Here are 20 exceptional iPad apps for expressing yourself creatively with your iPad. Creative tools that turn your iPad into a portable, digital studio that supports you through all the cycles of the creative process. From gathering and brainstorming ideas through collecting and organizing inspiration and journaling to expressing yourself through writing, drawing, painting, photography, design, music, acting and crafting. And some play and relaxation to refill your creative well.

1. MindNode ($5.99) Beautiful and minimalist mind mapping app. A simple and effective way to brainstorm and easily map out and organize your ideas. Also available for the Mac.

[App store link: MindNode for iPad and iPhone].

2. Evernote (free) Remember everything. Build and organize your own digital scrapbook with notes, photos, links, web clips, audio and auto-synchronize to your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad and Web. Magically makes text within snapshots searchable and includes geo-location information in notes. For research, to capture design, art, writing and blogging inspiration.

[App store link: Evernote for iPad and iPhone].

3. Moodboard Pro ($4.99) and Moodboard Lite (free) Make a moodboard to visualise your ideas and jump-start your creativity. Capture a mood, feel or ambience with a collage of materials (photos, textures, sketches, text and color palettes). Easily share early design concepts with clients and colleagues to communicate your idea or use as a guide and inspiration for your own creative projects.

[App store links: Moodboard Pro and Moodboard Lite].

4. MaxJournal for iPad ($2.99). A simple and elegant diary or journal. Customize the font and size, add up to three photos per entry and password protect your journal. Features tagging, time stamping and autosave.

[App store link: MaxJournal for iPad].

5. My Writing Nook ($4.99) and $2.99 for the iPhone. Simple and powerful tool for writers. Minimalist and distraction free writing environment with easy-to-use dictionary and thesaurus. Word count and auto save. Work on your manuscript anywhere, on your iPhone, iPad or computer, synchronize and have access to the latest version for reading, writing and editing everywhere.

[App store links: My Writing Nook for iPad. Also available for the iPhone].

6. Qvik Sketch Pro ($0.99) Quick, easy, effortless sketching, doodling and drawing tool. Qvik Sketch shades or inks your sketches in real-time, creating beautifully rendered drawings. Fast and fun.

[App store links: Qvik Sketch Pro for iPad. Also available for the iPhone].

7. Adobe Ideas 1.0 (free) A simple, vector-based digital sketchbook. Capture and explore ideas on the go. Use the color scheming tool to create harmonized color palettes extracted from your photos or artwork. Email your sketches as PDF files for further editing in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. A handy tool for designers and artists.

[App store links: Adobe Ideas for iPad and Adobe Ideas for the iPhone].

8. Brushes ($7.99) A portable art studio and powerful finger painting tool for creating original artwork featuring an advanced color picker, swatches, high quality brushes, layers, extreme zooming, and a simple yet deep interface. Paintings made with Brushes have been published on the cover of The New Yorker on several occasions. With Brushes Viewer for Mac (free) you can replay your Brushes paintings stroke by stroke, render them at high resolutions for printing, and export them as QuickTime movies.

[App store links: Brushes – iPad Edition and Brushes for iPhone ($4.99)].

9. SketchBook Pro ($7.99) A versatile, elegant digital SketchBook for painting and drawing that features 75 art brushes, a smear brush, geometric shapes and a symmetrical drawing tool. Interact with SketchBook through a gesture-based multi-touch user interface.

[App store link: SketchBook Pro].

10. iMockups ($9.99) This gem of a tool will save designers countless hours by helping you to quickly create mock-ups, layouts and wireframes for your web design, iPhone and iPad app projects. iMockups includes customizable navbars, tab panels, and autofilling Lorem Ipsum text. Intuitive and beautiful interface that takes full advantage of the breakthrough touchscreen device with iPad-optimized gesture controls.

[App store link: iMockups].

11. StudioTrack ($39.99) StudioTrack is a powerful audio recording and songwriting tool for musicians and producers who want to capture musical ideas and record songs on the go. Multitrack recording with up to 8 tracks, and bounce them down to add even more. Easily apply effects such as delay, reverb, EQ, and a compressor.

[App store link: StudioTrack].

12. Korg iElectribe ($9.99) A perfectly faithful replica of the famous Korg Electribe•R analog drum machine that’s easy and intuitive to use. Features 64 preset patterns, 8 supercharged effects and advanced Motion Sequencing that make patterns come alive.

[App store link: Korg iElectribe].

13. Rehearsal (free) This professional tool for actors helps you learn your lines. Developed and tested by Hollywood actors. Highlight lines, play peekaboo to memorize your script. Record your script and play it back. Add notes and record different takes to explore your character. Download for free, get unlimited scripts for a week and then pay by the script.

[App store links: Rehearsal for iPad and Rehearsal for iPhone].

14. CameraBag ($2.99) Recreate the magic of film by emulating photography’s most beloved and iconic vintage cameras, film, and processing techniques. Easy to use with an intuitive, simple interface. The perfect companion for your iPhone photography.

[App store links: CameraBag for iPad and CameraBag for iPhone ($1.99)].

15. TiltShift Generator ($2.99) Make your photos look like they are shots with miniatures, toy camera images and fake DSLR by adding a radial blur to your photos to change the perception of depth. Move the sweet spot with your fingers and increase or decrease its size.

[App store links: TiltShift Generator – Fake DSLR for iPad and TiltShift Generator – Fake DSLR for iPhone ($0.99)].

16. Fabric Stash ($4.99) Manage, catalogue, match, track quantities and organize your fabrics with Fabric Stash. Perfect for quilters, sewers, interior decorators, fashion designers and fabric designers.

[App store links: Fabric Stash for iPad. Also available for the iPhone].

17. HandiCraft ($4.99) Quilting, knitting, crochet and embroidery on your iPad with more than 150 patterns with full instructions and HD video lessons. Features patterns and step-by-step instructions displayed in a beautiful interface.

[App store link: HandiCraft].

18. iZen Garden 2 – portable zen garden ($5.99) Tranquil, Japanese rock garden, where you can find peace and create beauty. Arrange and resize objects like stones, seashells, fossils and butterflies, rake the sand into patterns and listen to soothing, ambient soundtracks.

[App store links: iZen Garden for iPad and iZen Garden for iPhone ($3.99)].

19. Soundrop (free) Wonderfully fun and simple sound game. Tap the screen to draw lines and watch as a ball bounces off them and Soundrop creates music out of the pattern you create.

[App store links: Soundrop for iPad and Soundrop for iPhone].

20. Zen Bound 2 ($7.99) Beautiful puzzle game with gorgeous graphics and sounds. Tilt and touch to wrap and twist the shapes to solve puzzles.

[App store links: Zen Bound 2 for iPad and Zen Bound 2 for iPhone ($2.99)].

More writings about the iPad: First impressions of the iPad.

Do you have a great tips for creating a digital studio? Have you tried any iPad or iPhone apps that you found inspiring and that boosted your creativity?

Tags: apps, art, creative, creative cycle, creative process, creativity, design, digital environment, iPad, iPhone, iPhoneography, review, software

iPhone photography: candy tulips

I’ve been asked a lot of questions about my photography and here’s the scoop. All of the photos on my blog are shot with my iPhone. I often use an app called CameraBag that recreates the magic of film without all the chemicals needed to manually use and develop film. There aren’t any settings or choices for each filter, you just decide which vintage camera you’d like to use, some of my favourites are the instant camera (that I used for this Polaroid of vintage graffiti), as well as the Lomo (in action in these over-saturated photos) and Holga (that I used to put a dark and moody edge on some of my summer photography). But sometimes I don’t use any additional software at all. Just raw iPhone photography. In any case they all fall within the definition of iPhoneography, which means images taken with an iPhone and processed with apps on the iPhone.

iPhone photography: Tulips at night

Last night I thought this bunch of tulips might wilt before I got round to taking some photos of it, so I took a few pictures with the camera in my iPhone, although it was almost midnight and the camera doesn’t have a flash. Tulips are an early sign of spring for me, even if you have to buy them at the store because the ground is still deep with snow and it’ll be months before they blossom here! I find these tulips so inspiring, but with all the excitement over Apple’s new iPad and the administration and economy that I handle at the end of each month I’m way too busy to do much more than capture them on film.

iPhone photography: Blurred tulips

I really like the rough quality that the low-quality camera of a mobile device can bring out! And the immediacy. There’s something very appealing to me in this blurred photo of tulips. Perhaps it’s the almost painterly quality… Normally I wouldn’t post this photo, but seeing as I’m talking about photography, and some of the unexpected beauty of the imperfections of lo-fi photography, I did.

I absolutely refuse to spend time in Photoshop editing photos. If I’m going to be creating using my computer as a tool, I’d prefer to work on my own art. There’s something endlessly satisfying about the simplicity of lo-fi photography, trusting the moment, seeing what happens. Finding moments of serendipity. It’s a liberating contrast to the sometimes laborious methods involved in designing icons and the endless and complicated options and settings available in the tools of my trade, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

iPhone photography: tulips on the kitchen table

I first got an iPhone because I was designing icons for the platform and I needed to see what they actually looked like in their own environment. At the time, I’d never guessed what a huge inspiration the iPhone turned out to be for me! A digital playground and a canvas to experiment with and to capture ideas with the built in camera, notes and voice memos. It’s become the place where my creative process often begins. But my favourite source of creativity on my iPhone is finger painting with Brushes! More about that another day!

iPhone photography: karamell tulips

Tags: apps, CameraBag, creative, creative process, ease, imperfection, inspiration, iPhone, iPhoneography, lo-fi, serendipity, simplicity, software