How this one Apple device opens doors to creativity — iPad

One of the many advantages of technology is that it opens up new avenues to create. One of the most underrated apple device, that does this is the iPad. We all know how apple has always put designers and creatives first. It’s been pushing to get more and more people access to quality products that allows you to create really professional work. Especially with Apple announcing Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro on iPad —

Apple brings Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro to iPad

Note-taking

One of the unique aspects of the iPad is that you can extract great value with it once you pair it with a pencil. The absolute unique ways with which this opens up doors is that — you can take notes with the free note taking app called FreeForm. You can also extend this to journal with free apps like CollaNote and many other paid applications. There is a definite value to using your muscles to write something down, instead of just typing it out. This aspect of tactile feedback can be captured digitally as close to a pen and book with the iPad and Apple Pencil.

Reading and Kindle

The form factor of the iPad makes it a perfect lightweight device to carry anywhere equivalent to a medium/small sized notebook depending on the size of the iPad you buy. But either ways, it becomes incredibly easy to read books with Kindle on your iPad. If you were a researcher or have some papers/books on your kindle, it is an absolute pleasure to read them with a good pdf reader. Especially the free Adobe Acrobat Reader makes it really easy to add freestyle note overlays to text.

Music Creation

I have wanted to learn to create music and always felt it very overwhelming getting into it. It seems like you need a bunch of external devices, musical instruments and midi controllers to get any kind of good music. This is absolutely not true, the power of the iPad really shines through when you want to just get started with something like this, maybe even produce professional content. Especially since most of the music these days are electronically produced, like House, EDM or Trap music. Two things have helped me get started —

1. GarageBand — This free app from Apple, is a great place to explore some of the ways to get used to music theory, playing a two octave keyboard, experimenting with a drum kit etc.
2. Koala — If you are especially into Electronic music, House/Trap music. It is really easy to hook up an audio interface with your iPad and start to import to your device and sampling good music. This combined with some music theory lessons and sequencing tips can really get you started on your way to creating music.

My first beats with the Koala Sampler

Sketching

Another great avenue to explore with your iPad is sketching. Again, the Apple pencil really paves the way here. There are some really amazing apps to get you started both free and paid. Like the Adobe Fresno application is a great place to get started and get your feet wet while you dabble into your sketching skills. If you are more explorative and want to dive head first, I would highly recommend the ProCreate app from Apple. There are also some amazing YouTube channels to help you grow your sketches from casual sketching to professional art work. Like Art with Flo, is a great resource to get started with sketching and from there on out, the world is your oyster.

Dabbling with some water colors and typography in Adobe Fresno

I still feel this is just the tip of the ice-berg when it comes to the creative capabilities with an iPad. I am sure there are some amazing apps for graphic designing, animating, typography, motion graphics, photo editing and video editing. I hope this article sparks your creativity a little bit and makes you pick up your iPad laying around the corner to create content and share it with the world!