In the ever-evolving world of digital design, landscape architects need tools that not only offer flexibility but also adapt fluidly to the scale and complexity of their creative visions. From expansive masterplans to intricate planting details, the ability to zoom in and out—both literally and conceptually—is essential. Today’s design process demands a sketching environment that grows with your ideas, supports iterations, and integrates seamlessly with professional workflows.

Concepts is a vector-based sketching app that redefines what it means to draw digitally. More than just a sketchpad, Concepts is a creative sandbox where freehand exploration meets technical precision. It offers an infinite canvas that expands as far as your ideas take you, precision tools that bring control to even the most organic forms, and vector-based strokes that make revisions effortless. Whether you’re diagramming on-site photos, building layered overlays for presentations, or comparing multiple design schemes in a single workspace, Concepts gives landscape architects the flexibility to think visually without constraints.

With an elegant blend of art and accuracy, Concepts supports the way landscape designers truly work i.e. messy at first, refined later, and always ready to evolve.

ABOUT THE APPLICATION:

Best For: Large-scale landscape plans & flexible sketching
Platform: iOS, Windows, Android

CORE FEATURES THAT MAKE CONCEPTS AN IDEAL TOOL FOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS:

INFINITE CANVAS:

Concepts offers a truly infinite canvas, which is one of its most powerful features as the user can zoom, pan, and expand the drawing space in any direction, making it ideal for large-scale masterplans, urban design layouts, or site development diagrams. It’s perfect for starting with quick ideation and gradually layering in detail without worrying about running out of space or breaking your design across multiple files. This also allows for creating multiple design options side-by-side within the same workspace thereby making it great for presentations or collaborative feedback.

VECTOR BASED STROKES:

Unlike many sketching apps, Concepts uses vector-based drawing, meaning every stroke can be edited even after it’s drawn thereby allowing for resizing, rotating, recoloring, or adjust individual lines and shapes without any loss in quality—ideal for tweaking a planting layout, pathway curve, or grading line Vector based strokes are incredibly helpful in a professional workflow where iterations and client revisions are common. The precision of vector strokes is especially valuable for landscape architects working on scaled site drawings and diagrammatic overlays.

ADJUSTABLE LAYERS AND OPACITY CONTROL:
Concepts provides a flexible layer system, allowing you to organize different design elements like base plans, vegetation, paving, lighting, and annotations into separate layers. It also controls the opacity of each layer for trace-over effects or to highlight specific areas of a drawing. With feature like locking layers, the application prevents accidental edits—a simple but essential feature for clean workflows. This feature is particularly useful when using Concepts to trace over CAD imports or site photos and refine them into fully rendered designs.

PRECISION TOOLS AND SHAPE GUIDES:
Concepts includes precision measurement tools and smart shape recognition to enhance drafting accuracy. With features like snap to grid, angle snapping, and measuring tools allow you to draw with dimensional accuracy. Tools like circular, arc, and line guides help sketch plazas, pathways, planting beds, and curvilinear forms with control. Additionally, ruler and scale tools are helpful for maintaining proper proportions, especially when transitioning from conceptual to detailed design phases.

CUSTOM BRUSH AND PEN STYLES:
Although vector-based, Concepts lets you simulate a variety of hand-drawn media using pressure-sensitive brush styles. It mimics pencils, pens, markers, or charcoal allowing customization in terms of width, opacity, and smoothing. Thereby allowing for expressive quality of hand sketching combined with the precision of digital design. The custom brush and pen styles are ideal for conveying landscape character, materiality, or shade/shadow effects in a more artistic yet editable way.

IMPORT/ EXPORT FLEXIBILITY:
Concepts supports a wide variety of file types including importing in PDFs, images, CAD exports (as PNGs or PDFs), and exporting in vector PDFs, high-res PNGs, SVGs, DXFs (for CAD), and PSDs (for Adobe workflows). This makes it easy to integrate Concepts into a larger workflow, whether you’re working with CAD teams, graphic designers, or printing final boards.

ANNOTATION AND DIAGRAMMING TOOLS:
The user can annotate directly over maps, drawings, or photographs, using arrows, text, and diagrams—making Concepts perfect for site analysis, design presentations, client feedback markups and overlaying zoning or circulation diagrams

BONUS FEATURE: TOUCH-BASED GESTURES FOR SPEED:
With intuitive gestures like tap-to-undo, double-finger pan, and long-press selections, Concepts is optimized for fast, fluid drawing, especially on stylus-equipped tablets.

LIMITATIONS (AND HOW TO WORK AROUND THEM):

While Concepts offers incredible flexibility and power, no tool is perfect. Here are a few limitations you might encounter—and smart ways to work around them.

STEEP LEARNING CURVE FOR NEW USERS:

Concepts packs a lot under the hood, and its minimalist interface can be confusing at first—especially if you’re coming from more traditional drawing apps.

Tip: Start with the app’s built-in tutorials and explore the Concepts YouTube channel. Customize your tool wheel and gestures early on to suit your workflow. Once you’ve got the basics down, the interface becomes second nature.

LIMITED RASTER EFFECTS:
Because it’s vector-based, Concepts doesn’t offer traditional raster effects like texture brushes, smudging, or painterly rendering.

Tip: Use Concepts for clean linework and layout, then export to Adobe Fresco, Procreate or Autodesk Sketchbook for texture-rich rendering or artistic finishes. This hybrid workflow lets you enjoy the best of both vector precision and painterly expression.

NO NATIVE CLOUD SYNC:

Concepts doesn’t automatically sync files across devices unless you manage it through a third-party cloud service.

Tip: Set up a folder in Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud and export your drawings there regularly. This ensures version control and easy access whether you’re switching from tablet to desktop or sharing with collaborators.

NOT IDEAL FOR HEAVY ANNOTATIONS OR COMPLEX TEXTS:

While Concepts allows basic text and callouts, it’s not designed for heavy typography or multi-style formatting.

Tip: Keep annotations brief within the app, then finish your presentation boards in InDesign, Illustrator, or Canva for advanced text layout and professional polish.

FEATURE DIFFERENCES ACROSS PLATFORMS:

The iOS version of Concepts tends to be more feature-rich than Android or Windows, especially when it comes to gesture control and update frequency.

Tip: If possible, work on an iPad for the most complete experience. If you’re using Windows or Android, stay updated through the Concepts blog to know when new features drop and adjust your workflow accordingly.

CONCLUSION: A DIGITAL SKETCHPAD WITHOUT BOUNDARIES

In landscape architecture, flexibility, scale, and iteration aren’t luxuries rather they’re necessities. And that’s exactly where Concepts delivers. With its infinite canvas, vector stroke control, and intuitive gesture-based interface, it empowers designers to think big, revise fast, and sketch freely.

Whether you’re diagramming storm water flow, drafting planting schemes, or creating stunning conceptual visuals, Concepts gives you room to experiment and tools to refine. It doesn’t try to replace CAD or Photoshop but it complements them beautifully, bridging the gap between rough idea and refined visual.

For landscape architects who value fluidity, scale, and control in their design process, Concepts is more than a drawing app—it’s a dynamic design environment.