Tools

Digital Resources for Agencies & Creatives
Let’s face it: life in the Wild West of creative work can often be lonely and bewildering. Since its beginnings, Istoria has deeply valued collaboration and the camaraderie that comes with “talking shop” with fellow agency folks and freelancers.

In the spirit of sharing, our team has pulled together the resources we’ve found most helpful with the hope that they’ll help you, too. Consider this our curated top-picks list of the web apps, tools and sources of inspiration we simply couldn’t exist without.
Full disclosure, some of the apps listed have affiliate links… because we gotta eat somehow!

Admin

The backbone our finances, HR, and file management
Bench

Bench

Accurate financials. Total peace of mind. Bench has been keeping our books since 2017 and we love their UX and customer service. Highly Recommend.

Gusto

Gusto

Hire, pay, and insure your employees with Gusto’s all-in-one people platform. Easily the most impactful tool when Istoria moved from solo-preneuer to agency.

Google Workspace

Google Workspace

We use Gmail and Drive exhaustively. Sure, there's more you can get out of Google Workspace, but those two apps alone are worth the monthly membership fee.

Collaboration

Our sidekicks for managing projects, communicating internally, and dreaming up things
Monday.com

Monday

Monday.com keeps us on task and organized. We use their project-management tool to plan our work and their CRM to manage business leads.

Slack

Slack

Because email isn't where you want to spend your life. Slack helps us communicate more efficiently and keep track of the context of projects. Also, GIFs.

Figma

Figma

This powerful tool allows us to design things together in real-time. We use it to design mood boards, pitch decks, brand presentations, and so much more.

Content

What we use to create the work we love
Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe

Whatever you want to make, Creative Cloud has what it takes to make it amazing. We live in Photoshop, Premiere, Lightroom, and Illustrator. So much to love.

WP Engine

Trint

Trint helps us tell stories faster by transcribing, translating, editing, and collaborating in a single workflow. If you're drowning in interview edits, this app can save the day.

YouTube

YouTube

YouTube, or as we jokingly refer to it, YouTube University, is an invaluable learning tool for all the other apps we have listed on this page. But you probably already know that.

Web Design

Build, host, optimize – digital essentials!
ThemeCo

ThemeCo

Say hello to the most advanced Wordpress builder. We build custom sites exclusively on Wordpress using ThemeCo's builder. It's powerful, scalable, and easy to use.

WP Engine

WP Engine

The fastest and most trusted Wordpress / WooCommerce hosting platform in the biz. WP Enginge isn't the cheapest, but this isn't the area to pinch your pennies.

Cloudflare

Cloudflare

DNS glory. As the world’s first connectivity cloud, Cloudflare helps connect and protect millions of customers globally. Connect and secure your work.

Inspiration

Where we love getting lost in the World Wide Web
Awwwards

Awwwards

Discover what's new and trending in digital design. The site of the day is always interesting. Awwwards is free to browse for inspo, but costs $ if you want your work displayed.

Eye Candy

Eye Candy

A visual technique library for all of you filmmakers out there. This site is wild and fascinating–prepare to have your mind titilated with shot and editing techniques.

Colossal

Colossal

Colossal is an online art magazine that celebrates contemporary art and visual culture across a wide range of creative disciplines. High quality journalism and art awaits.

Let's learn from each other.

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