 fps in 720p in Valorant on my PC.
If the primary purpose is gaming, a GPU is suggested but if you’re on a budget this config can give you good performance with a light gaming experience. Even if you’re on a budget and will buy a GPU, a minimum of GTX 1050, GTX 1650, or GTX 1660 is recommended otherwise don’t bother getting the GPU’s below these ones. I would suggest getting a Ryzen processor with iGPU for budget graphics performance.
These are some of the other PC parts that you can choose from:
My PC has an MSI H310 motherboard which is the cheapest one and doesn’t offer Bluetooth or Wifi connectivity, I have to use ethernet or external adapters for wireless connectivity. Keep this in mind and your requirements when choosing a motherboard.
Mousepad for my Laptop/PC
The extended mouse pad is for my PC and the regular-sized one for my laptop.
Mouse & Keyboard
My Zebronics mouse needed its warranty services after 8 months of consistent use so I would be cautious when considering it, though it can be a specific peripheral issue too. The Zebronics keyboard and HP mouse are the purchases that I have been happy to use every day for a year now.
Ethernet cable for better connectivity
Earphones
I own all of these earphones and they offer very good sound quality and services if need be. If I had to rank them the order would be in the following order:
Softwares
These are the software programs that I would recommend to create digital content for you designers & digital creators for personal projects, clients, or for mega digital marketing campaigns. These are the power tools of the industry. They can do everything from enabling you to create content to creating social media marketing campaigns, be it for yourself, an influencer or another solopreneur, or a multi-billion dollar brand.
I use Figma and notion personally every day, you can get the most out of these both tools in their free plan as I still get my work done in their free plans for both professional as well as personal use cases.
Figma
Figma is the best collaborative design tool, period.
Adobe Creative Suite
People often say you need an adobe creative cloud subscription if you’re a creator — I say it’s freaking expensive and there are other tools available that help you get the same results with better efficiency.
Affinity
Affinity is much cheaper as it has only a one-time fee unlike a monthly subscription to adobe creative suite and also offers better performance.
If you’re looking for something that is beginner-friendly and can help you with day-to-day content creation on social media and is also on a budget, Canva is a viable option too.
Notion
Take notes, organize data & life, track tasks, write, onboard clients, create invoices, build websites & resumes, collaborate and reach your goals using notion. It’s flexible enough to get all of these done.
Until next time 👋
Harsh Makwana
