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Would you be up for an Adobe-less work week?

over 9 years ago from , Señor Designer

I think it would be an interesting challenge for UI designers to see if we could work an entire week without having to use the Adobe products like Photoshop and Illustrator.

I am thinking of trying to work an entire week without touching those two programs and see how long it takes me to fold. I use Sketch 3 now for all of my UI design and only open Photoshop to work on photos. I have Pixelmator, so I figured I can start using that instead.

Anyone else up for the challenge?

35 comments

  • Catalin CimpanuCatalin Cimpanu, over 9 years ago

    No.

    37 points
  • Account deleted over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

    No way. I'm actually very happy with Adobe and their products. Yes, I use Sketch, and it's amazing, but I don't get why everybody suddenly hate all Adobe products. I know OP isn't hating, and yes it could be fun to try - but you can hardly read anything on DN, without a lot of people are complaining about Adobe. I know they have their bugs and problems, so do Sketch, but all in all I personal think they are doing really great and they have allowed me to accomplish amazing work over the past ten years.

    20 points
    • T LT L, over 9 years ago

      Adobe has monopoly on design tools and it is wrong and one way how to break it is support alternative tools.

      When you consider integrated development environments (IDEs). You have Eclipse, NetBeans, Intellij IDEA, Visual Studio, Xamarin Studio, Xcode and plenty of more.

      I think designers should have more tools to choose from like developers have.

      Competition lower prices and improve quality.

      5 points
      • Evan DinsmoreEvan Dinsmore, over 9 years ago

        I don't actually think the price of Adobe products are that high. I've made my living off of their products for years. It's the least I can do to spend a tiny fraction of my income on them.

        I agree there should be more alternative tools out there, but a product with significantly less features will not be an alternative for everyone, and forcing your opinion of which tool is better and which should be used by the industry is not helpful.

        8 points
    • Tony GinesTony Gines, over 9 years ago

      I think one of the main things I'm looking at, from a UI design standpoint, is having a toolset that is nimble, effective, and affordable. There are a number of new designers coming into the workforce being taught by people that have used Adobe products for the past 20 years. It's interesting to shake things up a bit and show that it CAN be done. Not necessarily that it is the best way to do things.

      The status quo is that you MUST be using Adobe products. I've been using them for the past 14 years and love them. If I'm willing to work free from the tools I'm comfortable with in order to show that it CAN be done, I think some of the other veterans might be willing to as well.

      2 points
  • Noam ElbazNoam Elbaz, over 9 years ago

    ....but what if you use after effects? where is the sketch / pixelmator of motion graphics?

    5 points
  • Nick van der WildtNick van der Wildt, over 9 years ago

    Already doing this for the last couple of months!

    4 points
  • Andrew Coyle, over 9 years ago

    Why does everyone on DN hate Adobe?

    2 points
  • Pasquale D'SilvaPasquale D'Silva, over 9 years ago

    I'd be taking the week off work then. I don't design static/dead interfaces.

    2 points
  • Suleiman Leadbitter, over 9 years ago

    I do this anyway :P As soon as I open any Adobe product my Mac starts to have a seizure.

    2 points
  • Sam MularczykSam Mularczyk, over 9 years ago

    UI design? Think I could do that pretty easily. Though I don't have pixelmator, so image editing (lest I use GIMP) would be pretty hard

    2 points
  • Tom WoodTom Wood, over 9 years ago

    Too much to circumvent for potentially lower quality outcome and longer development times.

    I need to create animated banner ads, Photoshop is perfect for this.

    I need to create an interactive Flash unit. My coding doesn't extend anywhere near the level needed to create this in HTML.

    I need to layout magazine articles for print.

    I need to create a 2nd round of logo redesigns which I used Illustrator to create.

    Now I realise there are alternatives to create all of the above. But I have one package which can do them all.

    1 point
  • Robin RaszkaRobin Raszka, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

    I'm already Adobe-free for a few months now and recently also Google-free. It feels great :)

    1 point
  • Carolann Merchant, over 9 years ago

    Rather than just abstaining from Adobe, I wonder if we could commit to ONLY using PowerPoint or Word.

    Would love to see the results of that :)

    1 point
  • Adam T.Adam T., over 9 years ago

    I could probably get by with Sketch for UI design and Sublime/Browser for web design, but there's about an hour of work I spend doing something in InDesign or Photoshop.

    1 point
  • Floyd WilliamsonFloyd Williamson, over 9 years ago

    No, I need CC for Typekit font syncing.

    1 point
  • Evan DinsmoreEvan Dinsmore, over 9 years ago

    Nope. I rely on Adobe tools daily. There are dozens of PSDs that I might need to reference, and anything I create may have to be referenced by someone else on our team using Photoshop. Plus, I've been using Photoshop for about 15 years, I know all the keyboard shortcuts, I know where all of the features/options I need are, and I could pump out at least 10 times as much work in a day by using a familiar tool than learning a new one.

    I understand the need for more tools and more options for designers, but I'm not about to jump on a bandwagon for the sake of it. Personally, Photoshop and other Adobe tools (although to a lesser extent) work very well for me and the work that I do. I've tried Sketch but found it vastly inferior, at least in its current state.

    1 point
  • Rich HoltRich Holt, over 9 years ago

    Easy ;)

    1 point
  • Jeremy WellsJeremy Wells, over 9 years ago

    Why do so many people hate Adobe products? I'm confused.

    0 points
  • Account deleted over 9 years ago

    I have lots of deadlines this week. Maybe when I have more time to deal with bugs etc.

    0 points
  • Caleb WintersCaleb Winters, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

    Yes.

    I do really love Edge Inspect though.

    0 points
  • Aaron GitlinAaron Gitlin, over 9 years ago

    With new projects I've been trying to use Sketch straight through to see if it is a viable alternative to the Adobe suite. I'm in week 2 of my trial. I'm hoping that it's price point and relatively low learning curve means that our UX and UI teams can be further integrated, making the wireframe to design process a bit smoother.

    However it's not a design-design tool, and there's still a few things that I think hold it back from being able to replace Illustrator. I would love for symbols to be accessible across files and to have a bit more control with type.

    I think the biggest challenges in switching over will be organizational. Just like some of the comments here indicate, telling someone to stop using the tools they are most familiar with is difficult. I agree with @Tony and think it's a worthwhile experiment. I'd like to start a new story in a few weeks talking about the results of switching and to see if anyone else can share their post-switch story.

    0 points
  • Gadzhi KharkharovGadzhi Kharkharov, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

    I haven't worked on any UIs in photoshop or illustrator for 1,5 years now :) No need for anything else than Sketch and a browser+editor (mostly lately).

    0 points
    • Phil OakleyPhil Oakley, over 9 years ago

      I couldn't do that. For icons and logos Illustrator is still king.

      For photos, I need to get Pixelmator until I can fairly judge.

      0 points