Most artists will agree with my point of view that ‘digital’ is NEVER the same as ‘physical’. We use styluses because they’re the closest things to pencils and crayons, and sketching with your finger or mashing buttons on a screen doesn’t feel anywhere as intuitive as actually working with real materials and media. That being said, artists embrace apps like Procreate because of its power, not because they love touchscreens. To that end, Alessandra Mastronicola’s ProKey becomes that piece of tacticle hardware that the Procreate software needs.
Designed with a simple button and knob interface and a visual DNA that sort of matches most MacBooks, the ProKey fits perfectly beside any iPad, complementing the Apple Pencil wonderfully.
Designer: Alessandra Mastronicola
A lot of Procreate’s go-to features can be accessed via simple gestures – but for the rest, ProKey is your best friend. It doesn’t waste time with functions like undo/redo or zoom-in/zoom-out/resize. Instead, it gives you important functions like quickly toggling between pencil and eraser (just in case the double-tap on the Apple Pencil doesn’t work as smoothly as you want). You can play with the canvas, blend modes, adjust levels/contrast/brightness, instantly copy/paste, flip the canvas, or open layers without disrupting your flow.
There are 12 keys on the ProKey macro-pad, but the show-stealer is a rotary knob that lets you bind its function to a variety of features, like controlling brush size, opacity, or even toggling through a color wheel. All of this means you can keep sketching with your dominant hand, while controlling away with the other hand, without really stopping because your iPad doesn’t have to differentiate between multiple touch inputs. Sketching happens on the screen, controls happen on the macro-pad.
The ProKey, although conceptual, is rather gorgeously designed. The machined aluminum body, chiclet keys, and the scissor switches on the inside make it a perfect companion to any Apple gadget. It comes with a kickstand to make access easier, and there’s even a power button on top that I assume automatically opens up Procreate once you hit it, so you can get to work immediately without cycling through app drawers. Finally, a USB-C port lets you connect your ProKey to the iPad of your choice. Given the conceptual nature, it’s difficult to assume whether the ProKey is wireless with a built-in battery, or a wired peripheral that remains tethered to your iPad.
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