Adobe Creative Cloud or Affinity for a newer designer?�

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  • I got into InDesign from version 2, way back when it £80 to buy it and stuck with it since, still using Quark back then, and it is now the first choice in many, many jobs, along with Photoshop and Illustrator – even with more digital jobs coming up they still primarily ask for Photoshop and Illustrator knowledge, and it's hard to see that changing at any point soon.

    That said, I've used the Affinity Suite and been really impressed with them, I found that a lot of the tools an shortcuts are similar which obviously helps with any crossing over from one set of programmes to the other and would definitely say they're more than good enough to use professionally. The other plus of them is they're a more than affordable one off payment compared to the subscription mode Adobe now forces upon it's users for software that often needs further updates to sort out bugs that really shouldn't exist (and probably wouldn't if it had stuck to it's previous upgrade pricing).

    If possible, spend time learning both – Lindsay Marsh does a good series of tutorials on Udemy on both - certainly in terms of getting a job you'll see employers asking for Adobe Suite experience and knowledge, hopefully over the next few years Affinity can start to get a proper foothold as it is a worthy alternative.
  • Hi Alexander, I took up digital illustration properly last year using Affinity Designer, I love it! I found it incredibly user friendly especially as I had very little experience of using other software such as Adobe Illustrator. I feel Affinity’s user interface is easier to get to grips with, and there’s plenty of resource available online to learn hacks and tricks. I do have Adobe suite too as I still want to learn more on Illustrator but for now Affinity Designer is my go to. Please feel free to check out my projects which were created in Designer. The other plus point is that Affinity products are multi user licences and a lot cheaper! Check their site out they have offers now and then, good luck!
  • I was early in on InDesign and its potential alongside Photoshop for self publishing and commercial print. As an experienced user, it's now Affinity all the way, and I'd recommend it for the newer designer.
    What really won me over was Affinity Designer, which combines vector, images and publishing so smoothly in single documents, and is intuitive. In 20 years of using Illustrator, it never became intuitive, and always felt primarily vector with other stuff kind of hung on it.

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