In this article, you’ll learn:
What is the best designer tool? If you put the question this way, even Google will be at a loss.
Indeed, the word design is a way too general. It covers a vast range of jobs that have very little in common. Take, for example, UX/UI and Interior Design. They are two worlds apart, with different approaches & tools.
Yet, there is something that all these creative folks share.
Two dilemmas that all designers share
- Firstly, selecting a designer tool is damn hard. The choice is really wideTT. UX/UI designers, in particular, have a huge dilemma as this creative field is booming. Roundups at Prototypr alone feature new toolkits almost weekly.
- Secondly, the bitter truth is that no tool is enough. No matter how outstanding it might be, you always want more. Going for better efficiency, design teams are always on the lookout for nifty add-ons, extensions, and plug-ins.
What does Pics.io have to offer?
Digital Asset Management app per se is a must-have tool for modern design teams. DAM revolutionizes the way you organize, find, and share all types of digital files. Besides, it’s a great collaboration tool to track project history & keep all iterations, feedback, and approvals in one place.
Pics.io DAM, however, goes the extra mile to serve the needs of design teams.
In particular, here are 3 useful extensions that will power up your creative workflow.
Pics.io Extension for Adobe CC
Adobe has been a household name in the industry for quite a while. Adobe Creative Cloud embraces almost all design areas and never stops developing.
What does Pics.io plug-in do in Adobe CC?
Putting it shortly, it spans the gap between creative workspace and your digital library.
Whenever you work in Photoshop, Illustrator or some other designer tool from Adobe family, you find yourself going back and forth between your creative space and various repositories. You tap into your team digital library for purchased stock images, branding materials, templates, etc.
Constant switching between windows, searching, downloading, and uploading…It is a real vicious circle that kills your productivity.
Free Pics.io plug-in for Adobe CC cuts out this counterproductive loop. It lets you browse your shared online library right from the comfort of Photoshop or Illustrator.
You can find and add files as new documents or add them as layers. And later, you can easily save your design work back to Pics.io library, without any extra steps.
Sounds like a good idea, right? Are you willing to give it a try?
Installing Pics.io plug-in for Adobe CC is a matter of several minutes only. Here is a short guide how.
Pics.io Add-ons for Google Workspace
The second great integration for designers is about Google Workspace tools. A simple extension brings your whole Pics.io digital library to Google Slides, Forms, Docs, and Spreadsheets.
Activating Pics.io Add-on for Google Workspace will take you virtually no time. But it will save you a lot of effort next time when you have to whip up a presentation at the request of your marketing & communication team.
You can simply dive into your Pics.io shared online library, find the right assets and paste them into your document. Corporate identity elements, stock images for background slides, various templates and mockups — all the riches of your digital storage are at your fingertips.
In one of our previous blog posts, we gave some ideas about how you can benefit from Pics.io Add-ons for Google Workspace.
If you haven’t tried Pics.io Add-on yet, it’s high time to do so! It’s a real no-brainer. A short guide will show you how.
Integration with Slack
This plug-in is not directly connected with design process. But it can greatly facilitate the way you communicate with your team.
We in Pics.io love Slack for its simplicity and versatility. You can set up Pics.io integration with Slack in the way which best fits your needs. And the most awesome thing is that you can make sure that certain messages will appear in particular channels.
For example, in our team we have agreed that all design-related notifications should appear in #design channel. Every time a new revision is uploaded, a colleague leaves a comment, or somebody’s design work is finally approved, this news goes public immediately in Slack.
That keeps the whole design team on the same page, united and working towards the common goal!
These three integrations empower our own design work in Pics.io. We hope you will find them helpful too! Try them and tell us how it works. Any feedback is highly welcome.
