As a digital marketer, I frequently collaborate with graphic designers and video editors for content marketing and ads across social platforms. But sometimes my designers are swamped or unavailable, and I’ve had to step in and handle things myself. That’s when having easy-to-use design tools come in handy.
Before we dive in, let’s quickly understand the two design tools most commonly used by graphic designers: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.
Photoshop: Primarily used for photo editing, digital painting, and creating pixel-based designs. Ideal for image manipulation, retouching, and working with raster graphics.
Illustrator: Focuses on vector-based designs like logos, icons, and illustrations. Perfect for creating scalable graphics that maintain quality at any size.
Why Beginner Friendly Design Tools?
For non-designers, diving into complex design software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator can feel overwhelming. The sheer number of tools, buttons, and features can be intimidating, especially if you’re not familiar with design principles.
This is where beginner-friendly design tools shine. They simplify the process, focusing on ease of use without requiring in-depth design knowledge. With intuitive interfaces and ready-made templates, these tools make it easier to create professional-looking designs, even if you have little to no experience with design elements.
Canva is one of the most comprehensive design tools available, offering a strong alternative to both Photoshop and Illustrator. As a free-to-use online graphic design platform (with some limitations), it caters to a wide range of design needs. Whether you’re creating logos, resumes, posters, flyers, brochures, social media graphics, or even websites, Canva has you covered. You can also design custom items like business cards, invitations, mugs, t-shirts, and calendars, making it a versatile tool for both personal and professional projects.
Other Canva's functions
Beyond graphic design, Canva’s functionality extends to video editing, including a YouTube video editor and tools for creating photo collages, removing backgrounds, and more. A standout feature is its collaboration function, which allows multiple users to work on a project together, making it perfect for teams. Whether you need to touch up photos or produce engaging videos, Canva simplifies the process with user-friendly tools that are accessible even to beginners.
Canva Design School
Canva also offers its own Design School, providing tutorials and courses to help users learn design basics, so you’re not left guessing where to start. With a variety of pricing plans—Free, Pro, Teams, and Enterprise—Canva accommodates users at different skill levels and needs. There’s so much more to explore in Canva that it could easily fill an entire article on its own.
PicMonkey by Shutterstock is a photo editor and graphic design tool, ideal for creating content for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, ads, logos, banners, thumbnails, flyers, presentations, and invitations. With its strength in photo editing, PicMonkey allows users to customize vector graphics, add animations, shadows, and adjust colors with ease. It’s a solid choice for anyone looking to enhance their visuals, whether it’s for social media, personal branding, or marketing materials. Plus, it offers seamless access to Shutterstock’s vast stock image library, adding to its versatility.
A great alternative to Canva, PicMonkey also features a Brand Kit for maintaining a consistent visual identity across platforms, including customizable templates for Instagram Stories. Its pricing plans range from $72 to $228 per year, making it accessible for both casual users and businesses looking for robust design capabilities without the complexity of traditional graphic design software.
Picsart is an all-in-one creative platform that provides a wide range of AI-powered design tools, making it ideal for quick content creation. With features like text-to-image and text-to-video generators, users can create unique visuals in minutes by simply typing a description. Coupled with expert-crafted templates and built-in asset libraries, Picsart allows you to transform your ideas into polished graphics or videos without design experience. You can also use AI tools for background removal, photo effects, and object removal, making complex edits effortless.
Beyond AI capabilities, Picsart’s design tools are perfect for creating everything from logos and flyers to YouTube thumbnails and invitations. It’s also priced accessibly, from $5 to $7 per month, offering great value for such a versatile platform. With functions like batch editing, customizable vector graphics, and a comprehensive AI toolkit, Picsart empowers beginners and professionals to create high-quality content efficiently.
Desygner is another AI-powered gem that makes crafting marketing materials a piece of cake. Their tagline says: “Everything You Need To Market Your Business Without Splashing The Cash.” It’s a solid choice if you’re looking to create professional designs without breaking the bank, with prices starting at just RM17.67 per month.
It’s an alternative to InDesign. You can transform your InDesign files into editable templates using Desygner’s InDesign web-edit plugin. It lets you easily edit text, images, tables, change styles, and even rearrange page order. Plus, Desygner offers free stock images, motion graphics, a PDF editor, background remover, image resizer, and a brand library where you can store your own logos, fonts, and color schemes for future use.
Snappa is a quick and easy graphic design software tailored for creating online graphics with minimal effort. Whether you need images for social media, blogs, ads, or more, Snappa makes the process simple and efficient. With a user-friendly interface, it’s perfect for non-designers looking to create professional visuals fast. Pricing starts at $10 per month, making it an affordable option for those who want to design and publish their own graphics without the complexity of traditional design tools.
PosterMyWall is a great solution for small business owners or solo entrepreneurs who need quick, professional graphics without spending too much time. It offers an extensive library of templates and stock images, making it easy to create social media graphics, videos, flyers, and even email campaigns. With just a few customizations, you can tailor the templates to fit your brand, making it perfect for busy individuals. Pricing starts at $10 per month, providing a cost-effective way to handle all your design needs.
Adobe Express is Adobe’s beginner-friendly, web-based design tool that offers a simpler alternative to their more advanced software like Photoshop and Illustrator. Adobe Express allows users to create social media graphics, flyers, logos, and even short videos using easy-to-use templates. It includes features like photo editing, background removal, and access to Adobe’s stock image library, making it a versatile tool for non-designers.
Adobe Express is a great choice for non-designers as it combines some of Adobe’s powerful tools with an intuitive interface, making it accessible without the steep learning curve of traditional Adobe software. It also integrates with other Adobe Creative Cloud apps, which is a huge plus for those who are already familiar with the Adobe ecosystem and want to enhance their workflow.
What makes it even more impressive is its integration of generative AI tools powered by Adobe Firefly. With features like Generative Fill, Text to Image, and Text to Template (beta), users can create content faster and more efficiently. These AI-powered tools allow you to generate visuals and templates from simple text prompts, streamlining the design process and making content creation easier than ever before.
Polotno Studio is a free online graphical design editor, ideal for creating quick visuals like social media images, YouTube previews, and Facebook covers. While it’s not as feature-packed as some other tools, it stands out for its clean and easy-to-use dashboard, making it ideal for beginners or students working on projects. It also offers stock photos from Unsplash, free icons, and a QR code generator, making it a handy tool for those who need to create content without much hassle or expense. Best of all, it’s completely FREE, making it a great option for anyone on a tight budget.
VistaCreate is a free graphic design software offering thousands of templates to choose from, with pricing starting at just $10 per month. It comes loaded with features like a sticker maker, GIF and image converters, and stock photos, videos, and vectors. VistaCreate also makes it easy to convert images to black and white with a single click, and it includes an intuitive online video editor where you can add images to videos. With tools like animated text creation, photo animation, and the ability to resize and merge videos, it’s perfect for users looking to create consistent, professional designs. Plus, the Brand Kit feature helps maintain cohesive branding across all projects.
FotoJet is a free online graphic design tool that doubles as a collage maker and photo editor, offering a seamless experience without the need for downloads or registration. It provides a range of professional templates and function-focused resources, making it easy to create designs quickly. FotoJet’s simple interface and ready-to-use templates help non-designers produce polished visuals in no time.
Microsoft Designer is a graphic design app that helps users create professional-quality visuals, including social media posts, invitations, digital postcards, graphics, icons, stickers, monograms, avatars, emojis, and more. Powered by AI, it simplifies the design process by offering smart suggestions and templates tailored to your needs, making it easy for non-designers to craft stunning visuals.
Special Cameo on this list: Microsoft Power Point, Google Slides
Special Guest Cameo: PowerPoint and Slides
In a surprising twist, the often-overlooked Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides can be your secret weapon for graphic design. While most people associate these tools with presentations, they are actually packed with design features that many forget about. From creating flyers and social media graphics to crafting posters and logos, both tools offer customizable templates, shapes, and even image-editing capabilities. You can easily arrange text, images, and icons, adjust colors, and add layers, making them versatile tools for visual projects. Plus, they’re accessible and familiar, which is a huge advantage for anyone not wanting to learn new software from scratch.
Another underrated feature is their simplicity and ease of use, perfect for non-designers. Both PowerPoint and Google Slides offer options like background removal, shape formatting, and even the ability to export your designs as images or PDFs. Need to align elements or add animations? These tools have you covered. So, next time you’re in a pinch and need to create a quick design, remember that your trusty presentation software can step in and save the day!
Final thought
In conclusion, as my friend said, “It’s not about the tools you’re using, but the skills and know-hows.” Even with something like PowerPoint or Google Slides, you can create stunning visuals and graphics. While I personally have a soft spot for Canva since I’ve explored it the most, every tool on this list offers unique features that can help bring your creative ideas to life.
I hope this article provides my fellow non-designer buddies with some valuable options to add to their design arsenal, empowering you to tackle any visual project with confidence.
Feel free to share which tool on the list is your favorite and comment down below with just one reason why 🙂