MEET THE DEVELOPER
The minds behind Procreate
Procreate
Sketch. Paint. Create.
When global hotbeds of app development are discussed, Tasmania is not likely to come up. And yet this is the home to Savage Interactive, the developers of the hugely popular creative app Procreate.
Adopted by artists and illustrators across the globe, Procreate is the tool of choice for many of Instagram’s most followed artists. It was even used by artist Kyle Lambert to draw the promotional poster for Stranger Things.
But it all began in Hobart, where Savage Interactive was founded by James Cuda and his wife Alanna.
When he first arrived in Tasmania, Cuda spent six months exploring and painting the island's unspoilt wilderness before becoming a freelance website designer.
Later, a chance encounter with the self-taught developer Lloyd Bottomley created a great alliance.
“Finding Lloyd was like a weight off my shoulders,” Cuda says. “We did a few freelance jobs together, and I was like, wow, this guy can really code. I could continue with the design and not have to freak out about the whole coding thing anymore.”
The launch of the iPad in 2010 presented an opportunity for them to take on a totally new challenge. Cuda combined his creative and entrepreneurial talents with Bottomley's coding skills to create Procreate for the iPad.
After more than 100 design reviews and three complete rebuilds, the small team rolled-up projects from the web development business and with AU$20,000, set about launching Procreate.
For Cuda, this leap of faith was a logical decision: “I grew up quite poor... so for me, risking everything was a very natural thing, because I thought ‘Well if it doesn’t pay off, hey, I’ve been here before and I’ll be fine’.”
“I’ve always had this idea that whatever life is, it has to have some meaning, and for me personally, having the ability to make someone’s life a little bit better, is huge,” he explains.
“I’ve also had a fiercely independent streak in me since I was a young boy,” he adds. “So I think that my ability to not only take the risk but to enjoy the risk, coupled with a personality that loves to be completely free and independent, means I didn’t have a choice, really. I felt like I needed to do it.”
Thankfully, when Procreate was launched in March 2011, the gamble did pay off. Greeted with immediate interest from designers and artists, the app has gone from strength to strength through regular iterations and innovations, including synchronisation with the Apple Pencil.
With Procreate, Cuda has developed a new medium for art: “Procreate gives you all these ‘super powers’ that you can’t get with traditional media,” he says, “it challenges what art is. That’s the power of the digital medium.”
Now with 17 employees, the studio is housed in an inconspicuous building in North Hobart, the hipster part of town, with trendy coffee shops galore.
Cuda feels strongly about keeping the studio here, wholly owned and operated. He’s confident that if the app is good enough, the financials will look after themselves. He’s not in it for the money after all; this is art.
Continuing to fulfil his aim of creating a meaningful, useful tool to help people explore their creativity, Procreate Pocket – an optimised version of Savage’s iPhone app – was recently re-released.
From his small studio at the end of the earth, Cuda’s laser focus on Procreate continues to be a gift to artists the world over.