Guest Post // Katherine of Corgis & Cocktails

Hi! I'm Katherine from Of Corgis & Cocktails posting for Kyla today. I love Kyla's blog and her impeccable design sense, so as a fellow designer, I decided to share with her readers some of my favorite tools to work with. A bit of background on me, I am a industrial designer (or product designer) currently working at a company that primarily designs laptop and tablet cases. I graduated in June 2011 and have had experience at companies like MeadWestVaco (designing binders like FiveStar!), Frontgate, and some local consultancies. These are the things that I feel have really helped me over the years, and I hope they can help you a bit too in some way!

Free Line Art Brushes by Jimro (Used in my sketch above)

Oh, these. These are my secret weapon. I can sketch on paper, sure, I was trained to do that in school, but the secret to being precise and efficient is drawing in Illustrator where I can change and delete lines as needed, and these brushes are the perfect thing. With a Wacom tablet and these, I can sketch in a fraction of the time. It makes getting my work done easy and fun.

Fonts for Peas by Kevin & Amanda

Handwriting fonts may be typically shunned by designers, but I don't care. Kevin & Amanda are amazing designers that turn lots of handwriting into fonts - and you can download them for free. I'm in love with Pea Makana right now!

A Nifty Fifty

I'm a Canon user myself, so my nifty fifty is the model above, but I honestly can't tell you what I did before my 50mm lens. I should have bought it off the bat. The lens makes low light photography easy, gives great bokeh, and takes lovely, clear photos. This comes in handy for everything from outfit photos to photos for my design portfolio.

Thanks so much for posting Katherine! Design and tools go hand in hand. I love the brushes you used in that adorable illustration! I will definitely be downloading those...thanks again for sharing these great resources with us! :)