The 5 Best Products for Left-Handed Designers

Happy International Left-Handers’ Day! What better time to check out some of the best products for left-handed designers.

While things like software are dominant-hand neutral, there are other designer tools that will drive you crazy as a left-handed designer. And I know from personal experiences that it’s not always easy being left-handed.

Left-handers make up only about 10% of the overall population. We live in a world created for right-hand dominant people. The good news is that left-handed people tend to make better artists. We’ll likely use this penchant in our design work. Left-handed designers are better at divergent thinking, or coming up with many different possible scenarios to solve a problem. The bad news is that we need to work a little harder to create those designs.

Fortunately, there are some products made specifically for left-handed designers that will help tremendously. These tools will make our work easier and help us adapt to the changes necessary to complete the tasks that might be a bit easier for a right-handed designer.

Calligraphy Pens

When creating an invitation, calligraphy pens can help make a beautiful design that is unique and old world looking. Or, if we can’t find that perfect script font, we can create a logo design of our own with these flowing, lovely pens. However, traditional calligraphy pens might be better suited for a right-hander.

Pens made specifically for left-handers will allow us to gain full control over the pressure and flow of the ink and create some of the most beautiful script. Instead of having to adapt the pen to work for us, these pens are designed to work specifically for left-handers.

Left-Handed Design Examples Book

Seeing how other designers use their left-handedness to create amazing designs can be inspiring. In this book, titled The Left-Handed Designer, Seymour Chwast shares examples of posters, logos and cards he created. He also talks about his design techniques. As a left-hander himself, he knows exactly what challenges one faces and has come up with techniques to not only get past these challenges but to conquer them. Get the step-by-step details that will allow a fellow left-handed person to repeat his success.

Sketch Books for Left-Handed Designers

Sketching out some design ideas is a smart way to start the design process. However, a normal sketch pad may be hard to work with due to the layout and the angle at which we hold our hand to draw. These left-handed sketch books give us the opportunity to sketch out some different design ideas without the aggravation of dealing with a strangely positioned wire coil or a page that flips in an odd way. The set also comes with lefty pencil sharpeners and a mapped pen with the exact angles needed to hold the pen in a comfortable position.

Drawing Tablet Artist Glove

Whether you are drawing on paper or on a digital screen, the angle of your hand can sometimes cause smudges and stray marks that you don’t want in your final design. This glove is available for both right and left-handed and will keep those unwanted smudges at bay. The glove is specifically designed to reduce friction between your hand and the surface of a graphics tablet. This will also allow you to draw more smoothly. However, adding it to hand drawings will also give you control over smudging, so it can easily serve a dual purpose.

Left-Handed Ruler

If you’re trying to measure and lay out the elements in a design, a left-handed ruler is a must. The numbers run opposite of standard rulers, allowing you to draw along the edge of the rule to create a straight line to the exact measurements needed. In other words, these rulers read from right to left instead of left to right.

Many design products never take left-handers into consideration, only focusing on right-handed designers. Because they don’t consider how their design might impact a lefty, they can force the left-hander to adjust the way she thinks simply to use the product.

By finding products made specifically with the left-handed in mind, you can work more efficiently and comfortably than ever before. If time is money, then anything that speeds up your design process means dollars in your pocket.