Morpholio, the architect-turned-developer-run company known for its Trace app that blends augmented reality, digital hand drafting, and other architectural tools on portable devices, has brought its interior design program, Board, to desktops for the first time.
Coming on the heels of the new Mac Catalina operating system update, the desktop version of Board leverages the new MacCatalyst developer tool which allows for translating iOS apps to desktop more simply.
Board, which is intended to apply a mood-board logic to technical interior design problems, has been designed for not only professionals but to make home design easier for average consumers. That said, with Board for Mac, Morpholio hopes to “take advantage of the unique properties of the desktop environment,” says Morpholio co-founder Mark Collins in a press release from the company, “which is essential for professional work.”
The desktop app will include mood board “super tools,” such as layer control and magic wand selection and deletion, as well as a feature called “Ava,” which creates spec sheets for clients and contractors. Ava gives automatic suggestions to match color and forms, and libraries of products from larger companies like Herman Miller and Knoll and smaller designers like Eskayel. It will also include new export features and provide further compatibility with Adobe and Autodesk products (as well as Pinterest).
In addition, while Board for mobile already has AR features that allow for furniture to be placed in space at scale, the desktop version will allow for VR integration. “A typical furniture catalog would rely on still images,” says Morpholio co-founder Anna Kenoff, “but Board allows you experience expertly rendered models, created by the storytellers at Theia Interactive. You can view and spin around your favorite furniture pieces and experience them in every dimension. You can zoom in to stitching and materiality and feel the shade and shadows on their forms.”
Additional viewing and presentation features will be built in as well and Board will take full advantage of Catalina’s updated Dark Mode for those who prefer to use it.
“When Apple released MacCatalyst, they definitely had creative professionals in mind,” says Kenoff of the recent Apple release. “They wanted to amplify the power of mobile apps by combining them with the precision capable on a Mac. Few architects and designers work exclusively on a laptop, desktop or tablet. We hope to make our apps available wherever designers are working.”
