I just design logos — why would I need this?
At WAYUP, we strive to motivate our students to grow: learn new skills, stay competitive in the market, and even build their own business. We want you not only to design great logos but also to move toward project management and strategic roles. Why? Because project management is the highest-paid area across all freelance industries. Here's the global data.
The tools in this list will help you solve both big-picture tasks — like research, planning, and management — and more routine ones like picking fonts, icons, and color palettes.
Daily tasks: fonts, colors, icons
RightFont is a helpful tool for working with fonts. It gives you direct access to libraries like Google Fonts and TypeKit. Basically, it’s a font manager that helps you organize, preview, and configure everything. RightFont is for Mac. On Windows, good alternatives are Wordmark.it and What a Font — which can detect fonts from images.
To build color palettes, try coolors.co or the flatuicolors archive. We recommend using platforms like these more for inspiration than actual project decisions. It’s better to choose colors based on audience preferences, context, and the psychological effect of color on your users. Here we explain how color works and how to choose it wisely.
Icons8.com has a massive archive of icons in PNG, SVG, PDF for every topic and resolution — millions for free. For copywriting, Grammarly is a great tool. You can install it as a Chrome extension or use the standalone app. A designer who writes is more valuable than one who doesn’t.
Whiteboard Miro is perfect for brainstorming. It’s a virtual board where you can pin ideas, sketches, and inspiration for future projects. You can collaborate on it as a team.
Big-picture tasks: interview transcripts
Working with focus groups, running surveys, analyzing tastes, habits, and behaviors — this is the foundation of any design concept. Platforms like Trint and Otter.ai convert English speech to text. For Russian, use textfromtospeech.
Moodboard
A moodboard is almost like a whiteboard. It’s your virtual space where you can gather fonts, icons, color palettes, and any ideas that could be part of your project. It’s also perfect for building a User Journey Map — a visual of how users move through your site or app. Milanote is a great tool for this.
Site maps
Tools like Gloomaps and Flowmapp help you visualize the structure of a website. You can lay out pages, map navigation, plan category flows, and test usability with real users.
Task managers and docs
Trello and Slack are great for task tracking, deadlines, and team communication. Google Drive + Docs is the go-to for file sharing and storing briefs — a solid classic.
Website analytics
Design is not for designers — it’s for users. Hotjar helps you understand user behavior on your site. It shows where people click the most (and least), helps map user flow, and spot weak spots in your design.
Want to master these tools in practice? Join our coaching program “Graphic Designer: Brand Vector.” You’ll learn how to work with color and layout, create illustrations, icons, and logos. You’ll explore how to generate ideas, build brand identity, and use typography effectively.