- In today's video, I want to share my thoughts
on the iPad Pro and the Apple pencil
and how they work within my design process.
I've had a lot of questions about using this device
because you've seen me using it in vlogs
and people are wondering if they should get one themselves.
How it's useful for design, etc.,
so hopefully I can shed some light on that
and we can have a chat
about some nerdy hardware stuff today.
Quick note before we get into it
this video is sponsored by Squarespace
they are my favorite all in one platform
for building whatever type of website
you think you might need, so thank you Squarespace
and let's get into the review.
(funky music)
First off, the reason I bought this iPad was mostly
because I wanted to be able to do lettering
and I wanted to be able to use the app called Procreate.
It's essentially a drawing app where you can have
a bunch of different brushes.
It's got some great controls
and it's been mentioned by a lot of hand lettering artists
as an app that's really useful to use
and quite like true to life when you're using
the Apple pencil in it.
I've been interested in hand lettering for quite a long time
but I've never been that good at it.
I'm still not that good at it I would say
but what is good is that I enjoy it much more now
doing it on the iPad, I feel like I have more control
and that it's easier to fine tune the lettering
and clean up little mistakes
without having to redraw the whole thing.
I think because of that enjoyment factor
just simply I love using Procreate
and I love drawing in it.
I've been looking for excuses to bring hand drawn elements
into the rest of my design work
because obviously I'm not a hand lettering artist as a job,
I am mainly a web designer
and you wouldn't think those two things would fit together
but I have found ways to make them work.
For example, the imagery that we've been doing lately
on the ConvertKit blog this year,
it's a new style of imagery that I created
and it was inspired mostly because I had the iPad
and knew that I could easily draw on top of images.
We needed an imagery style that was going to be
easy to create and yet stand apart
from other tech company blogs
and I'm really proud of the style
and a lot of the reason why we were able to do it
and have these special looking images is
because of the iPad.
It made it really easy for me to quickly create them
and get them out the door.
I think the web can easily get really boxy and perfect.
I think we're seeing a shift away from that lately.
People are appreciating more organic shapes
in web design and they're not as easy
to create on the computer
Because if you draw a line in illustrator for example
it's automatically going to try and smooth itself out
and try and make it perfect
and obviously as a web designer too
I'm always want to align things to the pixel grid
and get them looking pixel perfect.
But at the same time, it's lovely to bring
a more human organic element into things.
I've been really enjoying trying to add some
hand drawn touches to our website wherever possible.
Things like these little envelope dividers.
I've drawn some plants on our pricing page,
some little sparks on this page here.
This is still a work in progress for sure.
I'm still looking for new ways
to bring some hand drawn stuff to the website
but it's fun to explore that
and the iPad's definitely enabled me to do it.
So as you can probably tell,
Procreate is the app that I use the most on this iPad.
I'm also using it to design the font
that I'm going to be selling.
I use it for my video thumbnails.
I just really like it as an app.
I think I will do a more in depth video,
focusing just on Procreate later on,
but for now I do just want to give my overall thoughts
on this device.
So let's move on to some other things.
Another one is Concepts, I use this for wireframing
because it's got an infinite canvas,
unlike Procreate where you have to set a canvas size.
I really like wireframing on paper.
That's definitely still my favorite way
to wireframe a website.
I like getting A3 paper and a Sharpie
and just going mad like that.
But it's really handy to be able to wireframe
on the iPad as well,
when I'm in a cafe for example
and I can't really spread out all these pieces of paper
all over the place.
It's nice to have a place that I can still draw
and get my ideas out
because I do think it's a good start
to the web design process.
Then most recently, I've tried an app called Astropad,
which essentially turns your iPad
into a graphics tablet
so that you can be using your Apple pencil
like on the iPad to control
what's on your screen on the computer.
I just bought the standard Astropad
which I think is $29.99 or something
from the app store and you download
an accompanying app on your Mac
and then you can see whatever is on your computer screen
on the iPad which is pretty amazing,
and work with it with the Apple pencil.
It's been awesome to use in illustrator
especially when I've been working on my font.
You just use the pencil tool to refine vectors
which is amazing, you could use it
to draw in Photoshop.
You could even use it to arrange things
in Sketch if you wanted to.
I was just trying things out.
So overall, I do tend to use my iPad for drawing.
Whenever I'm using it, I am pretty much using
the Apple pencil with it.
But some of the other apps I like having on here
are InVision so I can check up on my prototypes
and the comments on them.
I've got all of my work apps on here
for communication like Slack and Basecamp and Zoom
so I can essentially have meetings from this if I need to.
I generally do my writing on my 12 inch MacBook
but if I do need to write on the iPad
I love the app iA writer it's super nice and clean
and it uses markdown.
I don't know, I've got Google Drive,
to do list apps, whatever
but honestly the main thing I do use this for is drawing.
And the sort of thing that I can't do on my computer.
I'm not the kind of person
who would use the iPad as my main device
because I do still work in Sketch daily
as my main software that I use
and I do still code and while I think there are apps
for coding on the iPad,
I don't think it would be ideal for me.
I like my set-up that I have on the computer.
I don't know, perhaps it's something
that I could look into in the future.
I think iOS works really well on the iPad,
as you can see now they have this doc functionality
which you can put apps in
or it just shows the most recent ones
that you've used down there.
You can do multi-tasking with it.
They've done a lot with this operating system
to make the iPad super powerful
and I can see how some people use this
as their full-time device.
Now in terms of hardware,
I bought the small iPad Pro,
I can't remember what size it is, 12 something,
10 point something, whatever,
it was the smaller one of the two sizes that they have.
I wanted the small one for portability, mostly.
It's nice and small, it's not overly heavy.
It can fit in my backpack and I can take it along
with my 12 inch MacBook along to a cafe
or whatever without too much added hassle.
I also didn't get the smart keyboard cover.
I had a lot of people asking about that.
I just have the regular smart cover
and that's because I don't really intend
to do much writing on this.
I've got the MacBook for that
that I would have with me anyway
for doing design work.
I would love if the iPad didn't have a camera
to be honest because it feels weird
to have this bump in something
that you're going to be putting flat
on the table to draw with.
I guess the iPad is used by different people
for different reasons but I feel like
on the iPad Pro perhaps
people are not gonna be really using that
to take a picture of their family on holiday.
You know, you just get the regular version of the iPad
if that's what you want to do.
Oh that's another thing.
The cover is great because you can fold it like this
and set it on the desk
and then you've got your screen slightly tilted
for drawing on.
I love the Apple pencil, I think it's great.
It is expensive, but I think it works well
as a stylus.
It can feel a little strange to draw on the glass.
I've heard that putting a matte screen protector
on your iPad can really help it feel more like
you're drawing with an actual pencil on paper,
but I don't really mind it to be honest.
I've gotten used to it 'cause
it's the main way that I work now.
You do have to be careful not to lose the cap
because the way this charges is pretty hilarious.
You stick it in to the bottom of the iPad
and it goes like that.
But yeah this kind of has a nice weight to it in your hand
and it's a good size, it's nice and smooth.
There's no like ridges that are going
to cut into your finger or anything like that.
The battery life lasts quite well on it as well.
Because I've never used this constantly.
I've never used it straight from like full to empty,
like I have with my phone, that needs to charge everyday.
I feel like I only charge my iPad about once a week.
Actually, I will confess that probably
the second biggest thing that I use my iPad for
if I'm not drawing with it is watching Netflix.
It's a great little Netflix screen, but anyway.
The multi-tasking is kind of cool too
because sometimes I can have Netflix on in the corner
while I am drawing something in Procreate.
That's pretty fun.
So overall, I love having this iPad
as a part of my design toolkit.
I think it really helps me to add a more organic feel
to my designs and it's really helpful
for being able to draw on the go,
to do wireframes without needing to use up a bunch of paper.
I use it as a supplement to my design process,
rather than for the whole thing.
If you're a designer who wants
to get better at hand lettering,
or get into it in general,
then I think this would be a really great device for you.
I've found it amazing for that.
It makes me feel more confident drawing,
so that's what makes it worth it for me.
So that's my overall review of the iPad.
If you've got any questions about it
leave them down below in the comments.
But now I want to show you some hand lettering
in action, while I tell you about Squarespace.
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You can have complete control over the design
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They have beautiful templates you can start with
but then you can completely customize them as well
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And all of the templates come pre-built to be responsive,
which means that they're going to look great
on your computer, on your phone,
or even on your iPad.
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And they've got 24 seven support
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If you want to head to Squarespace dot com
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I hope you enjoyed seeing those pieces
of lettering in action.
Like I said, I think I'm gonna do a full video
about Procreate and how I use it
so I can give you some more background on that there.
But thank you for watching this video.
Hope it was useful, hope you enjoyed it.
Give it a thumbs up if you did, thumbs up.
If you've got an iPad Pro of your own,
I would love to hear
about how it fits in with your workflow
and what your favorite apps are
so how about you share them down below in the comments.
Thanks for watching and I will see you next time.
Bye.
(upbeat music)