Tim's posterous

Grid Goodness for your iPad or iPhone

My earlier iPad sketchbook post got me thinking about what could be done to make my iPad sketching experience better than it already is. The answer, my friends, was hidden in a grid.

Here are two packs of grid "paper" background images (each with various grid colors and two grid sizes, 25px and 50px) that can be used on the iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch. Certain sketching apps (Adobe Ideas and Brushes (iTunes links) are two of them) will let you pull in photos from your iDevice's photo library letting you draw on it or add the photo as a layer. Simply add the grid photo to your drawing and you can then add a layer above it and sketch out your idea. Works great for logo ideations, layouts, and anything else you can dream up.

iPad Grid Sheets - 25px

iPad Grid "Sheets" - 50px

iPhone/iPodTouch Grid "Sheets" - 25px

iPhone/iPodTouch Grid "Sheets" - 50px

If you want it all...

Happy sketching!

iPad sketchbook app shootout

I’ve realized that my iPad has become my sketchbook on steroids.  It's been a while since I've cracked open the pages of my notebooks, largely because of some great apps that have let me skip the pen & paper route and go with a completely digital workflow.

There are many apps that can let you sketch out ideas and get thoughts down on...glass.  Here are my favorites.

iDraft - Free
I just picked up iDraft (iTunes link) a week ago and it's been my go-to sketching app ever since.  What I'm the most drawn to with this app is the ability to make individual "project" notebooks that I can then email the entire book or just a few pages to anyone I'd like.

The drawing tools and markings are very natural, in fact, the pen width decreases the quicker you move your finger over the canvas.  I've found this app to be a great alternative to my traditional sketchbook with some great benefits.  It should be mentioned that the ability to zoom is missing from iDraft, an omission that I've noticed on a few occasions.

Pros
  • Grouping of project sketches with notebook sharing as a PDF
  • Differing width based on speed for a somewhat realistic feel
  • Simple and intuitive UI
  • No photo importing
Cons
  • No ability to zoom
  • Limited color choices for brushes
Adobe Ideas - Free
One of the first apps I downloaded for my iPad was Adobe Ideas (iTunes link).  This is a great app if you use Photoshop, Illustrator, or any other app in Adobe's Creative Suite line.  Sketching out quick ideas is easy and the app tries to "correct" or straighten out your lines.  One big appeal of this app is the ability to export and mail the sketch as a PDF that retains the vector imagery for further development in Photoshop, Illustrator, or your vector app of choice.

As with any drawing app worth it's salt, you can choose pen colors and erase lines so that goes without saying.  One nice, added feature is the ability to zoom into the drawing or zoom out to reveal more drawing space. 

Pros
  • Vector drawings that can be tweaked in other full-blown apps
  • Photo importing
  • Layers (minimal)
Cons
  • The "auto-correcting" can get annoying if you're not used to it.
  • While Ideas has the ability to do layers, there are only two. A few more would be nice.
Brushes - $7.99
Last, but not least on my list of sketchbook fighters is Brushes (iTunes link).  I bought this app for my iPhone and found it fun, but also a bit frustrating due to the small screen size.  With the iPad, I decided to give it another shot and have grown to enjoy the experience more and more. 

With a robust toolset of multiple brush types and sizes to great zoom and detail control, Brushes is more geared toward creating an artwork vs sketching out a layout but you never know what an might grow into.

Pros
  • If you want to create a great work of art, this is your app. I guess that's a pro, right?
  • Great variety of brushes and tools allow you to push the limits of this app and your imagination.
  • Ability to import photos.
  • Zoom in and out to make fine, detailed adjustments
Cons
  • Bitmapped final image
The winner?
What kind of a shootout would this be if there wasn’t a winner declared?  Truth be told, I can’t pick just one app, they’re all great and excel in different areas.  Some shootout this turned out to be.  More like a love-fest.

 

Mobilizing Me

When I launched my new-look brand late last year, I had a list of goals that I'd wanted to accomplish. One goal at the top of my list was to create a mobile version of my site which would allow me to quickly display my work when on the go.

Even though most modern smartphone browsers can display a full-featured website without many issues, I think the user experience could be improved. The way people interact with touch-screen devices is much different than the point and click method that we've know for years. This is differnt, more intimate, more tactile (even for a digital medium).

Mobile just means smaller, right?m.tiglu.com - The Home Page I'm a believer in the mobile platform and the future that it has for both creators and consumers of digital content. We're entering into a new era of user experience, and some changes are in order.

With mobile, you're dealing with a whole new way of thinking. Designing for traditional PCs (Windows, Mac, Linux, you name it) has always relied on the use of three things: a monitor, a keyboard, and a pointing device (mouse, trackball/pad, what-have-you). With the latest trend in mobile devices, these separate units have morphed into a more compact space. Devices running Android, the iPhone OS and other touch-screen reliant systems are changing the way people interact with their chosen content.

Designing a mobile site for point-and-click use won't work. Let me rephrase that, it will work but the experience isn't as great as it could be. The contact points are small and usually, there is too much content crammed into a compact space, so you're left to zoom in and out to find what you're looking for. This is what I wanted to avoid when building my mobile site.

What stays and what goes? With many of the distractions stripped away in a mobile site, you can put your content "under the microscope" and focus heavily on it. The question is, what do you keep and what do you leave off? You don't necessarily need to transfer every bit of content from your standard site over to your mobile site, but that's up to you. It also depends on the size of your site. With the mobile sites I've done in the past, I relied heavily on the usage stats from the traditional site. What content were people consuming using mobile devices? Once I had a clear understanding of what people wanted, I began building the mobile counterparts.

This mobile site is different. For starters, I don't have a lot of content categories, so everything that's on my standard site would fit on a mobile version. Secondly, I've designed my mobile site with certain goals in mind, namely the ability to show my work, contact info, and articles quickly and at any time I choose. That settled it, I threw everything I had into this site. Literally.

Another fresh start. Mobile Web sites are relatively new and with the wide array of devices that can view them, there are many new ways to conceptualize a site and how people can view it. I see room for experimentation in the navigation and presentation areas of a mobile layout. It takes me back to my time in college when anything was possible and the Internet had yet to be tamed. Fast forward a few years and there is even more ground to be broken in this area. This is my sandbox, and I'm bringing all of my toys. Without further introduction, I give you m.tiglu.com.

I've already started working on version two.