A is for Apple (or "This Designer is Both Mac and PC Compatible")

Ask any graphic designer out there what computer they use and they will give you a look like you have 2 heads. Duh, they use Apples' line of personal computers – the MAC. Yes, the same company that brought you the ipod, the iphone and now the ipad has dominated the design world for many, many years. The apple is the computer of choice for most designers and they are quite staunch in their defense of the sleek and stylish machines.

And who could blame them? Since Apple first introduced PageMaker, and with its advanced use of never before used graphic capabilities, some say it single-handedly ushered in the era of desktop publishing. The machines are unique in their appearance and many users profess their love of the interface and how pleasing to the eye it is to work with. These are all big pluses when one has to live with this machine day in and day out. And designer's being such visual creatures tend to look at devices such as these with form first in mind.

So, does that mean a designer who uses a Window's based machine is any less efficient or creative?

The answer would be no. It just means that their computer might not look as pretty:) Yes, at one point using a Window's machine proved to be a cog in the well-oiled machinery of the design world. Fonts didn't work cross platform and industry standard software like Quark and Photoshop varied so much between the two operating systems that one would think they were actually working in completely different programs then their Mac counterparts.

But that has all changed now. The programs look exactly the same and act exactly the same no matter what operating system you are running. Fonts work across the board on both operating systems and when it comes right down to it, when files are set up correctly, no one would ever know what machine it was built on unless they asked.

So don't let prejudices of the past influence your decisions. You should be looking at the designer and their abilities. If they have the knowledge and experience, it won't matter what machine they are sitting behind, as long as they know how to use it.