How a designer of an iPad and Apple Pencil changed in the heart of a creative company
- Advertisement -
Part of what makes AppleThe iPad experience so compelling is the pure versatility of the tablet. When I rated the new one iPad Air with M3I cried the multiple ways to use it: touch, Apple pencil or via a magical keyboard. It is a pretty winning formula.
Here in the United States it was a small business week last week and I had the opportunity to chat with Mandy Corcoran, a surface designer whose work has been used for products that have been sold at Home Goods, Tjmaxx and Nordstrom Rack, to name just a few.
Now I love a good design in itself, but the technical corner here is deep as Corcoran – that passes by Amanda Grace Design – Uses an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Prpreate to do it all.
It all started in 2018 on Christmas morning, when her husband gave her an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, and as Corcoran says, “It has changed everything.”
“I downloaded Propreeate that day, and something clicked,” she explained and noticed that the apple pencil felt natural. After she sketched digitally within Procreate, she realized that this would be a larger part of her life.
Before Corcoran jumped into designer work, Corcoran was rooted in technology; She was a programmer, who she described as very logic-based-“It is structure, electricity and problem solving, which always spoke to my brain. When I seamlessly found pattern design in Practreate, it felt like a creative expansion of that mindset.” And she got her start with drawing – pre iPad – using a Wacom Cintiq and Climb Photoshop.
When she designs patterns with Procreate, Corcoran says that her hair has ‘tech-brain’ creative. She explains that there is a mathematical precision for the creative and design process, because she has to fit different designs, sort out the right power and ultimately have something useful.
“For me it is about giving people tools to unlock their creativity faster,” Corcoran explains about making templates and patterns. She noted that when she started for the first time, there were not many templates or cards to help with layout and eye deflow.
So when she first started designing, she went on a deep dive in the app and the ecosystem and learned every part of it. This helped her to create her first course and to become one of the first educators to offer adjustable patronage templates in 2023.
And her focus, or special sauce, is really around surface design – creating the tools itself, but also offers courses to let others create with these tools and design their own.
It is a kind of iPad ecosystem for design, and a good brewing. She explains it as: “I run a design company, make online courses, build templates, test brushes”, all on the iPad, and it is one device where she can have everything live without worrying if there is enough strength or speed.
Corcoran uses one iPad ProA 13-inch with the M4 chip under the hood. In the testing of TechRadar it performed incredibly well, so that you could see through almost every task that you would like on an iPad and perform intensive creative workflows without faltering.
She has been a fan of the apple pencil and describes it as ‘an extension of your thinking’. Corcoran has the Apple Pencil Pro With her iPad Pro, which offers a little more functionality, including support from Vatrol and the pinch of functionality.
“If someone who likes to make systems, I really appreciate how hover, double tap and now squeeze with Apple Pencil Pro, I give shortcuts within reach – without ever putting down my pencil. That is huge,” Corcoran explains.
By using it all together in procreate and other creative apps, it ensures more precision when making a design, and when Corcoran teaches, it is an easier way to explain “the faster moving” and with more confidence.
It is clear that iPad and Apple Pencil have been an important part of Corcoran’s career, so that she can create her own company, but also encourages other people to make and design themselves. “Ipad and Apple Pencil have enabled me to build a creative career on my own conditions – and that is not something that I naturally consider.”
Furthermore, she says that you don’t have to be an expert to get started with being creative on iPad, encourage people and techradar -readers to “just open an app such as procreate, tap and start playing.”
A few weeks ago, on April 26, 2025, in the Apple Carnegie store in Washington, DC, Corcoran today organized an Apple session for 30 participants in creating procreate with patterns around a fruit theme. She described it as a complete circle moment, so she could eventually learn what a life -changing process has been for her.
After making countless patterns and designs – some now on products in large retailers – she let the audience feel inspired and confident.
“A few people then told me that they had never realized how many things had patterns in their lives – and that this opened their eyes in a completely new way,” Corcoran noted.
Maybe you like it too
- Advertisement -
