We all know it: within you lies a restless creative spirit, just aching to be seen. Maybe snappy videos for social are your thing, perhaps it’s designing a killer infographic.
Whatever the case, it’s time you had the tools to properly support and showcase your creativity in all its glory. We’ve surveyed the resident creatives here at CIRA HQ and have compiled this list of tools they can’t live without—and that you should definitely try today.
Audacity – Free
Believe it or not, the uber-popular Audacity has been around since the 2000s. This is a free, open-source audio editor that’s beginner friendly and feature-rich. It even supports third-party effects and plugins, so you can customize to your heart’s content.
If you’re looking to dip your digital toes into podcasting or—say—recording your own audio books, Audacity is a fantastic place to start.
For the musicians: Ableton Live 12 Intro – $129 CAD
We’d be remiss if we didn’t help the songsmiths out there. If you’re gearing up to record Canada’s next great singer-songwriter album, then Ableton Live is your intuitive, easy-to-use studio. Featuring a whole host of virtual instruments and creative effects, you get all the tools needed to transform your low-fi (but soulful) demos into pure ear-candy.
Just remember your pals at CIRA when you top the charts…
Affinity Photo 2 – $94.99 CAD
In a world of one-click, AI-enhanced images, it’s nice to see old-school photo editing software like Affinity Photo still alive and well. If you know your way around Adobe’s Photoshop, you’ll be right at home with Affinity Photo…and your bank account will be happier.
For the one-time price of the software, you get an impressive array of adjustment layers and tools. Plus—the workflow is non-destructive, meaning you can make tweaks without worrying about painting yourself into a corner.
Adobe Premiere Elements – $140 CAD
Adobe Premiere Elements is basically the consumer or beginner-friendly version of Adobe’s pro-level Premiere video editing software, and it actually includes many of the same features. Whether you’re cutting together short clips for social or want to branch into longer-form content, Elements should more than suffice.
Also—unlike its pro sibling, Elements is a one-time purchase. So, if you can spare the $140 CAD for the software, you’ll have a fairly robust editing suite at your disposal.
Step it up a touch: DaVinci Resolve – Free
Ready to go from hobbyist to pro-level video editor? DaVinci Resolve (by BlackMagic Design) is well worth checking out. For one thing, the free version is still packed with features, like advanced colour grading (for those cinematic looks), audio retiming, HDR (high dynamic range) effects and more.
Stepping up to the paid DaVinci Resolve Studio will cost you $425 CAD, but you get a complete suite of video, audio and animation production tools.
Scrivener – $79.99 CAD
Let’s give the scribes out there some well-deserved attention. Scrivener is a word processing software, but one that’s specially designed for more long-winded writing projects. How? It gives you the power to arrange your writing in any order you like and acts as a scrapbook for any ideas and background research.
Then, once your writerly masterpiece is ready to share with the world, Scrivener provides some excellent formatting and publishing tools for an added professional touch.
Procreate – $17.99 CAD
With Procreate, you can transform your humble iPad into a full-on digital art powerhouse. The resident doodlers here at CIRA love the fact that there’s little to no learning curve involved. But there are heaps of features to tinker with and discover, like over 200 different artistic brushes (from pencils to charcoal), and a library of digital effects.
Get animated: Procreate Dreams (for $24.99 CAD) builds on the already-awesome digital sketchbook of Procreate and gives you the ability to create gorgeous 2D animations and videos.
Venngage – $10/month CAD for the Premium plan
Infographics are a great way to break down and share complex and interesting ideas with your audience. With Venngage, you don’t have to have any design chops whatsoever to create professional-looking infographics. Rather, you can tap into their thousands of templates, then customize (with a simple drag n’ drop editor) to your heart’s content!
What’s even neater is that all the templates are WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)-approved, so everyone can bask in your infographic awesomeness.
Mural – Free to start
Where’s the fun in being creative by your lonesome, when you can collab with a team of likeminded folks? Mural is a virtual whiteboard software that lets you seamlessly brainstorm, organize your ideas and plot out your next blockbuster project.
The only thing that’s missing, really, are those gloriously squeaky dry-erase markers. But maybe that’s something they can add in a future software update…
If you want to give Mural a whirl, the free tier gives you access to all the main collaboration features and whiteboard templates.
Your brain paired with these creative tools could make an unstoppable duo! We’ll leave you to get rolling on your next project.
But we’ll leave you with this…know what’s one of the single greatest places to showcase your uniqueness and creativity? You got it, a .CA domain to call your own!
Kira is the Content and Channel Marketing Lead at CIRA. She focuses on content, digital marketing and channel strategies to help Canadian business owners make the right domain choice for their business website so they can find success online.
