Part of what makes Apple’s iPad experience so convincing is the versatility of the tablet. When I checked the new iPad Air with M3, I called the multiple ways to use it: play, Apple Pencil or by means of a magical keyboard. It is a fairly winning formula.
Here in the United States, it was the week of small businesses last week, and I had the opportunity to talk with Mandy Corcoran, a surface designer whose work has been used in products sold in household items, TJMAXX and Nordstrom Rack, to name a few.
Now, I love a good design in my own right, but the technological angle here is deeply like Corcoran, what happens Grace Design of Amanda – Use an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and procreate to do everything.
It all started in 2018 on Christmas morning, when her husband gave her an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, and as Corcoran says: “Everything changed.”
“I downloaded that day, and something simply click,” he explained, and said the Apple Pencil felt natural. After drawing digitally inside procreate, he realized that this would be a bigger part of his life.
Before jumping to design work, Corcoran was rooted in technology; She was a programmer, who described as very logical: “It is the structure, flow and problem solving, which always attracted my brain. When I found a design of patterns without problems in procreate, he felt as a creative extension of that mentality.” And she started with the drawing, before the iPad, using a Wacom Cintiq and Adobe Photoshop.
When designing patterns with procreate, Corcoran says that it allows you to use your “brain technology” creatively. She explains that there is mathematical precision for the creative and design process, since it needs to adjust to several designs, discover the correct flow and finally end something significant.
“For me, it is about giving people tools to unlock their faster creativity,” explains Corcoran about the creation of templates and patterns. He pointed out that when he started, there were not many templates or graphics to help with the design and ocular flow.
Then, when he began to design, he immersed himself deeply within the application and the ecosystem, learning each part of it. This helped her create her first course and become one of the first educators that offers customizable patterns templates in 2023.
And her approach, or special sauce, is really the entire surface design, creating the tools herself, but also offers courses to allow others to believe with these tools and design their own.
It is a kind of iPad ecosystem for design, and a well -elaborate one. She explains it as: “I run a design business, I create online courses, buy templates, test brushes”, all on the iPad, and it is a device where you can have everything live without worrying if there is enough power or speed.
Corcoran uses an iPad Pro, one 13 inches with the M4 chip under the hood. In Techradar tests, it worked incredibly well, allowing him to shine through almost any task he wants on an iPad and execute more intensive creative workflows without problems.
She has been a fan of Apple Pencil, describing it as “an extension of your thought.” Corcoran has been using Apple Pencil Pro with its iPad Pro, which offers a little more functionality, including barrel roll support and compression functionality.
“As someone who loves creating systems, I really appreciate how it moves, double touch and now tight with Apple Pencil Pro gives me shortcuts, without putting my pencil. That is huge,” says Corcoran.
Using everything together within procreate and other creative applications, allows more precision when creating a design, and when Corcoran is teaching, it is an easy way to explain “how to move faster” and with more confidence.
It is clear that iPad and Apple Pencil have been a key part of Corcoran’s career, which allows him to create his own business, but also encourage other people to create and design on their own. “Ipad and Apple Pencil have allowed me to build a creative career in my own terms, and that is not something that he took for granted.”
In addition, she says she does not need to be an expert to begin to be creative on iPad, encourage people and readers to “simply open an application like procreate, play and start playing.”
A few weeks ago, on April 26, 2025, at the Apple Carnegie store in Washington, DC, Corcoran organized a session today in Apple for 30 participants about creation within procreate using patterns around a fruit theme. He described him as a complete circle moment, which finally allows him to teach what has been a process that changes his life for her.
After creating countless patterns and designs, some now appeared in products in the main retailers, left the crowd feeling inspired and safe.
“Some people told me after they had never realized how many things in their lives had patterns, and that this opened their eyes in a completely new way,” said Corcora.
