If you want to impress clients with your design skill, you can’t just do so with your words. You can’t talk your way into a deal. Of course, portfolio matters. That can impress prospective clients and investors. So, yes, you may show off your previous design works and hope that they will like it. However, your design might be so incongruent with what they are actually looking for.

This is why you should have a mockup to enrich your professional presentation. The mockup will not just show off your design skills, it will also showcase your understanding of the brand you are designing for. Mockup is the closest thing to the real digital product without having to spend so much. It is a prototype that will show how the real output will look like when commissioned. Here are some of the free mockups available online through UX Planet. The downloadable mockups are available in Sketch and PSD.

The iPad is one of the best ways to show off design especially when you are trying to create a mobile application. The iPad is the best middle ground between the iPhone with its small screen and the MacBook or iMac with its large screen. So to showcase your app, the iPad mockup will definitely do your work justice. Here are some tips that will help you create the best iPad mockup in order to sway a client to your digital product.

1. Know your audience

There are so many mockup templates in the internet. You can even get a free PSD mockup. But it is not enough that you have so many options. You actually need to create an iPad mockup that will convey the message that the product or brand wants to share. Choosing the wrong vector mockup could mess up the entire story.

One thing about the iPad, whether it is the iPad Pro, iPad Air or iPad Mini, high-resolution photos are expected. If you are unsure which iPad you prefer, here is a review from The Guardian on which one is better: iPad Air or iPad Pro 11? So it is perfect for photo-based designs. Even if you are not creating a photo-based mockup, it will still need at least an image or two or some videos. Again, it goes back to knowing your audience. How are you going to show off the iPad Pro PSD mockup while also telling the story of the digital product?

As soon as you know which free iPad mockup to use, then you can start creating your presentation.

1. Show off shapes and layers

Again, you have to go back to knowing what mockup best suits your digital product. But when you can, show off shapes and layers in your design. The best thing about using a PSD file in the mockup is that editing will not hurt the original layer. So all the things that you touch up or edit in the outer layers will not change the original.

Photoshop also allows the creator a variety of options in order to create basic shapes. These shapes can also be resized so that they could fit in the mockup in the best way possible. This is important because some actual websites actually still reflect the original shapes of various web objects.

2. Use Smart Objects

Smart Objects really work well with mockups. These can be easily resized without hurting the image. The pixels from these kinds of objects are easier to edit, too. They also enable smart filters. As the name suggests, it is definitely better than regular filters just as smartphones are infinitely preferable than regular phones. When it comes to smart filters, effects are made on the objects and will not affect the pixels. So the item will not be distorted.

3. Make sure font is web-safe

Don’t waste your energy creating your own fonts or making sure you have stylized fonts. The priority should actually be on whether the font is compatible with CSS/HTML. It doesn’t matter if you have the best website, you still want it to be found in the Google search engine. To be safe, you can check out Google fonts to find the best for your digital product. Besides, Google is the largest source of fonts that can be considered web-safe, so your options will not be limited.

4. Be smart with images

Images are very important in any digital product. If you are creating a website design, then images are your centrepieces. It is in the image that you get to showcase the product or service. In this case, you should only use photos that will make your product or service look good without lying to the public. You should not overwhelm the audience with your photos, though. That’s why you should be smart with how images are used.

Know some of the best kinds of iPad mockup to use

There are so many iPad mockups out there—anything from those that showcase iPad Airs or the Minis and Pros for particularly technical and professional audience. One of the more popular mockups is the iPad and iPhones mockup. This is generally when design is displayed on the iPhone and iPad, which are shown side by side. The significance here is that the design will be seen through the screen of the iPhone and the screen of the iPad. So it will demonstrate how the digital product will look on a small screen and on a slightly larger screen.

The devices mockup showcases more than just two devices—it actually hosts all the Apple devices: iMac, MacBook, iPad and iPhone. In some cases, the Apple watch is also included in the mix. The perspective mockup, on the other hand, shows off the different perspectives of the digital product: whether it is vertical rendering or the horizontal one. The significance here is that the clients will know which perspective will work better for their audience.

Creating mockups may seem easy because of the availability of free templates. However, there are right mockups for certain kinds of products. So know which one will work best and you can have the best professional presentation that could bring in the dough.