Most designer draw a lot of things, they started in kindergarten and went on through their life. Now do they need a tablet or is it enough to scan your drawings?
From my point of view a tablet is essential for every serious creator. Right now I am not having a tablet due to my old one not working with my new computer anymore, but within the next few weeks I will get a new one, and in case you don’t have one yet, here are a few reasons for you to go digital:

• You pay a pretty big chunk for one item, but you save on paper, color and pencils
• You can go digital and add textures with ease.
• You can create speed paintings with ease.
• It’s easy to create vector graphics that are flexible in size.
• You can reduce working steps and improve your work-flow / productivity.

Overall there are a lot of advantages to a graphic tablet. In case you are a designer or artist and still live in the analog world, consider going digital as an addition. The only thing you should actually do is to test the tablet you are going to buy. There is no substitution to the feeling of actually holding the pen and drawing / painting with it. There are plenty of pretty cheap tablets out there, but if you are serious about this, you should consider investing a bit more, as the pen is usually without a battery, has a better grip and the tablet has better reaction times.
I can’t wait to get my tablett and I will write a review about it once I hold it in my hands.