Where to Save Money as a Student Designer
By: Paige Wohlschutz
Tags: Adobe, Design, Students, Website, Money Management

Over the years of my undergraduate career money has largely affected my decisions as a student designer. I’ve collected some tricks to stretch the value of your dollar. Please take each with a grain of salt or use it as some inspiration to apply in another way as you see fit!

Website

There is a lot out there vying for your attention. Annual plans for a website host go for upwards of 200 CAD, luckily there are some ways to slash that. By choosing the Adobe Cloud you get access to Adobe Portfolio a convenient way to showcase your case studies when you are in interviews. The Adobe Portfolio does come with a domain name that you can use as part of your package. There are about 9 templates that you can choose from, enough settings to make them unique. It certainly isn’t at the forefront with animations however, it has served me well as a Junior Designer, and if you work with the settings there is a lot you can do.

If you are looking for something that you can grow throughout your years. There is another option that may be worth your time. Semplice is a one-time fee of roughly 100 CAD. There is no subscription, just the catch that you would only be limited to that year’s version.

Adobe Products

I get that the Adobe products like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere are always in our toolkit. We’ve all probably spent so much time in there we have probably lost count. There is no way to get around the Adobe Cloud subscription to get your hands on the individual copies unless you have an older version when they sold them on discs but these are hard to come by and I would proceed with caution — just make sure they are legit and safe for your computer.

As a student in Canada, there is a discount for the entire package which goes for around $30.00 CAD. If you do intend to use the full kit, this is well worth your money. Double-check with your school, as they might have negotiated a deal to get it at an even better price — this is fairly a new concept so hopefully, the deals get better as more time passes.

On the flip side if you are only planning on using one or two products you may want to re-evaluate your plan choice. If we were to look at tools that would be simple basics, I’d argue that a prototyping tool, a graphic design tool, and an illustration tool would be most important to a junior designer.

Stay with me and hear me out.

By choosing the cheapest Adobe Cloud plan comes in for roughly 15.00 CAD and includes Photoshop and Lightroom, unfortunately there is no student discount. Photoshop is your OG Grandmother graphic design tool so it’s a must that you can easily access one. Lightroom is nice to have, not super useful if you aren’t into photography but certainly a bonus if you are.

Here’s the exciting part — you can use Adobe XD as a bonus that is great for saving documents to your cloud. If you want to stretch your dollar — I’ve even made posters in XD just to avoid the extra cost of Illustrator. Check out the different artboards and sizes, so if you have a small not very technical style you are going for you may just get away with not hoping into Illustrator.

On top of everything else, you do get access to Adobe Portfolio. As mentioned before, website hosts can range from upwards of 200 CAD. Luckily this Adobe Cloud Photography plan goes for 15.00 CAD by 12 months is only 180.00 CAD. Certainly less than a website package and more for your dollar.

Don’t forget access to Behance where all the UI gurus live — something to certainly capitalize on.

If you are still looking for something else, I would also suggest Figma as a tool to use as you see fit. I’ve worked on entire write-up packages collaborating on the artboards at no expense, so something nice to know of especially since it is collaborative and free.

Budget Tracking/Organizing

I’d keep this one very simple, staying on top of design tasks, working without a Project Manager can be difficult. I’d argue that Notion is a great tool for staying organize with so many templates to choose from, I never run out of things to organize. Even better Notion is free for students.

Spotify/Apple Music

Yes, school is about staying on track of finances, but there is always room to live a little. Make sure you capitalize on your Spotify discount and savour it every year before you graduate. It’s 5.00 CAD a month — music to my ears.

As I am a loyal Spotify user, Apple Music does offer a similar promotion.

Fonts

Hoping onto any Adobe Cloud plan gets you to access AdobeFonts formerly known as Typekit. Download any of these fonts and they are synced into your library. If you want to venture out and find something possibly not on Adobe Fonts make sure you explore. There are many fonts out there and you can defiantly find some if you search enough. Below are my favourite links to explore, if you have an eye for design you can surely find something that’s exactly what you are looking for and most importantly it’s free.

Stock Photos

Keeping it short and sweet. Don’t pay for Adobe Stock photos try Unsplash or Pexels for free photos to use for your projects. Just don’t forget to credit your authors.

https://www.pexels.com

Inspiration

I always turn to Pinterest, a handy way to feel inspired by anything you are looking for. Next, I’d head over to Muzli which holds many options for exploring colour codes, themes, even layouts. All free to use :)

Transportation

Uber rides can add up, while at school if I were travelling to meet a client I’d surely use a back-off schedule to plan when would a suitable time to leave to use the public transportation. By staying organized you can save some money, with the trade-off of some extra time commuting. Luckily, my transportation costs were always combined with my student fees so I felt that since it is something that I was already paying for might as well use it.