It’s perhaps ironic to post about tools and tech that I use and recommend, immediately after decrying the trend in our industry to over-cheerlead any particular tech. So take all these recommendations with a grain of salt, and remember to use what you’re comfortable with and what solves your specific problems best. Still, I couldn’t do the job I do, as well as I do it, without these tools.

Apple 24” iMac (w/ second 24” monitor)

http://apple.com/imac/
I can’t really say anything that hasn’t already been said about Mac’s / OSX. As a PC user since I was 12 years old, I wish I could come up with clever anecdote about the switch, but I can’t. Really, it was just the right move, at the right time and it’s been a pleasure to work with an operating system that’s reliable, elegant, has wonderful UNIX support, and has a great line of software for web design / site development.

Macbook

http://apple.com/macbook/
Easily the best laptop I’ve ever used. Wonderful size and build — it just feels very easy to use, physically. It’s nice that the base option, with a RAM upgrade to 4GB is priced pretty competitively to PC laptops. Great to take everything I have with me on the road and not feel like I’m actually on a laptop.

Adobe CS3 Standard

http://adobe.com/
It works, and I need it. Kind note to John Nack at Adobe — get rid of the 3-15 second freezes/pinwheels in ‘Save for Web’ and I’ll gladly pay ~$300 for an upgrade. I can live w/ everything else as-is.

Textmate

http://macromates.com/
An absolutely indispensable tool. I’ve used a number of other text editors over the years, and this is one that I can be a true fanboi about — it’s as close to perfect as any piece of software I’ve ever used. The tab completion and bundles for just about any language, super smart brace editing, slick project creation, and incredibly useful column editing mode, make it a joy to use daily. I’d say that it probably shaves about 20% off my site development projects. Also, out of the box, it just looks very elegant and it’s syntax highlighting is easy on the eyes. Text editors are personal choices, but you’d be missing out if you didn’t at least demo the software for a week.

Basecamp

http://basecamphq.com/
I actually just started using this tool again for project management. Before, when I was working largely on side projects and never seemed to have more than one or two going at any given moment, Basecamp felt like overkill. Now, working fulltime on client work, the power and beauty of this app is so much clearer. It’s just incredibly targeted on solving the needs of design project management — it maintains the fidelity of conversations / discussions with clients much better than email (it’s a more ‘professional’ space and encourages thoughtful response). Also, it provides for easy and powerful file and deliverable management, has simple but effective milestone management, and delivers the one thing an independent freelancer needs more than anything — piece of mind that anything you need to know about a project is in one, easy to access location. It’s professional stress relief in the form of a web-app.

Blinksale

http://blinksale.com/
Insanely simple invoicing. For a design freelancer, there’s no reason that invoicing should be difficult and this Blinksale makes sure it isn’t. Simple, straightforward filtering (to keep you on top of yearly/monthly/weekly cash flows) and it’s great to have a central place for all your records. If you do a lot of purchasing or subcontracting though, you’ll probably need something like Quickbooks.

Wordpress

http://wordpress.org/
I use Wordpress primarily as a CMS for my client projects. I find it to be infinitely flexible for a wide variety of uses — it can handle small, mostly static sites as well as manage larger sites with custom data types. It’s admin interface is attractive and easy enough for most clients to jump right in and use it as a quick way to keep their site fresh, and up to date.

Most importantly, the WP developer community is incredibly productive and helpful — I would guess that 95% of all of Wordpress’ shortcomings can be fixed by dropping in a ready to use plugin. When you inevitably hit that rare situation where you need to extend the system on your own, the system is transparent enough that someone with laughable programming skills (yours truly) can find a workable solution. In the even rarer event you can’t create a solution yourself, there’s a legion of wonderful WP developers, ready and willing to help. I’ve never hit a snag that I couldn’t find an easy way around.

Of course, your milage may vary — ExpressionEngine appears to be a great choice too, as a client ready CMS. From what I’ve seen, it too has a solid developer network, a polished UI, and clean and extendable PHP code. There are dozens of other options too, so take your time to learn and understand whatever option you move forward with.

NOTE: Freelancers offering CMS’s of any kind to clients — be very, very careful. I’ve nearly always under-budgeted the scope when of developing a site that’s powered by a CMS. Things that must be accounted for — template development, plugin installation, custom code, deployment, content import, defensive designing (404, search errors, .htaccess re-directs, etc.), server deployment, backup strategy, client education, content workflow planning, as well as security and upgrade strategies. Be very, very careful setting a budget or contract for client work that needs a CMS and always set expectations lower than your gut tells you. Undersell and you’ll be safe, anything else and you’ll be sorry (and your clients frustrated).

Webfaction

http://webfaction.org/
Blisteringly fast web host. I swear they serve pages and images over the web faster than my local Apache dev setup on my workstation. Also, their plans are very generous, offering unlimited domains, subversion hosting, huge bandwith limits, etc. Probably the best shared hosting plan out right now. The major downside is their frustrating, inelegant admin interface — it definitely takes some getting used to.