Why are Sketch and Figma your recommended design tools?
In the past few years, Sketch has become a de facto industry standard amongst digital designers. It is a more lightweight application than tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, and often allows designs for websites and apps to be put together more quickly. Sketch is currently only available for Mac.
A Sketch license costs $99, but Designlab students can get 50% off via our Perks page. You can learn the basics of Sketch with our Sketch 101 email course.
Even more recently, Figma has emerged as an excellent, and free, browser-based alternative to Sketch. It is great for design teams and other forms of collaborative design work, and can be used on PCs and Chromebooks. We have a free email course about Figma as well!