How Eagle Changed My Life as a Designer
In this blog post, I wanted to share how a simple piece of software changed my process. How it made it easier and saved me a lot of time. It even made me more creative.
This software really changed the way I collect inspiration and effectively use it in my design work. My inspiration and reference collection have gone to another level with this piece of software.
It was a life-changer for me. I don’t buy a piece of software unless it’s very good, and Eagle was definitely one of those awesome software that is worth it.
What is Eagle
Eagle is an app that helps you collect and organize inspiration in one place. It saves all the images and references you collected to your local drive which means you can store them anywhere and have them forever.
I came across Eagle from a YouTube video by Satori Graphics and it really caught my attention. I like the idea to have a library full of inspiration in one place that I can go back to whenever I don’t feel creative.
Before Eagle
Before Eagle, I was saving images and inspiration in a lot of different places. Pinterest, Behance, folders on my laptop, folders on my phone, Instagram, Facebook, Dribbble, and many more.
I created folders and categories in all these platforms where it was possible. I was all over the place.
When I wanted to go back to a specific design or piece of inspiration or reference, I couldn’t remember where I save it or on which platform. If I was in need of that reference, I would go through all the platforms I think I have saved it in. This was time-consuming.
It was a lot of hard work to get back something I have saved. You might say, why not stick on one platform like Behance and only collect inspiration there.
Well, that will be much easier but I would lose the flexibility to save awesome references from other places. And there is cool stuff spread on different platforms.
Besides this problem, I barely go back to see the things I have collected. I would collect them and leave them there without making any use of them.
This is where Eagle came in
Now I have Eagle installed on my laptop and the Eagle extension in my Chrome browser. I don’t have to worry about losing anything cool I see online.
The Chrome extension is much more powerful than the Pinterest extension or dragging and dropping images from the browser.
Some websites don’t let you drag images to folders on your desktop, but Eagle’s extension can take any image from any site. It can take that reference whatever file type it was, JPG, PNG, WEBp, or even MP4.
Now, I collect and organize all my references in one place. If I remembered something I saw online, I can open Eagle, go to the folder I created for that kind of design and find it easily.
Heck, I can even search for that image using a word that I remember was in the title.
Whenever I don’t feel creative while designing something, I can open Egale to help me think and brainstorm ideas.
Before, I had to open my browser and open 5+ taps with all the inspiration websites I know and scroll on them randomly.
How to use Eagle
You can follow two roads here. One is creating and preparing all the folders and categories you will use to organize the references you will save. Two is creating these folders as you go.
What I would suggest here is, to create your folders and organize them intentionally, you don’t want it to get messy with a lot of folders. Have a structure in mind for the way you want to save your references.
Start with some basic folders like Logo design, Posters, UI/UX, and then you can build the rest as you go.
How I use Eagle
I have created different folders to collect and organize my inspiration. Sometimes I use the tags feature but not for all the references, but I try to keep my folders organized and specific.
I also have folders to collect inspiration for my client’s work. I would collect anything and everything here, what the client has already, the direction, and some inspiration for the logo.
After the project finishes, I would move these images to my general folders and delete the client folder. Or I could basically keep the client folder and organize the references there to my general folders.
This means that with time, my inspiration library will get bigger and bigger.
I try to save things that either I like, or I feel I can do. You don’t want to save a cool thing that you won’t use because it doesn’t much your style and the things you like to do.
Make your inspiration library yours. Show your style, and your preferences. This will help you to build your own style in design.
Cool features of Eagle that worth mentioning
There are loads of features in Eagle, the more I use it the more I learn. But here are a few features that worth your attention:
1. Different display modes
There are 4 different display modes you can choose to display your references on the screen. Waterfall, Justified, Grid, and List
You can choose the way you like your references to appear on the screen. My favorite is Justified, I like how everything is organized and takes the largest size so I can see it without having to open it.
2. Quick zoom
In the left bottom corner of each image, there is a small magnify icon.
If you hover over it, the image will expand so you can see the image in detail without having to open it.
I like this feature a lot. It saves me a lot of time especially if I’m moving quickly and I want to check that reference very quickly.
3. Automatic Color Picker
Select any image and you will see a thumbnail appear in the right sidebar. Under that thumbnail, you will find the different colors used in that reference.
This can be handy especially if you collected different photographs for a project and you want to know what colors make up the vibe of your photos.
4. Actions for maximum productivity
Think of these as shortcuts you make for the specific action you want to happen. You can assign a specific keyboard shortcut to a series of actions you want to happen when you click that shortcut.
This feature is really powerful, I still didn’t get into it but I can imagine how this feature can save us a lot of time
5. Smart folders
There are two types of folders in Eagle, one is the regular folder, and the other is the smart folder
Smart folders automatically collect references based on the conditions you set for that specific folder.
Let’s say you created a smart folder called “Poster Design” and you want to add any reference with the tag “poster” to that folder.
You can achieve that automatically with smart folders without having to add them by yourself each time you add a new “poster” reference.
Should you use Eagle
Definitely, if you like to collect inspiration but you feel overwhelmed to go through all these different websites then yes.
Eagle makes it a piece of cake to collect and organize your inspiration in one place. Think of it as your creative brain, whenever you need to do creative work, you can come to it and explore what it has.
Eagle is really underpriced and it is worth much more than what it offers us, designers. It definitely one of the things I can’t live without anymore as a brand identity designer.
If you want to try it out yourself, they give a free 30-day trial. You can use this to your advantage to see how Eagle can improve your workflow. If you liked it you can buy it. And the best part is the pricing. $29.95 one-time fee and you will have Eagle forever.
Visit Eagle: https://en.eagle.cool/
I would highly recommend that you give Eagle a shot, I believe that it will change your life as a designer forever.
