Hey Reader,

In todays issue we have some musings on design tools, a fresh batch of marketing design jobs, and a sticky situation with a colleague.

Read on!

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⚔️ The battle of the design tools

Knowledge of a digital design tool used to be akin to a developer knowing a programming language: you’d find it harder to land a design job if you didn’t already have expertise in the tool the team used.

But gone are the days when we put charts on our resume’s to mark the exact percentage of strength we had in using each design tool (those days are gone, right? please tell me they are), and thankfully digital design tools have progressed to a point where anyone with an internet access and half an hour to spare can easily pick up the basics of how to use a tool.

I wouldn’t have any qualms about hiring someone who mainly uses Sketch onto our Figma-loving team. I know that the transition between tools would be an easy one to make, and that being great at design ≠ knowledge of a design tool.

No, providing the hiring manager has their head on straight, a preference for one design tool won’t stop a designer from being hired at a company that uses a different tool for the marketing and web design process.

But, this is a factor in the decision a designer makes of whether or not to join a company. I had a couple of folks who were part of the last hiring round I led tell me that if we weren’t Team Figma, they would not have applied!

For better or worse, we care about the design tool we use. We get into Twitter arguments discussions about which one is best. We choose jobs based on what tool we’d be spending our time in, or passionately try to convince the team to make a switch. But we also give new tools a try, because we’re endlessly curious about the ways in which software can aid our design process.

How do you feel about this?

Would you drop out of an interview process if you discovered the teams’ design tool wasn’t one you enjoyed using? Do you have one design tool you love above the others? Or are you less loyal to a certain tool, and find yourself switching between them?

Let's take a vote

I want to do a little poll and see what design tool is most popular with Marketing Design Dispatch readers. So, vote for your preferred digital design tool (the one you use the most, or perhaps the one you wish you used the most!) by clicking below.

• ​Figma​
• ​Sketch​
• ​Adobe XD​
• ​Something else (feel free to also reply and tell me what tool!)

I’ll report back with the results in the next issue!

And while we’re talking about design tools, I got sick of seeing people compare Figma & Webflow when they’re two very different tools to be used in different stages of the web design process. So I made a video about it!

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🔍 Looking for your next marketing design job?

I just updated my job board with a bunch more marketing and brand design roles.

Visit the job board

Or maybe you're hiring?

I just lowered the prices for posting to the Inside Marketing Design job board, so if your company is currently looking for a marketing or brand designer, why not post the role to my board?​

Since you’re a Marketing Design Dispatch reader I’ll even give you 25% off with the code MDD25

Posting to the board gets you a shoutout about the role in this newsletter as well as on my social media. I’m looking forward to helping you find the right candidate to join your team!

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🎙New episode – Dealing with a workplace conflict

Femke and I had a listener write in to our Design Life inbox to tell us about a sticky situation they were having with a colleague. We enjoyed being their design agony aunt talking through not only how we’d recommend they solve the issue (with some tough love at times…) but also about conflicts we’ve experienced in our own careers.

Get the tea by searching for Design Life in your favorite podcast app, or click right here​

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If you enjoyed this issue, please click the heart below to let me know!

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Until next week,

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