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Affinity Designer/Photo in the Workplace


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Question to experienced Affinity Designer/Photo users:
Is Affinity for self-employed designers? I ask because I have been seeing that most employers list in their job requirements - Adobe photoshop/illustrator/InDesign and MAC.
If someone wants to get a job in the graphic design field, will an employer accept Affinity Designer/Photo experience?

When I look on indeed.com and see the requirements for graphic designers, it says that they are looking for Adobe software experience.
What are your thoughts on this?

It's nice that the Affinity software is reasonably priced and has good features, but, if a graphic designer/photographer is looking for a job and does not use Adobe software - how will it help the job seeker? just asking. Something to think about though.

What is the Affinity software developer or marketing department plans to get the software into the workplace? perhaps attend trade shows that businesses and organizations attend to create the need for Affinity software?

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It probably depends on specific company. Even if some of them uses Affiinity they may not have it on requirements. Mainly because it is easier to find someone familiar with adobe products. But recently a lot of people uses wider range of apps and software packages. For an example I'm responsible for user interface in in popular free 2 play game. And I have switched to AD from Illustrator right after Affinity Designer has been released. And when we were looking for a new UI designer we have'nt wrote about AD in our requirements. But I did ask about it during one on one conversation. After recruitment process I did show to my new team mate how Affinity Designer works and he immediately loved it. So now we both use Affinity Designer in our daily routine instead of Adoby products. It does'nt mean that I fully dropped Adobe products but I use different tools depends on my needs.  

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I think one should master the Adobe suite, yes or yes, if in pursuit of a career, at least the part of it that is used in own's professional field or kind of job. That said, nothing stops you from using both. I'm going to do a wild guess in that a lot here do have Adobe experience, but will use Affinity at home for personal, indy or side business projects (call them indy or whatever).  IMO Affinity is a win-win for both freelancers and hobby users, no matter what. But is NOT limited to that, IMO.

I just posted that I've seen recently a pair of job offers in my area asking for Affinity experience. I have worked for almost a decade, till just a few years, at a company were my boss really had me researching for ANYTHING that would do what Adobe does, without costing what Adobe costs (he would have been happy with a 50 - 150 bucks solution, per app-field). It was impossible, back in the day, so he ended purchasing Adobe PS. SOLELY. Only that one, and after a while. Before that, I had to handle for very long time, and requested to produce professional outputs, open source solutions (Inkscape, Gimp, Scribus), which were way less mature than today. Affinity's entire suite would have been purchased with no hesitation, the second after knowing it, back in the day, if would have existed. And I mean, despite me being the only graphic person there, I'm 200% sure they'd have bought license for the marketing people, the CEO, and some of the developers (for fast graphic conversions, light stuff like that). It was not lack of money. It was a company focused in only code, and kind of... finding disgusting to spend money in a graphics making application, LOL. They'd invest tons of money in anything code related.... In other places, is just low budget, or too many seats, or a combination of those.

So... yes and no. People when thinking about this only think about one instead of the other,  like in a boxing match, while it's gonna be a mixed thing, and will vary from company to company. Or even job seats at big companies where someone needs to handle graphics but is not necessarily needing to be in the pipelines of production or the like, and is not justifiable to pay an entire subscription, or just to avoid all the internal company bureaucracy for allowing x monthly subscriptions for x seats for just that.

Similar case when some people think every video studio or 3D, post production company uses Max or Maya, or other top dog software. Budget per seat means a lot, and you find many using Cinema 4D, TOPAS (in the past), Lightwave, Modo, others use Blender, in 2D, some use Flash only, but others is Toonboon, or,  YET, TV Paint, and etc.

This, besides getting less people bouncing back to Adobe after trying Affinity, is what makes me think that the more familiar in workflows and shortcuts and all, that Affinity Photo (specially) is made to make PS users feel at home, the better. In Illustrator, IMO less of the case, seems a lot of them adapt well to the AD UI (imo, in part  as in that very case, is better in a UX sense, than AI's). What is more requested is more functionality, which AI offers (in some things goes the other way round). 

I for one don't need it. If you can use Blender you can use anything :D , but I recon that IF is done so, the transition among the two, PS and AP gets easier and faster. Also, imagine the cases am exposing: People working at the company with PS; at home with AP, or, workers having several shifts, and in the afternoon-evening seating on a desktop that uses Affinity Photo, while in the morning, at other desktop or even company's or affiliated company's facility,   this worker has to use PS. The more "seamless" that experience is, the less friction, and so, way larger acceptance. Less recon it : is not a case of JUST mimic one software (in a way, it is) , it is now a pro usage standard. I wouldn't replicate tho what PS makes wrong.  May not affect hardcore graphic workers used to handle a ton of UIs, but yes to certain "newer in the job" people, or workers having handled Adobe-only in a long career.

I recon that's not the "coolest" approach to it... Specially for developers. I don't particularly like it.... But... is... kindda pragmatic.
 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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Most enterprises doing job recruitment will be needing to continue/expand ongoing projects. At this point, it may mean maintaining work that goes back decades, having been started w. Adobe products, or others from companies whose wares were acquired by Adobe. Thus, the requirement for pre-existing skill w. those apps.

Where I worked, both Adobe and Microsoft  were standard. If there was any way a department could do its work using just their suites, admin would strongly recommend those, if for no other reason that it required fewer people in support, and meant one less license agreement to renew each year.

But many smaller businesses in the area used apps from Corel, among others. Don't know if that is still true. For smaller businesses, economy and standards based software appears more desirable. Affinity seems well positioned to me to be a choice there.

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2 hours ago, gdenby said:

Most enterprises doing job recruitment will be needing to continue/expand ongoing projects. At this point, it may mean maintaining work that goes back decades, having been started w. Adobe products, or others from companies whose wares were acquired by Adobe. Thus, the requirement for pre-existing skill w. those apps.

Where I worked, both Adobe and Microsoft  were standard. If there was any way a department could do its work using just their suites, admin would strongly recommend those, if for no other reason that it required fewer people in support, and meant one less license agreement to renew each year.

But many smaller businesses in the area used apps from Corel, among others. Don't know if that is still true. For smaller businesses, economy and standards based software appears more desirable. Affinity seems well positioned to me to be a choice there.

Yes, smaller vessels do have better and faster maneuverability . Is not only the file format, sadly. Big and even some medium size companies have a ton of work pipelines linked to specific workflows.  It's PS macros, it's internal plugins developed specifically for interacting with PS smart objects, or even PS macros + batch feature. Photoshop Actions (macros) have had themselves an entire market for years, as those allow extreme quality FX with a button touch (is actually the work of some ppl knowing well basic PS features, and providing that excellence as an action reusable to less experienced people, IMO), and a lot of workflows heavily depend on that. Now multiply that by x factor, as entire departments being in that situation. The bigger the company the more entangled situation. But all that, habits, etc... if of a sudden, a company realize the costs, and this IMO can work in bigger ones, too, specially if multiplying costs per seat, even with offers and special licenses...Then certain management, boss, any chair decides to give it a serious try to an alternative, and then all changes in a year. I saw that happening from handling adobe based workflow to moving to Fireworks. At the end they wouldn't even contract people without Fireworks expertise.  IMO, Adobe annihilating Fireworks had its obvious reasons. FW was a too useful and hard competitor. The same company had Flash, but, oh surprise, non eliminated, as they had no similar product competing, and flash moved a lot of businesses.

A lot is possible.  And the market is full of 2nd and third place winners, which do fantastic in income (even more again with the small vessels: lower expenses) and respectability.  But I see more chances now than with other previous competitors (aka Aldus, Corel, Macromedia, Xara. I don't fully get why people say Jasc, that was only the raster image editor. Although, IMO, is almost the type of tool most widely needed across job fields...).

 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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On 3/31/2019 at 11:48 PM, kaenes said:

It probably depends on specific company. Even if some of them uses Affiinity they may not have it on requirements. Mainly because it is easier to find someone familiar with adobe products. But recently a lot of people uses wider range of apps and software packages. For an example I'm responsible for user interface in in popular free 2 play game. And I have switched to AD from Illustrator right after Affinity Designer has been released. And when we were looking for a new UI designer we have'nt wrote about AD in our requirements. But I did ask about it during one on one conversation. After recruitment process I did show to my new team mate how Affinity Designer works and he immediately loved it. So now we both use Affinity Designer in our daily routine instead of Adoby products. It does'nt mean that I fully dropped Adobe products but I use different tools depends on my needs.  

Ok, sounds good.

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On 4/1/2019 at 8:39 AM, SrPx said:

I think one should master the Adobe suite, yes or yes, if in pursuit of a career, at least the part of it that is used in own's professional field or kind of job. That said, nothing stops you from using both. I'm going to do a wild guess in that a lot here do have Adobe experience, but will use Affinity at home for personal, indy or side business projects (call them indy or whatever).  IMO Affinity is a win-win for both freelancers and hobby users, no matter what. But is NOT limited to that, IMO.

I just posted that I've seen recently a pair of job offers in my area asking for Affinity experience. I have worked for almost a decade, till just a few years, at a company were my boss really had me researching for ANYTHING that would do what Adobe does, without costing what Adobe costs (he would have been happy with a 50 - 150 bucks solution, per app-field). It was impossible, back in the day, so he ended purchasing Adobe PS. SOLELY. Only that one, and after a while. Before that, I had to handle for very long time, and requested to produce professional outputs, open source solutions (Inkscape, Gimp, Scribus), which were way less mature than today. Affinity's entire suite would have been purchased with no hesitation, the second after knowing it, back in the day, if would have existed. And I mean, despite me being the only graphic person there, I'm 200% sure they'd have bought license for the marketing people, the CEO, and some of the developers (for fast graphic conversions, light stuff like that). It was not lack of money. It was a company focused in only code, and kind of... finding disgusting to spend money in a graphics making application, LOL. They'd invest tons of money in anything code related.... In other places, is just low budget, or too many seats, or a combination of those.

So... yes and no. People when thinking about this only think about one instead of the other,  like in a boxing match, while it's gonna be a mixed thing, and will vary from company to company. Or even job seats at big companies where someone needs to handle graphics but is not necessarily needing to be in the pipelines of production or the like, and is not justifiable to pay an entire subscription, or just to avoid all the internal company bureaucracy for allowing x monthly subscriptions for x seats for just that.

Similar case when some people think every video studio or 3D, post production company uses Max or Maya, or other top dog software. Budget per seat means a lot, and you find many using Cinema 4D, TOPAS (in the past), Lightwave, Modo, others use Blender, in 2D, some use Flash only, but others is Toonboon, or,  YET, TV Paint, and etc.

This, besides getting less people bouncing back to Adobe after trying Affinity, is what makes me think that the more familiar in workflows and shortcuts and all, that Affinity Photo (specially) is made to make PS users feel at home, the better. In Illustrator, IMO less of the case, seems a lot of them adapt well to the AD UI (imo, in part  as in that very case, is better in a UX sense, than AI's). What is more requested is more functionality, which AI offers (in some things goes the other way round). 

I for one don't need it. If you can use Blender you can use anything :D , but I recon that IF is done so, the transition among the two, PS and AP gets easier and faster. Also, imagine the cases am exposing: People working at the company with PS; at home with AP, or, workers having several shifts, and in the afternoon-evening seating on a desktop that uses Affinity Photo, while in the morning, at other desktop or even company's or affiliated company's facility,   this worker has to use PS. The more "seamless" that experience is, the less friction, and so, way larger acceptance. Less recon it : is not a case of JUST mimic one software (in a way, it is) , it is now a pro usage standard. I wouldn't replicate tho what PS makes wrong.  May not affect hardcore graphic workers used to handle a ton of UIs, but yes to certain "newer in the job" people, or workers having handled Adobe-only in a long career.

I recon that's not the "coolest" approach to it... Specially for developers. I don't particularly like it.... But... is... kindda pragmatic.
 

Ok, thanks for the feedback.

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16 hours ago, gdenby said:

Most enterprises doing job recruitment will be needing to continue/expand ongoing projects. At this point, it may mean maintaining work that goes back decades, having been started w. Adobe products, or others from companies whose wares were acquired by Adobe. Thus, the requirement for pre-existing skill w. those apps.

Where I worked, both Adobe and Microsoft  were standard. If there was any way a department could do its work using just their suites, admin would strongly recommend those, if for no other reason that it required fewer people in support, and meant one less license agreement to renew each year.

But many smaller businesses in the area used apps from Corel, among others. Don't know if that is still true. For smaller businesses, economy and standards based software appears more desirable. Affinity seems well positioned to me to be a choice there.

Ok, interesting, thanks for the feedback.

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13 hours ago, SrPx said:

Yes, smaller vessels do have better and faster maneuverability . Is not only the file format, sadly. Big and even some medium size companies have a ton of work pipelines linked to specific workflows.  It's PS macros, it's internal plugins developed specifically for interacting with PS smart objects, or even PS macros + batch feature. Photoshop Actions (macros) have had themselves an entire market for years, as those allow extreme quality FX with a button touch (is actually the work of some ppl knowing well basic PS features, and providing that excellence as an action reusable to less experienced people, IMO), and a lot of workflows heavily depend on that. Now multiply that by x factor, as entire departments being in that situation. The bigger the company the more entangled situation. But all that, habits, etc... if of a sudden, a company realize the costs, and this IMO can work in bigger ones, too, specially if multiplying costs per seat, even with offers and special licenses...Then certain management, boss, any chair decides to give it a serious try to an alternative, and then all changes in a year. I saw that happening from handling adobe based workflow to moving to Fireworks. At the end they wouldn't even contract people without Fireworks expertise.  IMO, Adobe annihilating Fireworks had its obvious reasons. FW was a too useful and hard competitor. The same company had Flash, but, oh surprise, non eliminated, as they had no similar product competing, and flash moved a lot of businesses.

A lot is possible.  And the market is full of 2nd and third place winners, which do fantastic in income (even more again with the small vessels: lower expenses) and respectability.  But I see more chances now than with other previous competitors (aka Aldus, Corel, Macromedia, Xara. I don't fully get why people say Jasc, that was only the raster image editor. Although, IMO, is almost the type of tool most widely needed across job fields...).

 

Ok, well, I hope to see the employers using Affinity software soon. Thanks for the feedback.

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