Last week saw the release of Storehouse for iPad, a visual storytelling app created by former Apple and Adobe staffers, including members of the iPhoto and Aperture teams.

The app reinforces the notion of tablets as more than just consumption devices, but as flourishing creative tools. Storehouse draws on an iPad’s internal photo library as well as offering integration with Dropbox, Flickr and Instagram, enabling a creator to craft linear narratives that lie somewhere between the high-impact photography of The Big Picture and the more recent Medium.

Interestingly, Storehouse is perhaps the first modern storytelling app that enables video footage to be incorporated as readily as still images – witness the video backgrounds in the example story Snow Drawings Transform Frozen Lakes. I always wondered how services like Cowbird could elegantly integrate video and Storehouse’s treatment is a great design pattern to emulate; curiously, sound clips as independent items are overlooked altogether.

More interestingly, Storehouse restores some of the skeumorphic design philosophies which Apple backed away from in iOS7. This doesn’t mark a return to much-mocked green felt backdrops, but brings physicality, inertia and weight to story elements such as pages and pictures, as well as gestures designed for exploring other creator’s works. Everything feels very much designed for a gestural, touch-based interface.

Storehouse hints at some possible directions for Pararchive, notably how to blend exploration and creation in one experience, but also how to integrate personal archives intuitively with creation tools.

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Update: Simon’s tried his hand at crafting a story from his Instagrams, take a look at storehouse.co/stories/55uh-imaginary-journey