Interior Designers’ iPAD essential apps

I’ve just got my new iPAD 3…yeah! Whilst it has obvious limitations and is a tad expensive, it is also ‘obviously’ a great creativity productivity tool for interior designers. You can benefit a lot from all the stuff that’s already built in when you buy it but what about those pesky apps? You know, the ones that are a few pounds/dollars but are rubbish and the ones that are free and awesome…it’s a bit of a minefield sorting through them all to find a useful gem to help you with productivity and creativity at work.

Here’s a bit of help for you with my list of iPAD essential apps for interior designers. Some are specifically useful to designers other more generally useful to your business usage of an iPAD. Please feel free to suggest some more I certainly haven’t used them all.

1. Houzz: The “Wikipedia of interior and exterior design” by CNN,  Houzz has the largest database of home design ideas on the net, with over 200,000 high resolution photos. Watch out tho it can show TRADE PRICES in many places..not great for your client to see. **Free**
2. AutoCAD WS: View, edit, and share your DWG™ files with anyone, anywhere. AutoCAD WS mobile app enables you to work with AutoCAD® drawings directly: Free
3.  iHome HD: Many free interior pictures. Cost: Free but a more extensive version is available at an additional cost.
4. Home Interior Ideas HD: the best app in AppStore for discovering home interior designs and decorating ideas. $1.99
5. Interior 2011 – Sweet Home (HD): find your perfect House Design. With Interior 2012 you can enjoy a wide variety of manufacturers in the area of Home Decoration and Interior Design. $0.99
6. Dream home HD:  integrate the latest interior design trends into your home.  Explore the immense variety of decor solutions from professional designers for your entire home, browse through hundreds of real photos and navigate through the extensive menu of colors, styles and room types. From tiny efficient accents to the most sophisticated interiors, Dream Home HD contains a top class collection of ideas for the home of your dream. $4.99
7. Remodelista: Get your daily deco fix with the new Home Design App from Remodelista, the online sourcebook: $2.99
8. Phaidon Design Classics: comprehensive collection of general design classics including interiors: $19.99
9. Sensopia : Create visual instant floor plans – I like it anyway!
10. Moodboard: Creates a Moodboard! Does what it says. $15.

Secret Bit

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Target Markets For Interior Designers

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1. SktechBook Pro: Capture design ideas no matter where you are. A professional-grade paint and drawing application: $4.99
2. Color Wheel: An OK but basic application that allows you to experiment with different colour schemes: $0.99
3. Penultimate: Can’t be bothered to use a pen and paper but want that same look…this is the one. It can also do graph/lined paper…cool $1.99
4. Peppermint, NCS Color: If you frequently work with color and need an incredibly accurate tool for making choices or purchases, the Peppermint app is one for you: $3.99
5. Quill: is a vector art drawing program, a bit limited but OK: $0.99
6. Freeform: is a vector drawing tool for your iPad perhaps worth a bit of research before spending: $9.99
7. Adobe Ideas: Digital sketchbook that you will probably get if you already use Adobe stuff. Reports of quite a few bugs in this app tho: $5.99
8. Brushes: A painting app for experimentation and drawing, a snip at $7.99 but is it as good as the INSPIRE app?
9. PhotoPad: Change the look of a photo for some FREE inspiration.

Here are some really great ones starting with DROPBOX (Free) and some other great BUT expensive ones.

1. Dropbox: A FREE MUST-HAVE app and the first that I installed. An iPAD is essentially a glorified phone rather than a simplified MAC/PC. One of the downsides is that you can’t always get files to and from the iPAD so easily. DROPBOX lets you do this and backs them up for free on the net. Similar in some ways to iCLOUD probably best to use if you have PCs as well. $Free
2. Evernote: Take notes, save clips, cost: Free
3. Simplenote: Take notes, save clips, cost: Free
4. OmniFocus: Expensive at $39.99 Task management, scheduling and projects.
5. MindNode: Mind Mapping …like but shame it’s not free! $5.99
6. Things: Scheduling, tasks and assignments, OUCH $19.99
7. Task Cards: Task management and organisation all for: $2.99
8. Week Calendar: View your week and you can integrate with project phases and scheduling all at $1.99

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