By Nicki Fitz-Gerald

Sitting in special app folders on both my iPhone and iPad is Deco Sketch by Ben Guerrette. Available on both iOS and Android, it has been one of my favorite apps for enhancing and distorting images since it first emerged in January 2012.

Twelve version updates later and Deco Sketch is twelve times better than ever. The app store description touts the app as “mobile artistry for the geometrically obsessed” and “simple enough for the mobile creator with advanced tools for the serious graphic designer.” This might explain my attraction to it, given my many years spent in the graphic design industry.

More of a distort app than a glitch app, Deco Sketch takes a new approach to painting and photo effects than other apps that I’ve tried. It’s a totally unique experience beyond pictures and filters that allows you to enhance your photos with amazing geometric effects and patterns. You do this by choosing a brush, then tapping or sliding your finger or stylus across the screen to produce beautifully rendered artworks that complement different styles of photos.

I used Deco Sketch on an iPad to create images for this tutorial guide, but the interface is pretty much the same on the iPhone, and it is beautifully intuitive.

Deco Sketch has its heart in geometry. And since geometry exists in practically everything our eyes look at, the effects that Deco Sketch produce seem to work effortlessly with all kinds of photo styles, from architecture to portraits. You can either choose to work with a photo or begin from scratch by painting shapes.