Carlos Reyes Design & Illustration

Two Januaries ago I put my Cintiq in storage, purchased an iPad Pro, and never looked back- I’ve worked on it full-time ever since! I’ve been meaning to write an digestible review of my experiences, since I get a lot of questions about my setup. Here’s a swing at that! First off: I bought my iPad Pro after testing it out twice at the Apple store. I definitely recommend that- I only knew I could make it work when I got a feel for it. The responsiveness of the stylus, a basic attempt to understand Procreate, and a little chat with the salespeople at the shop sold me on it. My current set up: I use a 512 gig 12” iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. I love the large screen area (the 10” is totally viable, it’s down to preference in this case). I started with 32gigs, but found cloud storage too clumsy & craved more local space (layered art files are huge). I use the basic Apple brand protective case/cover and I splurged for a MacCase Flight Jacket bag made for the Pro. Here’s why: the first night with an unprotected iPad on my nightstand, I knocked it to the floor & it shattered. Walking in a day after to speak with the same sales reps with the wreckage, was quite the experience. Apple was lovely & they replaced it, but I’ve been paranoid about iPad safety since. I chose the Flight Jacket (padded, a snug fit, with a natty pencil holder) to keep it safe & still stylish. I also use an elastic strap for the case made by GearCase that you can pick up on Amazon and Etsy as an additional way to keep track of my stylus.

IPad Cons: there are a few features I still miss from Photoshop (Liquify, Typesetting). The feel of the Pencil on glass can take some getting used to (a few friends use screen protectors that change the texture, I myself keep it clear since I’ve gotten used to the feel). Cloud storage is quite clunky, transferring large files over wifi is not a great experience yet. 

Cafe Perko

Location: 753 Rue Villeray, Montréal

Metro Station: Jean Talon

Hello lovely people!!! I have finished finals and am currently in my summer semester (already, I know). I’ve been in the process of also applying to almost a 100 internship positions for Fall 2017 as a “software engineer intern”. It’s been hard. It’s been tiring. Exciting, but energy sucking. What could possibly help me in these stressful times? What could possibly fuel me up to be motivated and alert in my job application process? 

You guessed it. Coffee.

I came here last weekend and it was a true refresher. My cousin drove us in this lovely spot in Villeray since she wanted to work on her writing (she’s amazing by the way, you should check out her poetry on her account @doekent ). 

In contrast to other coffee shops in Montreal, I hadn’t heard of Perko too much. I had stumbled upon it on a few posts on Instagram but hadn’t noticed any hype. So why did we go? By the time she picked me up it was around 5 and almost all coffee shops close early - except Perko, which closed at 9. So we went for it. And I’m VERY glad we did. 

This is how you discover hidden gems. And it is the best feeling. Stepping inside this relatively big coffee shop, I immediately noticed the one table that was open. The place was packed. We bolted for the one table. The picture I took and posted above is from right before their closing time and does not represent the amount of people that fills the cafe on their regular times.

The space was gorgeously decorated and felt almost home-like. There were cute signs and sayings all over the place. The baristas were very nice too. 

I ordered a latte (obviously) and my cousin ordered a chai latte. Both were very delicious and my latte definitely fuelled me up and motivated me to continue writing my cover letters. 

One thing I noticed was that there were a lot of kids and babies around. Some really loud… I wondered why there were so many babies in this one coffee shop. I got my answer when I saw that Perko had a little section for kids where they put many baby toys and couches for parents to relax on. I found it very cute and inviting for families. There were also changing tables in the bathrooms. 

Another cool aspect about Perko is that it’s a student friendly coffee shop. There are many plugs, AMAZING wifi, a room you can rent (I think for 10$/hour) to study in… and they even have a PRINTER. Isn’t that unusually cool? And very nice of them? You can donate some money if you do print but they’ve made it completely free which is… amazing. And generous. 

Cafe Perko

Location: 753 Rue Villeray, Montréal

Metro Station: Jean Talon

Hello lovely people!!! I have finished finals and am currently in my summer semester (already, I know). I’ve been in the process of also applying to almost a 100 internship positions for Fall 2017 as a “software engineer intern”. It’s been hard. It’s been tiring. Exciting, but energy sucking. What could possibly help me in these stressful times? What could possibly fuel me up to be motivated and alert in my job application process? 

You guessed it. Coffee.

I came here last weekend and it was a true refresher. My cousin drove us in this lovely spot in Villeray since she wanted to work on her writing (she’s amazing by the way, you should check out her poetry on her account @doekent ). 

In contrast to other coffee shops in Montreal, I hadn’t heard of Perko too much. I had stumbled upon it on a few posts on Instagram but hadn’t noticed any hype. So why did we go? By the time she picked me up it was around 5 and almost all coffee shops close early - except Perko, which closed at 9. So we went for it. And I’m VERY glad we did. 

This is how you discover hidden gems. And it is the best feeling. Stepping inside this relatively big coffee shop, I immediately noticed the one table that was open. The place was packed. We bolted for the one table. The picture I took and posted above is from right before their closing time and does not represent the amount of people that fills the cafe on their regular times.

The space was gorgeously decorated and felt almost home-like. There were cute signs and sayings all over the place. The baristas were very nice too. 

I ordered a latte (obviously) and my cousin ordered a chai latte. Both were very delicious and my latte definitely fuelled me up and motivated me to continue writing my cover letters. 

One thing I noticed was that there were a lot of kids and babies around. Some really loud… I wondered why there were so many babies in this one coffee shop. I got my answer when I saw that Perko had a little section for kids where they put many baby toys and couches for parents to relax on. I found it very cute and inviting for families. There were also changing tables in the bathrooms. 

Another cool aspect about Perko is that it’s a student friendly coffee shop. There are many plugs, AMAZING wifi, a room you can rent (I think for 10$/hour) to study in… and they even have a PRINTER. Isn’t that unusually cool? And very nice of them? You can donate some money if you do print but they’ve made it completely free which is… amazing. And generous. 

Got to love The Handlebar for the coffee they provide me religiously to get me through work every night!