 Re: recommended Software???
That's what I'd say, too!
CorelDRAW X3 (I'm not sure about X4) is more intuitive to a lot of people over Illustrator, but many people prefer Illy. I'd suggest downloading both and testing them out for yourself (seperately).
CorelDRAW or Illustrator would be for your vector work.
Photoshop is a must for raster work. CorelDRAW comes with a somewhat basic raster program, but I don't find it very easy or user-friendly. Then again, I'm used to Photoshop. | 
