Hey, I'm sketching' heah!

I think I first heard about Sketch two years ago, and at the time it wasn't much to write home about. A lot has changed over the years, and the results are great. Folks like InVision have REALLY made Sketch a desirable application.

But I still don't think gear matters. The gear or the tools you have/use are only there to serve the end result. Let me explain...

In the way that great movies and great albums are great because of the content, I believe that design ought to be treated the same way. You don't buy an album or go see a movie because of the gear that was used to make it. A lot of folks don't know and don't care about gear — they care about how that movie or album feel when they finished it.

Furthermore, I should be honest and say that I'm still using a seven year old 17" MBP that is always updated with the latest MacOS as my "daily driver" for all the work I do. I've made an album on this thing, I've made short films on this thing, and I've made countless print and interactive designs on this thing. It's a beast. Do I wish it booted up faster? Yeah. Do I wish it had retina and better Bluetooth? Oh yeah. But, this thing gets the job done.

So, where does Sketch come into all this?

Last week, I decided to take the plunge and download Sketch to use exclusively on this website project I'm working on. I've never used Sketch, and I've only ever seen it in use by designers I worked with from time to time. So, in order to learn the app fast, I gave myself one rule: I couldn't use anything else to get the my design work done on this project.

The result? Sketch is amazing. It's quirky as hell, it is terrible at handling typography, and it doesn't respond well when you undo/redo as quickly as I do... But Sketch is great. I now know an application that I'd only heard about and seen used. The greatest reward for me is that when I work with other teams that use Sketch, I can execute ideas quickly and be familiar with the platform.

Go ahead. Download the free 30 day trial. Learn something new.

But.

Also remember that Sketch, Photoshop, Pen & Paper are just tools. Tools are only there to help you get your job done.