Ditto Press and Jiro Bevis on creative potential of Microsoft Pro 3 Tablet

Cutting-edge technology is a tool that can open up fantastic creative opportunities; as proved by David Hockney’s brilliant tablet paintings at his major Royal Academy show last year. Now the likes of PAN Studio, Ditto Press and Studio Swine are being given the chance to create exciting new work with Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 tablet, and the creatives are relishing pushing the boundaries of their practices.

Documented by a dedicated digital hub found on The Huffington Post, the #SurfaceCreate project sees subculture publishers Ditto Press, compiling swatches that detail some of the myriad print processes they use. These will be designed by long-time collaborator, acclaimed illustrator Jiro Bevis and utilise the devices’ heavy-weight digital design applications to make a colourful, tangible, paper product.

Ditto Press co-founder Ben Freeman believes it’s these sort of tools that have helped the primarily risographic studio’s constant reinvention of the zine. He thinks it’s by embracing the latest technologies that zine culture has been able to flourish down the decades. “Whenever we get our hands on any bit of machinery we try to produce interesting effects with it,” he said.

The brief for this project was simple enough – “to do something you’ve always wanted to do” – and so Ditto called in illustrator Jiro Bevis to collaborate on a visual that represents each of the printing processes Ditto uses. Watch the video above and you can follow this process and see the final creation through the #SurfaceCreate hub hosted on The Huffington Post site.

Follow these creatives on their journey of ideation, creation, and execution – celebrating both the process and the final project output. The #SurfaceCreate hub on The Huffington Post will be home to editorial, film and photographic content as well as how-to-guides from the creatives themselves. Learn more by visiting this site.