Affinity designer lacks key tools for logo design

[Guest]

Good afternoon. I am a brand designer and I have been using Affinity designer for about 8 months I have detected as a vector application that it lacks several key tools for brand design work. Please to the directors and management of Serif-Affinity in the next update include the tools such as:
- Shape creator tool.
- Scissor tool.
- Blade tool.
- Smart fill tool.
- Interactive fill tool.
If they integrate these affinity designer tools, it will be the true revolution. You currently have no key tools to get work done faster, I look forward to good news for the next affinity update.

[GarryP]

Plenty of people have asked for these tools to be added to the applications – requests are littered around the forums like empty crisp packets – and the developers are aware of these requests.

May I make a suggestion that, instead of requesting that certain tools be added, it might be interesting if you can describe what you want to achieve with the software rather than requesting certain tools.

For instance, if you wanted to cut some leather and are used to doing so with a flint blade then you might ask for a flint blade to be made available. However, if you request that some facility for cutting leather into certain shapes in certain ways be made available then the developers might be able to supply you with an automated laser cutting machine.

To put that another way: If you can describe the start and end points of your process then the very clever people at Serif might be able to come up with something that lets you do it much easier/faster than simply by replicating tools from another application.

[Guest]

Find out a way for you (serif developers) to create similar tools mentioned for us public logo designers in general, it takes a lot of time to create complex shapes. Developers have to respond to user suggestions that we use their applications. Currently affinity designer does not have powerful tools to design logos.
If these tools are requested by everyone, it is because they are essential for day-to-day work.

[GarryP]

It’s worth noting – in case it’s not apparent – that I do not work for Serif and have no affiliation with them; I’m just a user of their software.

I understand that these tools you have requested are used by many people for many reasons in other software but I am trying to push the discussion in a direction which might be more interesting than merely a request to make the Affinity applications more like other software that already exists.

The tools that exist in other software have evolved over time – sometimes decades – from their original forms and may not now be the best way to do what users want to do. While the tools in other software have changed over time they have had to change in ways that the existing user base could adapt to without too much difficulty. By doing this the other software may have necessarily grown in ways that may not be as beneficial to the user as it could otherwise be. For example, how many tools have loads of different modifier key combinations, each of which does something a little differently, just to add functionality piece-by-piece?

When Serif started developing the Affinity range from scratch it gave them a chance to look at everything afresh and choose to do things differently if doing so allowed more/better functionality than existed previously.

For instance, take the idea of creating logos. What would it be like if you could hold your logo in your hands? What sort of things would you like to be able to do with it? What if you could stretch it like it was on a rubber sheet? What if you could fold it up in different ways? What if you could remove parts according to geometry rather than appearance? Try to think about what tools you would need to do the things you want to do rather than what tools you were used to using.

Just because other software has specific tools that do specific things doesn’t mean that the Affinity applications should also have them and make them do the same things simply because that’s what some users are used to. While the Affinity applications are still young there is still a chance to give users better functionality by breaking away from the old ways of doing things.

If you want to use the tools available in other software then you are quite welcome to use that other software; the tools are there and they do what they do. However, the Affinity applications can do things differently, and better, if we give the developers time to work out how to give us better ways to do things.

[Guest]

Thanks for your answer. I'm no longer going to ask the folks at Serif-Affinity for their app recommendations to please me with key logo design tools.

[Guest]

I'll go back to Adobe and Coreldraw. Affinity-Serif don't listen to their customers. Goodbye to Affinity designer.

[Wosven]

51 minutes ago, Andrés Rivera Gómez said:

Affinity-Serif don't listen to their customers.

If they didn't listen to their customers,  this forum wouldn't be.

It would be interesting if you would take time to explain.the tools you want, so other could add their two cents about their use and their need, to help Affinity design new tools according to everyone input.

Lack of developement doesn't help. Sometimes, different input help understand bugs because foreigners like me aren't as verbose as needed to describe a problem. It's the same with new tools without descriptions.

[Guest]

What is the use of creating a forum if this company does not pay attention to what users ask to add more key tools to the Affinity designer application. We all ask for them. Affinity-Serif doesn't listen to its customers.

[PaulEC]

1 hour ago, Andrés Rivera Gómez said:

I'll go back to Adobe and Coreldraw. Affinity-Serif don't listen to their customers. Goodbye to Affinity designer.

With the best will in the world, I think that expecting Serif to add five new tools "in the next update" and then saying you will go back to Adobe because they haven't promised to do it within a few weeks of your initial post is a little short sighted! Many people have been asking for changes/additions/improvements for a long time. I'm sure Serif/Affinity are doing their best. They have made a lot of progress in all the apps, and the beta releases look like the next public release will have many improvements. It's also worth remembering that the Affinity products have never been intended to be clones of Adobe (or other) products. Often you can obtain the same results without having exactly the same tools as in other software.

Perhaps you should try asking Adobe to add a few more tools, then telling them you'll stop using their products if they don't do it within the month!

[PaulEC]

1 hour ago, Andrés Rivera Gómez said:

What is the use of creating a forum if this company does not pay attention to what users ask to add more key tools to the Affinity designer application. We all ask for them. Affinity-Serif doesn't listen to its customers.

Forums are for discussions, sharing, reports and requests, not just for making demands. Serif do listen to their customers, but they can't be expected to do everything that everyone wants immediately it is asked for!