Part of what makes Apple’s iPad experience so compelling is the pure versatility of the tablet. Back when I reviewed the new iPad Air with M3, I shouted the several ways to use it: Touch, apple pencil or via a magic keyboard. It’s a pretty winning formula.
Here in the states was the little business week last week and I had the chance to chat with Mandy Corcoran, a surface designer whose work has been spent on products sold home products, Tjmaxx and Nordstrom Rack, to name a few.
Now I love a good design in itself, but the technical angle here is deep as Corcoran – passing by Amanda Grace Design – Uses an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and forms 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 changed everything.”
“I downloaded shapes that day, and something just clicked,” she explained, noting that the Apple pencil felt natural. After drawing digitally in reproduction, she had a recognition that this would be a greater part of her life.
Before jumping into design work, Corcoran was rooted in tech; She was a programmer that she described as very logic-based-“It’s structure, flow and problem solving that always appealed to my brain. When I found seamless pattern design in creating, it felt like a creative expansion of this mindset.” And she started by drawing – Pre iPad – using a Wacom Cintiq and Adobe Photoshop.
When she designs patterns with reproduction, Corcoran says it lets her use her “tech-brain” creatively. She explains that there is a mathematical precision for the creative and design process as she needs to fit different designs together, find out the right power and ultimately end up with something meaningful.
“For me, it’s about giving people tools to unlock their creativity faster,” Corcoran explains about creating templates and patterns. She noticed that when she first started, there were not many templates or charts to help with layout and eyeflow.
So when she first started designing, she went on a deeply dive within the app and ecosystem and learned each part of it. This helped her set up her first course and become one of the first teachers to offer customizable pattern templates in 2023.
And her focus or special sauce is really around the surface design – creates the tools themselves, 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 well-brewing on it. She explains it as, “I run a design business, create online courses, build templates, test brushes,” all on the iPad, and it’s a device where she can have everything live without worrying about whether there is enough power or speed.
Corcoran uses an iPad Pro, a 13-inch with M4 chip under the cap. In Techradar’s test, it worked incredibly well and flared through almost any task you would like to on an iPad and run more intense creative workflows without any problems.
She has been a fan of the apple pencil and described it as “an extension of your thinking.” Corcoran has used the Apple Pencil Pro with its iPad Pro, which offers a little more functionality, including the barrel roller support and clamp functionality.
“As a person who loves to create systems, I really appreciate how hovering, double pressure and now squeezing with Apple Pencil Pro gives me shortcuts at my fingertips – without ever putting my pencil down. It’s huge,” Corcoran explains.
Using it all together in creating and other creative apps, it allows for more precision when creating a design, and when Corcoran teaches, it’s an easier way to explain “how to move faster” and with more confidence.
It is clear that the iPad and Apple Pencil have been an important part of Corcoran’s career that allows her to create her 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 on my own terms – and it’s not something I take for granted.”
Furthermore, she says you don’t have to be an expert to get started with being creative on the iPad, encouraging people and Techradar readers to “just open an app like creating, pressing around and starting playing.”
A few weeks back, April 26, 2025, in the Apple Carnegie store in Washington, DC, Corcoran hosted a today on Apple session for 30 participants to create inside to create using patterns around a fruit theme. She described it as a moment in full circle, which ultimately let her learn what has been a life -changing process for her.
After creating countless patterns and designs – some now mentioned on products in larger retailers – she left the crowd and felt inspired and confident.
“A couple of people told me afterwards that they were never even aware of how many things in their lives had patterns – and that this opened their eyes in a whole new way,” Corcoran noted.
