First Impressions on iPad Pro in a Design Workflow

I recently became the proud owner of a brand new iPad Pro. I’m just starting out my career in design and thought that there could be some potential powerful opportunities to use an iPad Pro in my workflow. I already love drawing and sketching on paper, and while I love how powerful and awesome Adobe Illustrator can be, I still miss using a pen and pencil. I’m hoping iPad Pro’s awesome surface and Apple pencil can bridge the gap. I’m going to discuss here my initial impressions on a few apps I’ve downloaded, and how I think they might or might not help in the design process.

Note: these impressions are based on a very short amount of time using each app and should reflect perhaps mostly on how intuitive each is to jump in and get started with, rather than how an experienced user might incorporate it.

The first app I opened when I got my iPad Pro is the Notes app. I have to say that it’s quite nice. The pencil writes really well. Good enough that I have actually already logged some hand written notes using it. I’m someone who likes writing long hand and who also finds typing on an iPad to be quite cumbersome so the pencil is a game changer. There’s little to no lag at all and there’s no gap between pixel and pencil tip. You can definitely even sketch in the Notes app if you aren’t trying to get too fancy. There’s even a ruler that’s very intuitive to move around so you can easily create straight lines. I’m not sure if I will formally use this app in my workflow for anything beyond personal notes and rough idea sketches though.

Procreate was the next app I tried. I enjoy drawing and illustrating as a hobby so I thought this could be a fun app to try and could hopefully also be incorporated into my design workflow. My first impression of Procreate feels very similar to how I felt when I first started learning Photoshop or Illustrator. I can tell that Procreate is incredibly powerful, and I feel like there should be a lot of ways to quickly and efficiently do what I want, but it’s going to take at least a little bit of time invested in learning the app to see those benefits. With almost no effort though I can say that it is definitely fun to draw with Procreate, and most of the selecting and copying of objects and drawing of straight lines is fairly intuitive.

I wanted to see if I could use Procreate to work on a logo design that would incorporate some clean geometric shapes combined with some organic leaflike shapes. I had trouble getting the clean geometric shapes as precise as I wanted. I think this can be done, but I’ll have to spend a bit more time learning.

I then turned to Adobe draw hoping that it would be easier to use for drawing perfect geometric shapes. I also intended to work on the final logo design using Adobe Illustrator so I thought this step made sense. My initial struggle with Adobe Draw was having difficulty in selecting elements after they were drawn. I found it difficult to select and consequently resize or move anything after exiting from the initial shape editing mode. Doing these things in Procreate is fairly intuitive in my opinion. As a consequence of those issues, I really could not align my geometric shapes nicely like I intended for the logo. My final conclusion for the logo design was to finish any sketching using Adobe Draw, but to truly draw the logo from scratch using Illustrator, with which I’m comfortable.

Later in the week I wanted to work on a different design challenge and wanted to do some quick wireframing to flesh out my concept. I started to grab pen and paper, but thought that perhaps I could use my iPad for such a thing. A quick Google search recommended the Concepts app for wireframing. I’m not sure if perhaps I need to upgrade to the full version, but I did not find any obvious way to quickly make straight, clean lines and shapes using Concepts. I think I would be much better off simply using Procreate’s ability to make straight lines. I think based on the positive reviews people have left of Concepts that I might need to utilize one of the libraries or upgrade. Before digging into learning any of that further I wanted to try one other app.

Adobe Comp was the other app I found recommended for wireframing on the iPad. I have to say that I was pretty pleased with this app. I thought at first that it would definitely do everything I wanted. It very intuitively converts your marks into perfect shapes including the classic box with an X for image placeholders and lorem ipsum text. My only frustration with Adobe Comp was that I didn’t find it especially easy to select multiple objects and duplicate or move them. It is possible and clear how to do it, but it was a little slow. I felt that made it less ideal for fast ideation and slightly better once you were a little more firm in your concept. Hopefully there is a faster way to execute these tasks though and with a little effort I can figure it out.

To summarize, I think that Notes, Procreate, and Adobe Comp are probably going to make it into my final workflow. I’m going to hang on to Adobe Draw for now, but I’m not sure if I wouldn’t rather use Procreate. I’m probably not going to try Concepts any more unless some brief reading convinces me on it. For Procreate and Adobe Comp, they both seem to have a lot of potential, but like most software will take a little effort to use efficiently.

Related posts:

Every church and Christian organization will tell you the importance of reading your Bible daily. And of course, most of us understand the importance so that we can renew our minds. For one reason or…

Carolyn Eaton was a 17-year-old from Bellefontaine Neighbors, Missouri; a suburb of St. Louis. She was one of six sisters. After a family argument, she ran away from home during Christmas in 1981…

Unexpected blessings are sometimes the most rewarding ones While struggling to meditate In the hope that this Would best prepare me To settle down to pray Though this process lately Has proven more…