Gonzague Dambricourt
1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?
Gonzague: My name is Gonzague Dambricourt and I live in Paris, France.
2.) What do you do for a living, what pays the bills? And what is the thing you do when you are not doing the thing that pays the bills?
Gonzague: I run my own company which does consulting, training, and development. When I am not doing that I blog, listen to music, go out, take pictures and drive cars.
3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?
Gonzague: 70% of my activity is done while sitting behind this desk.
4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?
Gonzague: 10 am to…late PM ;-)
5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?
Gonzague: Hmmm…..I’d say 50% work 50% leisure.
6.) What are the essentials that can be found on your desk more times than not? How about those items just out of reach or out of sight? If it’s not on top of your desk what are the things you most often grab out of a top draw or cabinet?
Gonzague: On the desk you will typically find CDs, two Blackberry smartphones, one or two cameras, and papers and letters I still have to sort out. Everything else is in a cabinet or just behind me.
7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?
Gonzague: I hate soft drinks so you’ll pretty much find me drinking orange juice, water, and any other fruit juices I can find. I love Oreos, popcorn, fruits, and anything related to breakfast (milk, cereals, etc..). All of this makes me think I should be more careful ‘bout what I eat :-P
8.) Do you have any reasoning or anecdotes that lend some insight into why your desk is setup the way it is, or the thinking behind certain item(s)? How about the things around your desks? Decoration, wall art, figurines, statues, etc? Any particular reason behind those?
Gonzague: Hmmm…….Well my desk has evolved quite a bit over the last few years, but I’ve been using at least two screens for the past four years. The items that are making it change are the amount of CDs I have to listen to, little souvenirs I bring back from my trips, and the new gadgets that usually sit under the screens (Kindle, Kodak Zi8, Blackberry, etc…). Above my screens I have some personal pictures and a lot of postcards which constantly remind me of my friends, family, and travel. I also have a small statue from Vietnam.
9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.
Gonzague: A lot. I work in various fields ranging from automotive to music and PR. But it’s not only the work itself that influences the desk setup, it’s also the mood required to work. And for that I enjoy having mutiple wide screen displays (I use 3) and decent speakers to play some music.
10.) Are you a Mac or are you a PC? What machine(s) are setup and used at your desk? If you are a little bit of both tell us why. How about any other tech gear that can be found at your desk or in your home?
Gonzague: I love Mac OS X for its very clever interface and polished system. I use Windows only when I have to (when I run into incompatible drivers or software on the Mac platform) and it’s not such a pain in the ass when I only need the web, in that instance Google Chrome is the tool of the trade! I currently use a Mac Pro, opting for a desktop setup, over my former, more portable, MacBook Pro.
I’m also using a Sony Vaio X on the move, but I’m considering getting the next generation Macbook Air whenever it released. As part of my setup I also have three NAS drives (Network Attached Storage), two modems, one of which is a fantastic Netgear router that manages a Dual WAN setup. Plus we have something like 5 computers in the house. The TV is connected to all of that and can access shared music and videos, and the printer is, of course, networked.
11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?
Gonzague: My blackberry, which definitely helps me to remain connected when I am on the move.
12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?
Gonzague: An excellent video camera. But that’s not really supposed to sit on my desk now is it?
13.) Software; what do you use more often than not. What helps you get the job done? And what do you not use, but hope one day to incorporate in your workflow?
Gonzague: I rely mainly on Safari, MailPlane, iTunes, Adium, Tweetie and for all the files/coding related aspects of my workflow; Transmit, Coda, and TextMate.
I also use a lot of online services (GMail, Remember the Milk, Google Docs and all the stuff…).
What I don’t use… hmm I guess there is a lot of software I still have to learn about ;)
14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?
Gonzague: Hehe. Well good question, not much I love my desk !
15.) Workspace Breakdown; Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint on the walls to the floor mat your chair rolls on, and list them out. Who makes your desk, how about the cabinet next to your desk, your lamp, the overhead light fixture? Anything and everything you can see in the pictures shown, give as much color and background on these items as time and memory permits.
Gonzague:
- My desk is a classic IKEA thingie, plenty wide in order to sit two 24” iiyama screens.
- On my Mac Pro there is a small 15” Dell Screen.
- The desk costs a little more than 100 euros so does my chair which is an IKEA special, the Markus.
- The small lamp on the left is… IKEA as well
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If you would like to learn more about Gonzague Dambricourt, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;
Flickr - “Gonzague Dambricourt”
If you have any questions or comments about this, or any other featured setup, or you would like to have your own setup featured here on SetupsandSpaces.com feel free to email me at FValletutti@me.com.
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