Setups & Spaces

As far as desk accessories go, this is as close to a must-have...

stationa — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 11:52:00 -0500

As far as desk accessories go, this is as close to a must-have as you can get if you are a devout Apple fan. Sadly I don’t believe it is for sale to the general public. If you know more about the picture above, specifically who the lucky SOB who has a glowing Apple logo on his desk is, and how he got it, please share with the rest of us in the comments section.

- Frank Valletutti @vtti)

**UPDATE** - Reader “Macguruireland” points to this eBay auction from eBay seller SS-Design-Shop. So I stand corrected, it IS available for sale. And I think it goes without saying that you should buy it.

Melvin Chua

stationa — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:41:00 -0500

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Melvin: My name is Melvin and I live in a small semi-rural community in North Carolina. I was born, and received all my pre-baccalaureate education, in Singapore. I went to college in Tempe, Arizona, moved to Florida to begin my career, and eventually ended up here in North Carolina.

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?

Melvin: I am an aerospace engineer and work as a senior test engineer for aircraft tires. I work full-time, from 8 to 5, which leaves me nights and weekends to pursue my other interests and hobbies, fortunately.

When I am not at work, I enjoy movies, music, reading, astronomy, working on my Volvos, photography, radio-controlled (RC) cars and chasing the latest consumer electronics. But my first love has always been computers and anything computer related.

I was always fascinated by computers, but it was my freshman year in college when I suddenly developed an almost fanatical obsession with them. The media in the early 1990’s was saturated with “CGI-enhanced” offerings featuring realistic computer renderings and special effects, which fed my desire to learn more about what these amazing machines could do. I bought my first computer, a Macintosh IIci with a Motorola 68030 processor in October of 1992 for college work, but secretly wished that I could use this machine to crunch numbers like a CRAY supercomputer, or perhaps churn out a CGI-laden Hollywood blockbuster hit or two. At one point I had even considered building my own Beowulf cluster.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Melvin: I do absolutely no professional work in this workspace; it is strictly a playroom for the geek in me.

This home office was designed specifically to be the “mission control center” of my house, a room where I could consolidate all my computing hardware into one organized space. Some people build a workshop in the garage, a high-end home theater or a gourmet kitchen - I have a server room. Ethernet jacks in the house terminate directly into this room, not to a patch panel inside a closet, like most others. With this room, the rest of my home can remain computer free. Two servers are constantly powered on to provide services for the network. They are hot and noisy, so it is nice to be able to isolate them from the rest of my living spaces.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Melvin: I am usually in this room at least two hours every weeknight and almost all day on weekends if I have no other pressing commitments. This room gets the most use out of all the rooms in my house.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Melvin: I consider everything I do in this room to be for pleasure, and “work” only to maintain the systems. I really enjoy spending time in this room as it was created with my unique requirements in mind. The little “work” I do comprises mainly of applying system updates and data housekeeping. This is the room that I actually come to relax in.

I do not consider myself creative or do any creative work here. My systems are merely instruments to keep my digital life organized, not as vehicles for creative endeavors. I do, on occasion make a home movie or two, but that hardly qualifies.

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?

Melvin: My iPhone, a beverage and handwritten notes containing assorted information. Occasional items are stored away in receptacles on my shelves.

I have a drawer full of 80pin LVD drives which I have acquired over the years as spares for the IBM Netfinity (they are becoming increasingly rare) and several drawers full of computer parts. I find writing electronic notes to myself on the computer quite unnatural, so I use a archaic system … post-it notes. I have four holders full of pens and a stack of post-it notes on the first shelf and within reach when I need to jot something down. Then use the Lexan panel on the side of a computer as a post-it wall.

Items out of sight but in the room…

A Macintosh Powerbook G4 (1st generation Titanium 500MHz, 2001 vintage) running Debian Linux with a fairly recent solid state hard drive upgrade.
A HP Netbook Mini 1000 running Ubuntu Linux
iPad WiFi 64GB
PowerPC 9600 with OS9.1
PowerPC 8600 with OS9.1
Yosemite B&W G3 with Debian Linux
MDD dual 1GHz G4 with Ubuntu Linux
Yikes 450MHz G4 with OSX
HP Laserjet 2300 with wireless print server
20” Apple Cinema Display
Three Tamiya radio controlled car displayed on bookcase.
Sony PSP
TrendNet 16-port switch
Apple Airport Extreme
6 APC Backup UPS’s

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Melvin: I keep a cup of water or juice nearby. I get thirsty quite a lot.

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?

Melvin: My setup is what I categorize as “utilitarian”. Contemporary décor is beautiful, but difficult to implement properly in a small room with so much computer hardware. The room has to remain functional but yet retain a hint of the contemporary spirit. Cable management is another problem as cable clutter is unavoidable. The conundrum of where to place all the computer displays, CPU enclosures and battery backups but yet keeping it visually appealing had me looking at other people’s workspaces on Flickr for inspiration.

I wanted a very long bench but found this modular desk and printer stand better suited to the smaller dimensions of this room. The vanity panel served another purpose, to keep all the unsightly cables off the floor and out of sight. Even cable runs from one end of the desk to the other can easily be hidden, but yet remain fully accessible.

I bought 6 shelves with concealed mounting brackets (IKEA - LACK series) to add visual interest and storage to the bare walls. LED spots could then be secured to the top shelves to illuminate the dim workspace underneath. These new lights also highlight a few whimsical items on the shelves and serve as facial lighting during my Skype video conferencing sessions at night.

Servers and seldom used workstations are grouped to the left while frequently used computers are made more accessible by positioning them closer to the center of the desk.

I have kept the walls stark white and prefer to use furniture and artwork to accent my spaces. It was almost too tempting to choose black, stainless steel and glass for this room, which I find too pedestrian. I prefer warmer colors and rich earth tones which will contrast nicely with the cold steel cases and black plastic.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

Melvin: I like to multitask so it helps if I can comfortably reach several workstations from my chair. I also do not discard obsolete computer hardware but appropriate them for other purposes. All of the older Macintoshes in the room have Linux installed and kept as spare servers for my network. They were my main workstations at some point in the distant past.

I am an engineer, so I have probably seen quite a few impressive labs and control rooms over the years. I must have said to myself at one time or another, “Wow, I want a room like that when I grow up!” I may have subconsciously modeled this room after the control room in Jurassic Park too.

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?

Melvin: I am both a Mac and a PC, and a Linux user on both of these platforms. Each OS has distinct advantages over the other. I have an iMac with OSX, a home-built PC running Ubuntu 64-bit Linux, another home-built WinXP gaming PC, a Macintosh G4 server with OSX, a IBM with WinXP and two IBM RAID servers with Ubuntu Linux.

When friends visit for the first time, the first tech gear that catches their eye as they step into the house are a pair of Magnepans. They are 4-feet tall, 1-inch thin, magnetic-planar speakers. The other tech gadgetry worthy of mention are my Bang & Olufsen stereo hanging on my bedroom wall, a Roland digital piano and an 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Melvin: I cannot live without my iPhone 4. I keep track of my personal finances and the maintenance schedule for both my cars on it.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Melvin: I have a Thermaltake Level 10 enclosure in storage. There simply isn’t enough room for this large computer tower.

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?

Melvin: The software that I use most often, embarrassingly is, iTunes. It runs continuously all day, everyday on my aging dual G4 server. This is because I have two Soundbridges and an Apple TV that relies on iTunes to stream music from. I eagerly await the day when a Linux port becomes available.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Melvin: I would add more registers for air conditioning. The computers can overwhelm the HVAC system in the summer months.

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Melvin:

IBM Netfinity 5600 – Hardware RAID5, six hot-swappable 80pin SCSI3 LVD drives. Three hot-swappable power supplies, dual processor PIII at 800MHz. Used as a backup for the server below. Ubuntu Linux version 10.04, server edition.
IBM Intellistation Z-Pro – Hardware RAID5, six 68pin SCSI3 LVD drives, dual processor PIII 933MHz. Network storage for the netbooks. Ubuntu Linux version 10.04, server edition.
IBM xSeries205 – WinXP. Used for unpacking zip archives and running windows executables. Unfortunately we live in a Windows centric world. My Sony Blu-ray player’s firmware updates come as .exe files. Volvo diagnostic programs are also windows only.
Thermaltake XaserII – Non-networked. Home-built WinXP gaming machine.
Macintosh G4 (Digital Audio) – Network file server and iTunes music server for two Rokulabs Soundbridges and an AppleTV.
RaidMax Smilodon – Home-built 64-bit Ubuntu box. Used to surf the internet and online banking. This unit is used exclusively when online security is paramount.
iMac 20” – Digital content storage/creation (ebooks, music, videos and photos). Also desktop companion to my iPad and iPhone. Necessary when iOS firmware updates become available. Personal data management with email, contacts and calendar applications. Video conferencing platform with Skype.

Yamaha 2-way bass reflex speakers. Poly cone woofer and aluminum dome tweeter.
Oregon Scientific MSN SPOT-enabled weather station. Model WMS801. Receives weather data through radio station antennas.
The Station Agent movie poster, autographed by the director.
Sundry AppleTV, iPad and iPod packages.
My engineering and MBA degrees above the iMac
JBL Control SB-1 passive subwoofer
Onkyo R-805X integrated amplifier and C-707CHX 3 CD changer
Argonath statuettes from the LOTR DVD special edition
Lacie external firewire hard drive. Time machine backup drive.
Two IBM Thinkvision 17” displays.
Two Samsung 19” widescreen displays
Apple cinema 17” cinema display.
Apple BT keyboard, Magic Mouse and Trackpad.

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If you would like to learn more about Melvin Chua, his workspace, or his work, you can find him by clicking the links below;

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.

Rhiannon Floyd

stationa — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:06:39 -0500

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Rhiannon: My name is Rhiannon Floyd and I live in Perth, Western Australia.

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?

Rhiannon: I’m currently a student, though I do take the occasional freelance web development job, which I did full-time until recently. I’m also an aspiring writer, so when I’m not studying or working, I’m usually tapping away at my keyboard or have my nose buried in a book. I’m a music nerd (I listen to music a lot, and play drums and percussion), enjoy photography (just getting started in street photography), play video games, and have a thing for science fiction TV shows.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Rhiannon: It’s my home setup and it gets used for study, work and play, so almost everything I do happens right here.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Rhiannon: I spend entirely too much time at my desk—often from morning until evening—which is something I hope to change in 2011. Switching to a portable Mac and getting an iPad have both helped as they allow me to get away from the desk and continue to study/work/play within a different atmosphere. As much as I love my desk, I think it’s important to get away from it now and then and also regularly spend time away from the screen.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Rhiannon: It’s always been about 50/50. I’m at the desk for any work or study that I do, but I also use this setup for my creative writing and photography pursuits.

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?

Rhiannon: First and foremost is my 13-inch MacBook Pro. It’s where everything happens and I wouldn’t have much of a setup without it. On top of my desk are my headphones of choice (currently the Audio-Technica AD700), though for most of the day they’re on my ears instead. Within grabbing distance are my Moleskine notebooks, Fisher Space Pen, camera, iPad and the dead-tree-book I’m currently reading. Otherwise, I like to keep a pretty tidy desk. Anything that’s not meant to be on there gets put away.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Rhiannon: I try not to eat at my desk because crumbs are evil, but you’ll often find a glass of water or a cup of tea on the desk somewhere. I’m a bit of a tea nerd. It’s good stuff.

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?

Rhiannon: My desk setup has gone through many different changes over the years. Lately, I’ve been trying to simplify everything and lead a more minimalist lifestyle, which is working out pretty well. My current desk has a reasonably small footprint (necessary for space saving) but can hold a fair amount of a gear. I’ve always held the opinion that a bigger desk means more potential for clutter, so I like to keep things simple and only have and use what I need.

I used to own a 24-inch iMac which I recently replaced with a 13-inch MacBook Pro. This allows me to have three separate devices at my desk (Mac, PC, Xbox), all connected to a single external display. Having a portable Mac also lets me get away from the desk when I need to.

As for decorations and what-not, I have a few too many movie and video game figures and posters, but I’m a huge science fiction geek and like to be surrounded by the stuff that inspires me. Some of my favourites include my Terminator 2 figures, a 20-inch Alien figure on the top shelf of my desk, and a couple of signed Mass Effect lithographs on my wall.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

Rhiannon: I’ve always tried to make my setup as efficient as possible for the tasks that I need to accomplish. Over time, my desk setup changed from strictly a place of work to a place of comfort and solitude, where I can work on my creative ideas and also spend time relaxing, listening to music, watching TV shows and gaming. I find it pretty fascinating that as my own personal goals and interests have changed, so has the look and functionality of my desk setup. I’ve been documenting this on Flickr since 2007.

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?

Rhiannon: I’ve been using a Mac every day since 2004 and wouldn’t change that for the world. That said, I’ve also been using and building Windows based PCs since my early teens, so I’m quite familiar with both. But these days the PC (which is very stealthily placed on the left of my chair where you can hardly see it) is used only for gaming and playing Blu-ray movies, and gets switched on just a few times a week. The MacBook, by comparison, is used for everything else and rarely gets shut down.

All of the other tech gear I use on a regular basis includes:

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (2.4GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD)
Custom built PC (I won’t embarrass myself by mentioning the specs, needless to say it’s old and will soon be replaced, though it’s all housed inside a very pretty Gigabyte 3D Aurora chassis)
BenQ G2420HD 24-inch LCD display
A custom Zhaolu D2.5 DAC and headphone amp
Audio-Technica AD700 headphones
Audioengine 2 Speakers
Apple Airport Extreme
A couple of Western Digital hard drives for storage and backup
iPad Wi-Fi 16GB
iPhone 4 16GB
Xbox 360
Nintendo DSi
Panasonic Lumix GF1 Micro Four Thirds camera with Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens

In a setup all of its own is a Samsung 32-inch LCD TV, PS3, Wii and Apple TV.

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Rhiannon: I’ll give the most cliché answer and say my iPhone. It might as well be permanently attached to my body. It has become this all-encompassing multi-purpose device used for playing music, taking photos, browsing the web, playing games, checking email, taking notes, calendar, calculator, to-do lists, shopping lists, alarms, weather reporting, and everything else. Oh, and it’s an actual phone, too. Yeah, I think I’d be pretty lost without all of that stuff always in my pocket.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Rhiannon: Right now I’d love a 27” IPS display. Since selling my iMac, I really miss a good high quality screen.

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?

Rhiannon: There’s a lot of fantastic software for the Mac, many of which I rely on day-to day. The apps I use most are Safari/Chrome (the browser battle continues, as does my indecision), iTunes and Mail. More specialized software includes Scrivener for writing, Aperture for photo organization and editing, Yojimbo and Notational Velocity for note taking, Coda for web development, Things for tasks and project organisation, and Twitter and iChat for… well, procrastinating and being sociable.

I can’t think of any apps that I don’t currently use but want to. As with hardware, I like to use just the essential apps to get the job done. I’m often on the hunt for the best, most efficient piece of software for a particular task, and when I find it I tend to use it for many years.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Rhiannon: The cable spaghetti beneath my desk. It belongs in a horror movie. I really need to look for a more permanent solution for cable management. A new chair would be nice, too. Mine’s currently being held together with duct tape. No kidding.

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Rhiannon: Other than all the tech gear listed in #10, I also have/use:

Apple Wireless keyboard
Apple Magic Mouse
Rain Design mStand
Audioengine DS1 speaker stands
Logitech G15 gaming keyboard
An old Logitech Mx510 mouse for the PC
Apple iPod 4G with Universal Dock
Neatgear modem/router
Surge protected power board beneath the desk
Wooden bookcases within arm’s reach (for books and DVDs/Blu-rays)
Wooden dresser
A desk from IKEA named Fredrik

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If you would like to learn more about Rhiannon Floyd, her setup, or her work, you can find her at the sites listed below;

Patrick Kalyanapu (♥pk)

stationa — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:39:11 -0500

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

pk: My name is Patrick. The last name is Kalyanapu, which is apparently hard for people to spell and/or pronounce, so in recent years most people just call me “pk”. I have several online residences, including Madebypk.com (my portfolio), Introversion.com (my old blog, dating back to 2001), Slackluster.com (my brand new blog!), and Wetmilk.com (my experimental art site, launching soon).

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?

pk: I’m a freelance art director / motion graphic artist. When I’m not designing for clients, I enjoy working on personal art/design projects. Basically, as long as I am creating, I am fulfilled. I also dig soccer, ping pong, music/concerts, dance, karaoke, photography, drawing, board games, films, traveling…

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

pk: It all gets done here, except when I occasionally have to work onsite at a client’s office.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

pk: I consider my work week to be 24/7, although of course I’m not working that *entire* time. My schedule is flexible, so I basically work (on either client work or personal projects) when I’m in the mood for it…which more often than not is late at night, but really, inspiration can strike at any time so I just go with the flow.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

pk: Depends on the week. If I’m double- or triple-booked, most of my time will of course be spent juggling my client work. But if I’m not booked on a project for a particular week, I love utilizing that free time to work on my own personal creative projects.

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?

pk: The essentials on my desk: 4 monitors, MacBook, Cintiq, 2 keyboards & 2 mice (one for PC, one for Mac Pro), Muji notepad (for my daily to-do lists), pens galore, 4 speakers (two connected to my PC, two connected to my Mac Pro, two white lamps from CB2, HP printer, and CanoScan 8800F scanner. Items just out of reach or out of sight: my trusty TI-85 calculator (same one I’ve been using since college over 10 years ago — I am old school that way, still refusing to use any calculator applications on my computers or phone), supplies galore (tucked away in various cabinets), MIDI keyboard & Apple Time Capsule (sitting on the Pablo light bench adjacent to my desk), paper cutter, hard drives galore underneath my desk, and books/magazines galore either on top of my A/C unit or in my massive room dividing bookshelves.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

pk: Whole wheat challah bread, blueberries, bowls of cereal, an occasional glass of almond milk, and a continually refilled glass of water. As for why, none of that stuff requires any prep time (so I don’t really have to stop working to get something to eat) and well…it all tastes good and is (reasonably) healthy.

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?

pk: To my left I have a massive wall of inspiration where I have taped up literally hundreds (maybe thousands?) of images (graffiti, fashion, photographs, art, postcards, stickers, etc.) Even if I’m not looking at the wall directly, I feel that it just oozes creative energy which I absorb just by working in the space. I also have a bunch of cute (mostly Japanese) toys/figurines residing in my general desk area that make me happy any time I glance at them. I’m not a huge fan of chotchkies in general, but I gotta say…I love my assemblage of stuff.

As for the general layout in my apartment, I have Tracy Taylor Ward to thank for that. HGTV came and did an episode of “Freestyle” in my apartment about 5 years ago, where they basically rearranged everything more optimally. They did an excellent job, and although I’ve made several upgrades/enhancements to my apartment since then, the same core layout from the show is still in tact.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

pk: There is a continual interplay of influence between my workspace and that which I create. My design work is often clean, orderly, minimalist, yet possessing rich complexity and vibrant colors, and this aesthetic sensibility definitely carries over into the maintenance of my workspace. Although there is plenty to look at no matter where you look, I feel as though I’ve achieved a certain serenity in the space, where one would never feel *overwhelmed*. As far as I’m concerned, a workspace has to be neat & tidy in order to be functional. Clutter would ruin me.

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?

pk: I currently own 3 computers — a 13” MacBook, an 8-core Mac Pro, and a custom-made PC. I’ve hooked my 13” Cintiq monitor up to my Macbook, and I have 2 monitors connected to both my MacPro and my PC, so altogether I’m surrounded by 6 screens. My friends have referred to my workspace as NASA. I love it.

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

pk: ONE?! I guess I’ll give a generic answer of “COMPUTER”. I honestly use my Mac & PC 50/50, so I can’t even say there’s ONE computer I’d run out the door with. I guess it’s like asking which of your 2 children you love the most. We’re supposed to love them equally, right?

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

pk: Hmm…a light saber?

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?

pk: Photoshop and After Effects are my bread & butter. But I also use Illustrator and Flash…and someday I hope to start incorporating Cinema 4D.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

pk: I wish I had a little more apartment space to work with. (typical New Yorker sentiment).

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

pk:

Custom-made PC (with 2 Dell 20” widescreen monitors)
Mac Pro 8Core (with 2 monitors: Apple 23” Cinema display & Dell 20” widescreen monitor)
13” MacBook (with 13” Cintiq as 2nd monitor)
AT&T landline phone
Mr. P tape dispenser
2 white desk lamps (from CB2)
wooden @ symbol (from Crate & Barrel)
Red Swingline stapler
Red 1st Aid box
red cabinet (from IKEA)
CanoScan 8800F scanner
HP LaserJet 1020 B&W printer
O2 MIDI keyboard
Apple Time Capsule
Pablo light bench
an abundance of Muji pens & sketchbooks
Sharpie pens
silver Chilewich rug
external hard drives (named after Star Wars characters: Luke, Palpatine, Greedo, Lando, Porkins, Wedge)
Altec Lansing speakers (connected to Mac Pro)
Logitech THX speakers w/subwoofer (connected to PC)

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If you would like to learn more about pk, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

Madebypk.com (pk’s portfolio)

Slackluster.com (pk’s brand new blog)

Introversion.com (pk’s old blog, dating back to 2001)

Wetmilk.com (pk’s experimental art site, launching soon)

Twitter - pk

Steve Jobs

stationa — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:09:00 -0500

Just last week I set out on a search to locate a few photos I had recalled seeing online not too long ago. I thought they would be perfect for Setups and Spaces and the person behind the setup is someone that I not only I respect and admire but, in my opinion, his work and vision largely serves as the inspiration for more setups than only other individual in the world.

That person is Steven P. Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc.

Yesterday Apple announced that Steve would be taking a medical leave of absence for the second time in as many years. No timeframe was given as to his return.

There is a question that people of note are often asked, and that is “if you could have lunch with one person, living or dead, who would it be?”. Answers range anywhere from Jesus to John Lennon, and everywhere in between. While I am not sure I would be considered a person of note by anyone other than my friends or family, I have never hesitated when answering that question. If I could break bread with only one person, it would undoubtedly be Steve.

In that same vein, if I could choose any one person to feature on SetupsandSpaces.com it would also be Mr. Jobs. And while I am sure Steve has the neither time nor the inclination to be featured on my little site, luckily for all of us he was gracious enough to allow Time Magazine photographer Diana Walker to shoot some fantastic pictures of him in his home office in Palo Alto California.

I am featuring Steve on Setups and Spaces today not only to honor an individualwho instilled a passion for technology and the arts in so many of us, but as my personal way of taking a moment to express my hope for a swift and healthy return to a man who found what he loved.

“I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can.”

- Steve Jobs

1/17/2011

*All images above are the exclusive property of Getty Images.

Wei

stationa — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:16:24 -0500

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Wei: You can simply call me Wei (pronounced as “way”), that’s what most of my friends call me. At times I have been best known for my online publications such as Weistudio (prior to 2009), as the iTab maker, or MacCores (after 2009). I’m from Malaysia, living in the state of Selangor.

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?

Wei: I’m currently running a company that provides repair & maintenance services for Apple products (especially Macs) to the local community. When I am not doing that I eat, sleep, watch tv, get online, play games, maybe brain-storm on my next mod projects, or just spend time with family & friends. Mostly what an ordinary man will do…

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Wei: It’s hard to measure “how much”. But I would say I will easily spend between 2 to 10 hours there on a work day. If I’m not working on other people’s Macs, then I am most likely on mine doing papers, work, or just using it to browse the web.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Wei: Even though I’m now running SOHO, I try to practice a “working hours” system. Maybe I will get up around 9 am and start working at my desk until about 10 in the morning. I usually go out around 11 if I have any appointments for the day. Depending on how many appointments I have I will usually get back around 5 pm or so. I try not to stay up too late, even though I did a bit of that in the past. I shoot to hit the sack at around 11 or 12 p.m. on week days, but on occasion you will find me there as late as 3 am.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Wei: I would say 60% for work 40% for everything else, a mix of leisure, non-profit work or just plain killing time.

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?

Wei: On the desk - A Mac. Whatever I need to get work done, what I will work on, and what pay’s the bills. Off the desk - My repair tools, parts, screws, client’s Macs that are pending repair, anything that I won’t need & doesn’t look good I try to put away in drawers, shelves or under the table.

Right now I have a few older Macs in my collection. The iBook G3 clamshell and PowerBook G4 12” just to name a few.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Wei: I have never paid attention to this. But usually you won’t find any food on my desk. Just a water bottle with drinking water. Why? Maybe I hate to bring in ants, or find food stains left over on my work desk. Or perhaps just the smell of food left inside the room gets to me. Since I work at home it doesn’t hurt to just walk down stairs to get something to eat. Sometimes I will just have some biscuits while printing docs if I’m short on time.

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?

Wei: Who doesn’t want a great workspace? I’m one of those wishes to have one but I don’t have a lot of money to spend on deco and stuff. Plus I just want to get started and using it to get work done so I did not spend too much time setting up it, but rather I have spent time fine tuning the smaller details.

I have some wall stickers, customized to match my wall paint. It’s an affordable way to add some geeky/art touches to my workspace I think. I also have some Apple product posters, in particular a “Think Different” poster, mostly to remind me what I’m doing and to add some color to my work space. Not too much when you think about it. I kind of like Japanese stuff so I have some small capsule toys on my desk. Also I have two rubber duckies. I like to keep my stuff organized although one might find it “messy”.

Due to the nature of my work, I often come across great used Macs at really good prices, or some semi-faulty units that I get to fix up and keep for my own use, so I actually have few more Macs kept in storage.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

Wei: I would say quite a lot. I have it arranged it in such a way that I get to work on a Mac (repair/recovery on clients’ unit etc…) while I can check stuff online easily (my personal setup), or peep at a service manual while I am working on a particular piece of hardware.

I can say from experience it is enough space to house a 17” MacBook Pro with parts taken out. External drives are within easy reach. Tools are not far away. Power outlets are just under the desk, etc.

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?

Wei: Mac. I have a Mac Pro connected to a 30” LCD as main workstation. Then a MacBook Pro 13” for mobile. iPad for light work. My wife on the other hand has a MacBook and a converted iMac 20” that works as an external LCD display.

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Wei: Mac. Can be any model and spec. So long I have my data I can work on any Mac.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Wei: 30” Apple Cinema Display. I have a 30” Dell, but wish it is an ACD. Also maybe a brand new 2010 model Mac Pro. But I just purchased a slightly older Mac Pro at a good deal so I will hold off on a new one for now

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?

Wei:

Adobe CS3/4 - (yeah I’m a trained graphic designer, which I did before I changed jobs and switched over to be a Mac tech). Now I use it mostly to do my billing and quotations. Occasionally to update my website or make a e-newsletter.
iBank - Keeps track of my cash flow which is very useful for me since I do not have someone watching over my accounts.
Things - Mostly on my iPhone even though I have the Mac version. I use it to keep track of my appointments and pending jobs.
Mac Tracker - An offline database for all/most of the Mac/Apple products ever released, complete with specs, which is very useful for my work.
Bento - Great way to keep track of my billing history, inventories and client database.
ChronoSync - I use this to sync to my external drive to ensure all my file are up to date for on-site jobs.
Diagnostic software like Drive Genius, Disk Warrior, Techtool, Apple Diagnostic Tools.
Safari, Firefox, Tweetie, Mail, iTunes…

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Wei: Hmm, can’t think of anything since I just recently got the new table. Probably a new Mac Pro?

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Wei: Aww… this gonna be an issue… I try my best ok? Also due to currency exchange cost is a close estimate.

On my desk, from my left:

Mac Pro 2.66GHz Quad, 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD, ATI 4870 1GB RAM, built-in Airport. (approx. USD1200)
Dell 30” LCD (USD900)
MacBook Pro 13” 2.53GHz (approx. USD700)
MacBook white 2.0GHz C2Dwith orange spec case (approx USD300)
iMac 20” modified as LCD (approx. USD220)
Box Mac (approx. USD300)
iTab (customised Wacom tablet with screen. Cost me about USD700) <— Put in storage, function is replaced by iPad.
iBook G3 SE intro Poster in ikea RAM frame (USD10 poster + USD5 frame)
Griffin PowerMate (USD40)
Aluminium RAID external drive casing with FW800, FW400, USD. (USD130 casing, approx. USD140 for 2x Seagate 250GB IDE 3.5” HDD)
Small picture frame with my wife photo (free)
CJ7 doll (free with KFC meal in Hong Kong)
Paper Craft Mac Classic (free)
Super Mario keychain x2 (USD3)
Crayon Shinchan capsule toy (USD5)
Evagelion Shinji capsule toy (USD5)
One Piece capsule toy (USD3)
Replica Alessi Dozi hedgehog magnetic paperclip holder (USD7)
Eikon biometric scanner (USD46)
Fake plant with pot & plate (USD9)
Bluetongue Cable Box (USD30)
Belkin 8 point power surge protector (USD35)
Western Digital MyBook essential with 500GB drive (USD60)
Western Digital Mybook Studio 1TB (USD120)
Rocstor FW800 2.5” SATA HDD casing with Hitachi 7k500 500GB HDD (USD140)
Belkin 8 port powered USB hub (USD40)
Belkin USB Bluetooth dongle (USD20)
iPhone 3GS 16GB (bought in with issues, I’ve fix it up, USD230)
Yellow rubber ducky (USD1)
Army cammo rubber ducky (gift)
2 mug filled with stationary (approx USD10)
2x Apple remote (free)
Muji recycle paper notepad (USD1)
Mighty Mouse (USD48)
SIGG bottle (USD26)
Glass front toy storage with bunch of capsule toys (USD60)
IKEA lamp with energy saving bulb (USD15)
Deco desk lamp (gift)
Canon LiDE 500F scanner (USD170)
Airport Express (free)
HP Laserjet 1020 (USD85)

Under the table:

DIY IKEA storage as drawer (USD5)
Mac opening tools (USD20)
2x IKEA power strip (USD10)
Time Capsule (got it for free with busted power & removed HDD, fix up with custom power as base station. USD22)
Sarotech hardbox with 30GB HDD (casing USD70, drive is free)
Cheap Philip headphones (USD5)
IKEA chair black (USD100)
IKEA chair pink (USD15)
Nippon paint odorless matte wall paint (not sure how much)
Off white wall paint (came with the house)
Custom wall sticker (USD30)

__________________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Wei, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

Maccores.com

Twitter - weistudio

Short on bells and whistles, but just the right amount of...

stationa — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:41:46 -0500

Short on bells and whistles, but just the right amount of everything you need to work, solve, create. Too inspiring not to re-post.

Ryan J. Nicholson

stationa — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:12:11 -0500

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Ryan: My name is Ryan Nicholson and I live in the United Kingdom.

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?

Ryan: I am a college student/amateur photographer. As I’m a student studying Media & Photography, and am only 17, I don’t need to pay any bills for the moment.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Ryan: All of my Photography work is edited on my MacBook Pro using either Aperture 3, iPhoto ‘11 or Photoshop CS5. My Media projects for college are also edited on the MacBook Pro using either Final Cut Studio, iMovie ‘11 or Adobe Premier.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Ryan: Apart from the hours I spend at college I’m at my desk pretty much all the time, either editing my photos, watching YouTube videos, or listening to music in Spotify.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Ryan: The majority of my work is done just to fulfill my own creative passion, some teenagers go out smashing things up and causing trouble, I like to take photos & edit them.

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?

Ryan: On the desk; my 13” MacBook Pro, 500GB Iomega External Hard Drive, iPhone 3G, Rotel RA-400 AMP with Panasonic speakers, and an Apple 17” Studio LCD Display. Just out of sight I have an external Blu-ray player for disk backups, Olympus E-420 DSLR, iPod Touch 8GB, iPod Nano, Kodak ZX1, various Apple boxes, and a chrome desk fan.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Ryan: I wouldn’t want to eat or drink anything near my Macs or other equipment.

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?

Ryan: I have a lot of nick-nacks on my shelving unit attached to the desk, the majority of which are DVD’s/Games, as well as models of cars. I love Rally Cars so I have a few different models. I also love old 1950s & 60s American Cars and so have a “largish” model of a Chevrolet Corvette.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

Ryan: I would have to say the influence for my desk is similar to the design of Apple retail stores. At first I was even considering a Maple desk, but it turns out they are quite expensive, £600-£800 for a good one, so in the end I settled for an IKEA design instead, which is still very minimalist.

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?

Ryan: I am a Mac guy and I am glad to say I do not own any WIndows PCs, nor does anyone in my household have a PC anymore. The whole house is finally Mac based!

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Ryan: I would have to say my MacBook Pro.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Ryan: A Mac Pro.

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?

Ryan: Being a Photographer I try and use what best suites my needs so I use Aperture 3, iPhoto ‘11 and Photoshop CS5 for photo management and editing. For my video projects I use iMovie ‘11, Final Cut and Adobe Premier CS5.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Ryan: I would to eventually buy a 27” Apple Display for the MacBook Pro and also try in time to get a Mac Pro tower.

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Ryan:

IKEA Desk and Shelf Unit
IKEA Sideboard
IKEA black desk lamp
Vintage Candle Stick Telephone
Various Mac & Apple Mugs, stickers etc
Designer Black Vase
American Number Plate
Computer Specs
13” MacBook Pro: 2.53Ghz C2D, 8GB RAM, 500GB HD
eMac: 1.42Ghz G4, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD
Power Mac Quicksilver: 800MHz G4, 1.25GB RAM, 250GB HD
Mac mini: 1.83Ghz C2D, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD
Power Mac Graphite: 733Mhz G4, 512MB RAM, 40GB HD,
MacBook: 2.4Ghz C2D, 4GB RAM, 120GB HD

__________________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Ryan J. Nicholson, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

About.me

Twitter - macnerd93

Youtube Channel - macnerd93

Benjamin Bunch

stationa — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:48:27 -0400

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Ben: Benjamin Bunch. I currently live and attend university (UCSC) in Santa Cruz, CA.

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?

Ben: First and foremost I’m a student (studying film), however I do make some money doing freelance videography and video editing. I am also in charge of post-production for an on campus film production club (The Film Production Coalition). From time-to-time I’ve held more fixed jobs on campus, primarily in Mac IT as it relates to various forms of creative production.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally gets done at the work space featured?

Ben: I do most of my video editing (personal or professional) at my desk. I will occasionally end up working in an on-campus lab or edit-suite, usually for collaborative work, but I prefer to edit at my own desk, in my room. For some reason whenever I have to do writing, research, photo editing, or general web surfing I end up on my bed on one of my laptops…for these tasks I actually end up being more productive sitting or lying on my bed than sitting a my desk.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Ben: I’m pretty much at my desk all hours of the day…usually at night (sometimes late) and during the day. In the morning I prefer to ease into the day and get some work done from bed. Again, a lot of people can’t function this way, but I can and do.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Ben: A lot of it is to scratch my own creative itch. The freelance work I do is pretty sporadic so usually I am working on my own films or film work for class or FPC (the Film Production Coalition.) I also spend a lot of time trying to learn new software and new techniques to build up my creative arsenal. I also play a bit at my desk; my computer has more than a few games installed on it and there is also an Xbox 360 connected to my center monitor.

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?

Ben: My Apple Magic Trackpad is great because I work with multiple machines and often have very limited desk space. Having two mice within reach of my right hand is kind of awkward and takes up a lot of space, but having the Magic Trackpad there and being able to put it wherever I want is really nice. Sometimes it doesn’t stay on my desk and goes with me in my bag, or lives in other parts of the room, but usually it’s on my desk.

Just out of sight I have tons of storage, essential for video work. I don’t like storing my storage (yeah, that phrase just happened) on my desk because it can quickly become a mess of cords, and I have my drives organized such that I rarely need more than one or two at a time. I store them, along with a lot of my other equipment such as camera gear, in the open-dresser across the room.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Ben: Hmmm…I don’t really eat at my desk, though I usually have a bottle of water (I reuse the bottle so don’t get on my case) within reach. Sometimes I’ll have some fruit or something while sitting at the desk, but usually don’t try to eat while working.

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?

Ben: I have some really neat little nicknacks above my desk. I have my Serenity Zippo; I don’t smoke but I really appreciate the the design of the Zippo lighter, the shiny metal, the fusion of form and function, and of course, the click it makes when it opens. Plus I’m a huge fan of Firefly/Serenity so the logo on there is cool. I also have a dead cobra in a jar of some kind of alcohol (which is apparently drinkable but then you’d be left with a rotting cobra in an air-filled jar) which was given to me as a gift from a friend who went to Vietnam. She keeps trying to steal it back from me though. I also have a Rubber Duck that I bought from some charity or another…I kind of think the design is a little racist though.

My walls have some cool posters on them, just some movies and games I like, a small collection of Star Trek “Ships of the Line” calendars, some Apple “Think Different” posters (and my original iMac poster), and some really cool retro-themed travel posters showing some locations from the TV show Firefly.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

Ben: The three monitor setup is completely influenced by the work I do. With video work you always want (at least) two screens, one for your software, and one dedicated to video playback. My desk is a two machine setup, with the iMac, PC tower, and Xbox sharing the middle monitor (depending on which I am using,) and with the iMac and the PC each getting their own second screen (the iMac screen and the small ikan production monitor, respectively) for video playback or just general work.

Sometimes I will bring one of my laptops to work on, usually it sits to the right of the main monitor, replacing the ikan monitor, and gets patched into the main monitor…again, keeping the two screen per computer paradigm.

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?

Ben: I guess I sort of answered this question already above. I am a Mac “guy” through and through, but yes, I do use PCs as well. I have an iMac at my desk, and a self-built PC tower (Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate) under my desk. I also have a MacBook and an HP Netbook. I won’t specifically state what OS the netbook is running but lets just say it isn’t Windows…you can probably figure it out.

As for other tech around my room: I have a large amount of external storage (primarily Mac formatted,) which is a necessity for video work. I have my iPhone 2G which I use on T-Mobile, and an iPod touch (1st gen 16gb) that I use mainly for music because it holds more than the 8GB iPhone. I have both because I got the Touch years before I ended up with the iPhone, but I do use both. You can also find a large amount of still/video camera gear. I shoot stills on both digital and film, and shoot video and stills on my Panasonic GH1 (modified with improved video firmware from a russian hacker.) In my room you can also find an Xbox 360, and a Tivo DVR (with dual tuners) connected to a relatively good-sized Sony CRT TV.

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Ben: Probably my Panasonic Lumix GH1 hybrid camera. I use it to shoot all of my projects and a lot of my stills, and I really would have a hard time doing my work without it.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Ben: I would like a large RAID enclosure (or two) so I could have all my external storage under or on top of my desk so it could be easily accessible, without much cord and cable management or organizational hell…but it wouldn’t make my life better enough to justify the money at this point, so I’m sticking with individual enclosures.

I could also use a new Mac, all of mine are getting up there in age, which is part of the reason I added a PC tower. I am hoping to upgrade to a new MacBook Pro sometime in the near future.

I also would love a Panasonic Lumix GH2…which is why I’ve preordered one! It will be on my desk sooner or later.

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?

Ben: For my video editing work I use Final Cut Studio 3 exclusively. I also do a lot of video compositing in other work in Adobe After Effects CS5, and Adobe Photoshop CS5. I use Aperture to organize and edit my photos. I also use Maya 2011 for CGI and compositing work, along with Logic Studio for sound work.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Ben: I’d love new carpet, and you know, the stuff I listed in #12. I know a lot of people wish for a workspace separate from their bedroom, but I actually like it like this. Some more lighting would be nice, possibly overhead. Right now I just have a large window and a standing lamp. I would also like more electrical outlets.

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Ben:

IKEA Desk
IKEA Dresser
IKEA lamp
IKEA chair
20” Intel iMac 2ghz CoreDuo 2GB RAM Radeon x1600m (2006)
13” MacBook 2.16ghz Core2Duo 2GB RAM (2007)
HP Mini 110 Netbook with 32 GB SSD
Custom PC tower (AMD Athlon 4-core 2.6Ghz processor, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD 5770 1Ghz 1GB GPU.)
24” 1080p Samsung HDMI/DVI/VGA monitor with speakers
8” ikan V8000 HDMI production monitor (stand is a Delkin devices car-mount designed for a camera.)
A whole lot of HDD storage, something like 8TB external, plus the internal drives in the computers. Primarily 3.5” drives but I have a couple portable bus-powered 2.5” drives as well.
Apple Pro Keyboards (metal model and older plastic model.)
Razer Death Adder (Mac edition)
Apple Magic Trackpad
Lower end (but nice) Sennheiser headphones
Panasonic Lumix GH1 (hacked) hybrid video/stills camera
2 x Nikon FM2n 35mm still cameras
Olympus PEN FT 35mm half-frame still camera
Various lenses, accessories, and adaptors. I have adaptors for all my lenses so they’ll work on my GH1.
Various audio accessories as well.
iPhone 2G (first gen), T-Mobile.
iPod Touch (first gen)
Plantronics Discovery 925 Bluetooth headset
Sony CRT TV
Tivo Series 2 Dual Tuner DVR
Linksys wireless router
A lot of misc. cables, mainly firewire, USB, and A/V
Posters and other nicknacks

__________________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Ben Bunch, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

Jon Hume

stationa — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:11:00 -0400

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Jon: Hi, my name is Jon Hume. I’m currently living in Haywards Heath, Sussex, in the UK.

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?

Jon: I’m the ‘Head of Digital’ at BradleyDyer Media - A Full Service Marketing Agency based in Reigate, Surrey. In addition to software projects, web design & development, we produce ‘real-world’ digital projects such as interactive touch-screen installations and multi-screen video walls. In my spare time I am learning objective-C to program for the iPhone, in between reading pretty much every tech blog on the web.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Jon: Professionally speaking, most of the time I manage to keep my work during office hours, however, knowing that I have all the kit I need at home should I have to bring anything home with me is a great safety net. Personally - all of my other projects are completed (or almost completed) here. In the early part of this year my set-up really earned it’s keep as I worked almost non-stop to hit deadline for a massive project, a lot of which was completed at home.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Jon: I normally find myself here first thing in the morning and then I am usually camped here after work until I go to bed!

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Jon: As this is my home workspace pretty much everything I do here is for my own pleasure, I have a few ‘commercial’ projects but mostly I am learning and keeping up to date with new technologies I can use in my professional capacity.

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?

Jon: Everything I need is on my desk - MacBook Pro, 24” Cinema Display and iPhone 4 are essentials, the rest is a luxury. I try to keep my workspace distraction free, as for me, the internet is enough of a distraction on its own!

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Jon: No eating at the desk, crumbs are the enemy! However - when working late I usually have either Red Bull or Lucozade to hand at all times to help keep my eyes open!

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?

Jon: I keep everything very simple around the desk, the focus is on the technology and what it gives me access to. The soft backlight behind the screen helps my eyes when I am working late and makes it easy for me to focus on the screen.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

Jon: I work with technology all day, so for me having the best tools that I can afford to buy is important. I guess this is the reason behind my desk being the way it is, some people might call it an Apple obsession - but if someone else makes a better product (in my opinion) then I will buy it instead.

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?

Jon: Until about 4 years ago I was 100% PC. I used to build my own machines exactly the way I wanted them. When I switched to using a laptop I became increasingly frustrated with the build quality of the PC options available. When my Dell XPS 1330 had a graphics failure after only 6 months I knew it has time to get something with a higher build quality. Since then I have owned a MacBook and now a 15” MacBook Pro which goes everywhere with me! Since then I have owned 2 iPhone 3G’s an iPhone 3GS and now my iPhone 4, as well as adding the 24” LED Cinema Display and wireless peripherals for using my MacBook Pro when I’m at home. My iPad is getting used more and more as I integrate it into my life, but for me it is always going to be better for media consumption than creation.

My MBP is probably in use for about 15-18 hours a day, and it has never caused me a single problem :)

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Jon: I think for me it has to be my iPhone, all the models I have owned have been excellent. I use a lot of data and voice minutes - if only the battery life was a little longer it would be the perfect gadget. It is definitely the best smartphone available today and with continued developer support for all of my favourite apps I am sure it will continue to be my platform of choice for some time.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Jon: I am currently looking into purchasing a NAS of some description for storing all my media files so I am not carrying them with me on my laptop hard drive all the time! I need somewhere to have everything backed up as well. This will be my next purchase for sure.

I recently moved away from having speakers attached to my laptop as I was planning on upgrading to a better music solution - still haven’t decided what I want to replace them with, I am open to suggestions from anyone!

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?

Jon: I use Creative Suite CS3 all day, every day for Photoshop, Illustrator and occasionally Dreamweaver. I mainly use Espresso as my code editor as I prefer the way it handles CSS. Suitcase Fusion 2 is great for font management and everyone at BradleyDyer uses it .

Safari and Chrome are my browsers of choice, and I am a fan of the new elements in Safari 5 such as the reader view, it is great for reading longer blog posts. When I do occasionally need to do something in Windows I always use VMWare Fusion 2, a great product and it runs just as well on my MBP at home as it does on my Mac Pro at work.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Jon: I would have my workspace in a dedicated room and not in my bedroom. Sometimes it is a little too easy to work late into the night and not spend time relaxing before going to bed! As well as this I would like to add an iMac to my collection, sometimes having a true desktop machine is advantageous and it would be a nice luxury to give my MacBook a rest every now and again - it gets used all day every day!

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Jon:

Tech Gear

Fixtures and fittings

__________________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Jon Hume, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

Evan Varsamis

stationa — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:05:11 -0400

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Evan: My name is Evan Varsamis and I am currently living in Athens, Greece.

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?

Evan: I graduated from high school last year and now I am in BCA College studying shipping. Two years ago, along with my friend Alex, we’ve opened a Graphic / Web Design Online Company which we dont have anymore. When I am not doing any assignments for college I am usually reading blogs, writing for my own site .SmokingDesigners, gathering wallpapers, organizing my photos in Aperture, orresearching random stuff on the internet.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Evan: Well the station is located at my house and so I am doing most of my projects & research there, though I am going to Office three times every week in order to get familiar with the shipping industry.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Evan: I would say both, When I wake up in the morning I go and check my email, and then If I have nothing to do I will stick on my Macs for quite a long time. But on a daily basis I wont spend more than 6 or 7 hours there.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Evan: Uhm, probably 70% personal stuff and 30% work & studies.

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?

Evan: I call my self “the absolute minimalist” so I don’t have many things on my desk except for the iMac, Macbook Pro, iPhone, second display, keyboard & mouse. On the left side of my desk you will find mostly books, my lucky Buddha, some pens, empty CD cases, and my 2 Western Digital External Hard Drives.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Evan: Usually cappuccino or orange juice.

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?

Evan: As I said before I am a minimalist so I like my things to be simple and efficient when I either work or study.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly?

Evan: I keep my life simple and uncluttered, same with my desk.

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?

Evan: 200% Mac! For about 5 years now I have been a straight Mac user. I have a 15” Macbook Pro Unibody (Early 2010), an iMac 24” (Early 2009) and a 15” Macbook Pro (Late 2008). I also have an iPhone 3G 16GB (no need for the 3GS), two 500GB Western Digital Hard Drives FireWire 800 for storing my photos videos and apps, and then my Home Cinema setup which includes a Panasonic 42” full HD 1080P, 5.1 Philips Dolby Sound System and my PS3 80GB for blue-ray movies.

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Evan: Well, that would be my iPhone.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Evan: A 30 inch Apple Cinema Display instead of my 24 inch “Captiva” screen.

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?

Evan: Everyday I am using Mail, Adium, iChat, CloudApp, Pages, Keynote, and Cord to get connected to my jobs terminal. At home I mostly use Aperture, Safari, iTunes, Photoshop, Illustrator and OmmWriter. Within the next few weeks I am planning to purchase an app that organizes my day because iCal is not enough for what I need.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Evan: Almost every month I am changing the decoration of my house and especially my desk. I might move the screen a little to the right or change its position, but for now I think I am doing great although I am planning to buy some new furnitures this summer.

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Evan:

iMac 24”
Macbook Pro 15”
Western Digital Hard Drives
Panasonic Vierra Full HD TV
Philips DTS 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System
Canvas (IKEA)
My lucky Buddha
Magic Mouse & Apple Keyboard
BookArc Stand For Macbook Pro
Vinyls (Benny Benassi, audiotherapy, Diggweed, Motorcycle)
iPhone 3G 16GB
Desk (IKEA)
G15 Logitech Gaming Keyboard
Razer Gaming Mouse (Used to play CounterStrike)

___________________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Evan Varsamis, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

Flickr

.SmokingDesigners.com

BeautifulMac.com

Twitter: SmokingDesigns

Vimeo

Christoph Spiegl

stationa — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:07:00 -0400

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Christoph: My name is Christoph Spiegl, I am located near Hof (Bavaria, Germany).

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?

Christoph: Since I am a student attending a College of Further Education I do not earn much, but still I work on the side as a freelance Photographer and Web-Developer / Designer which pays for the gadgets. What I do besides that freelance work: I love photography and try to learn as much about it. In addition I do some personal projects, an example of which is my blog CSPIEGL.com or AIDvertisement.net, with which I spend most of my free-time.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Christoph: Pretty much 100% minus the photography done outdoors and the time at school.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Christoph: I am probably a night owl. But I hate to be one. I would like to change my schedule more to the early bird side of things, but school starts at 8 AM, and for that I need to leave at 6:40 AM so there is not much time before that. Normally I am back from school at 5 PM and that is pretty much the time I get to my desk.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Christoph: Well that need to be differentiated into 3 areas. Work, school and my own creative itch. School is about 30%. Work is about 20%. And my own creative itch makes up the remaining 50%.

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?

Christoph: Well just like the most people who are interviewed here on the site my iPhone is always close. I also often need to grab my Wacom Bamboo. I store my cameras on my desk so that I can grab them every time I leave the house. I have a bag with one of them loaded to take with me everywhere I go.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Christoph: What is always there is a nice carafe of water — I am not a coffee nor a soda guy! The snack of choice are my ‘Vital-Cookies (ger: Vitalgebaeck)’.

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?

Christoph: The reason for the desk to be the way it is? Well the room is located in my parents house since I am still attending school. It is my bedroom and also my work space all in one. But some insights of how it evolved;

First: I needed a new desk. So we built one by hand. It’s really just a big wood plate with two feet!

Second: I wanted to have at least something green in there. The two plants I have there are a ‘Jade Plant’ and a ‘Fake Bonsai’. The ‘Jade Plant’ — we call it ‘Money Tree’ — well you can guess the reason (it is growing lately) ;-).

Third: I wanted to be able to feature some of my photographs or postcards I either receive or buy when traveling. Therefore I hung the magnet boards right to my desk.

Fourth: I wanted to have some nice light — not just in summers. Therefore I bought the daylight-lamp. It produces a light which is pretty much as bright as daylight and that’s really something awesome to have (especially in long cold winters).

One last thing about the color combinations: White for what it represents - minimalism and tidiness. Red is because I loved that color since I was a kid!

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly?

Christoph: Most of the time it stays the same for a long while — maybe half a year or so. After that I change it a bit — something like rearranging the screen position for example. One thing I can change on the go is that I can transform my desk to a standing desk. Sometimes I love to stand for maybe two weeks. But after that I just want to go back to sitting again.

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?

Christoph: Mac! I am absolutely sure that I am a Mac. I was a PC not so long ago. But after switching I totally fell in love! I still own, and am working on, the first MacBookI ever bought! But still it is a little bit of both since all the humans around me (at least the ones I know except for maybe 2 or 3 people) use Windows based computers, and I am the tech guy around here who knows how to fix problems. So I need to deal with that crappy system every once in a while.

One other tech gear I am sure about who I am is my Canon camera gear. I am a Canon — not a Nikon! The reason for that? I decided it to be that way. The two really do not differ that much. But I am more than happy with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II and my trusty Canon EOS 30D.

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Christoph: That is hard to decide. As far as I am concerned you can not use a iPhone or a camera without a Mac. Most of what I do gets done on the Mac, and it also serves as my communication center. So I would probably chose the Mac.

That being said, the two things that are always around me is my iPhone and Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Christoph: Right now I am very happy with what I have (especially after getting the new Canon) but if I had some more money left, I would like to get a new MacBook Pro.

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?

Christoph: I spend most of my time in Safari, especially in Gmail, Google Reader and doing general research on the web. iTunes is there for the music. For my photography stuff I use Lightroom 3 and sometimes Photoshop. The Coding is done in Coda and TextMate. Notes are taken in TextEdit (I love this app for its simplicity). And to stay in contact I use Adium, Skype and Tweetie for Mac.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Christoph: Well that is a bit funny - I would like to go travel for a long time and actually have no fixed desk. But for now I need to stay in Germany. As far as my existing desk I would still love to change a few things: I would like to have a much bigger room maybe with enough room for a photography studio. The size of the desk is nice but I would also like to have some more room to move, maybe stand up more often and not just sit in front of the screen all day.

15.) Workspace Breakdown; Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Christoph: Many of the things asked here are already answered in #8 but some more:

MacBook 13” 2.16Ghz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, running 10.6 Snow Leopard
Two 23” screens (hooked up to MacBook)
Apple Wireless Keyboard & Mighty Mouse
Wacom Bamboo Fun
iPhone 3GS
BOSE Earphones
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EOS 30D
Lenses: Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, Sigma 55-200mm f/4-5.6 and the Kit Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Flash (no not the Adobe thing): Canon SpeedLite 430EX II, Metz 48 AF-1
Terratec PHASE X24FW (external sound-card)
Esi nEar08 eXperience Speakers
HDD’s (1TB / 300GB / 160GB / 250GB …)
Daylight Lamp
Wood desk (self-made)
Red Office Chair
2 Round Chairs
Many books
Many DVD’s

______________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Christoph Spiegl, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

Flickr: cspiegl

Blog: CSPIEGL.com

Photography Portfolio: CHRISSP.com

Twitter: cspiegl

AIDvertisement Project

Dasha K.

stationa — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:42:00 -0400

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Dasha: My name is Dasha K. I live in Brooklyn, NY - I’m a native Brooklynite and very proud of my city!

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?

Dasha: I’m currently a law student, and my husband does the things that pay the bills. Before that, I worked as an investigator. In my free time (ha!), I’m either out and about with my husband and friends or have my nose in a book. I try to find time for needlework, sewing, and baking, but it doesn’t often happen.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Dasha: During the school year, most of my schoolwork is done in this space. I’m also in charge of bill paying, financial planning, and other such aspects of grown-up life, so all that happens here year-round. During the summer, I’m mostly here for internet browsing and such.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Dasha: I’m here in the later afternoons and evenings and much of the weekend during the school year and sporadically during the summer.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Dasha: Most of what I do here is work-work. But one of my goals for this summer is to organize and scan all my old photos and to learn a bit of photoshop - so hopefully there will be more creativity here in the near future.

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 drawer or cabinet?

Dasha: Pens and my filofax! I could not survive without it. My external hard drive is pretty essential for peace of mind, too. On the shelf above me, I keep a box with my other desk essentials - post-its, stapler, stamps, etc. The bowl up there holds my camera’s charger and cable, and any other wire-like things I need on a regular basis. The rest of the stuff is on shelves and in cabinets to my left. Also, whatever I am working on at the moment - schoolwork, bills, camera - is usually on the desk with me, but I try to clear everything off when I’m done, and keep only one thing out at a time.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Dasha: Occasionally water or tea, but no food. I’m a messy eater!

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 desk? Decoration, wall art, figurines, statues, etc? Any particular reason behind those?

Dasha: My printer/scanner is an absolute necessity because I can never make up my mind between paper and digital mediums - I’m always scanning or printing things out. The pen cup is actually a small vase I picked up in chinatown for this purpose when I started my job four years ago. I don’t want clutter on my desk so I try to look for items that are both functional and add an element of decor.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly?

Dasha: One of my main goals in life is to keep my stuff free of cat hair and bite marks. To that end, I try not to leave anything out on my desk that could be sat on, slept on, chewed on, or swallowed. Another of my goals is to single task. I understand that some people are great multi-taskers, but I am just not one of them.

I try to keep my desktop free of stuff that has nothing to do with what I am working on at the moment - it keeps away the distractions. At the same time, when I am working on something, I like to spread out, so I got the biggest desk I could find. I found myself to be a much more calm and organized person once I made a commitment to deal with things as soon as they come up. Keeping a clear desktop is thus both a goal and a means to an end - the easiest way to get a physical object off my desk is to take care of whatever task it represents.

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?

Dasha: I’m a Mac user all the way - uncluttered, visually appealing, and user friendly - what more could I ask for?

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Dasha: My Filofax. I tried living without it for several years and it did not go well. I’m a huge fan of my Mac and my iPhone, but they won’t hold my coupons, stamps and cards along with my schedule and notes, and I can’t switch the covers out to suit the seasons or my moods. And there’s the whole I-like-the-feel-of-pen-on-paper thing.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Dasha: I’ve toyed with the idea of wanting an iMac but I need the portability of my MacBook and cannot let go of the simplicity of having just one computer. I’d love an Apple Cinema Display but that is completely out of the question, price-wise, so I dare not even think of it for fear of breeding discontent. I kind of miss my 12” PowerBook. I sold it when I got my MacBook Pro, but now wish I hadn’t. It was redundant, but pretty. There goes that discontent.

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?

Dasha: I rely mainly on Firefox, Evernote, Pages and Quicken. I like Pages a lot better than Word because it is cleaner and easier to customize (once I figured out how to use it in the first place). The dictionary and calculator built into my mac get a surprising amount of use. As does Numbers - much more useful than Excel for making simple spreadsheets. Evernote is my third brain (after my Filofax and the squishy thing in my skull) and surprisingly indispensable for doing legal research.

One of the challenges of legal research is keeping a good research trail. For a single question, I might read dozens of court cases and several secondary sources. All of this is impossible to keep track of in your head because the names are not memorable and the differences in facts and law often subtle. I just copy paste all the cases I read into Evernote and make a quick note of what the case is about near the top. I recently bought a copy of Photoshop Elements and hope to incorporate that into my life over this summer… I have tons of old family photos I’d love to clean up a bit.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Dasha: Teach the damn cats to stay off of it! My desk evolves a lot, but it’s perfect for the moment.

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Dasha:

Decor -

Desk - IKEA tabletop and legs
Chair - IKEA
Shelf - IKEA
Lamp - IKEA (pattern?)
Wall paint - Freshaire Choice (from Home Depot) - Northern Pear Tree
Carpeting - came with apartment
Bowl - stolen from Grandma’s apartment
Box - made of bamboo, from the bath section of The Container Store
Pen cup - purchased at Pearl River Mart on Broadway just above Canal St in NYC
Planter - Home Depot
Thingy under planter - cork trivet from IKEA
Air conditioner - Frigidaire 8,000 BTU

Tech -

MacBook Pro 13”, standard model as of last August
Apple Mighty Mouse
iPhone 3G and stand
Canon PowerShot SD750 Digital Elph 7.1 MP (2 years old)
HP Photosmart C5180 All-in-One printer
Toshiba external hard drive 320 GB
Linksys wireless router (4-5 years old)
Fellowes T7CM shredder (under desk)

Other -

Filofax - personal size Panama in Maroon. One of several.
Darcy (Cat- show above) - grey tiger, male, approximately 11 months
Lizzy (Cat- not shown) - all black, female, approximately 10 months

________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Dasha K, her workspace, or her work, you can find her at the sites listed below;

Flickr

GoodReads

Rodrigo Haenggi

stationa — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:07:00 -0400

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Rodrigo: My name is Rodrigo Haenggi and I live in Laufen, Switzerland.

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?

Rodrigo: I am currently starting my own company, so all the preparation eats a lot of my free time at the moment. The rest of my working time I spend as a jack of all trades programmer & consultant for a local IT company.

The rest of my time I spend watching Anime, reading books or going out with friends for a “few” beers…

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Rodrigo: Mostly around 95%. I love to work from a cafe from time to time, so this is where the last 5% go.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Rodrigo: I have a really messed up sleeping schedule at the moment… But normally I am your typical night owl.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Rodrigo: Phew, hard to say… Probably 70% work 30% creative? But I guess I can’t really separate these two since my profession has also become my passion.

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?

Rodrigo: My MacBook Pro, Apple Cinema Display, my iPhone, my iPad and my AKG Headphones. These are probably the most essential things for the stuff I do daily.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Rodrigo: Japanese Ocha (Green Tea), water and coffee.

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?

Rodrigo: Figurines, figurines and figurines. Simply because I am a sucker for Anime…

Black Rock Shooter (GSC)
Kagami Figma (GSC)
Ryougi Shiki Nedoroid (GSC)
Saber Lilly Nendoroid (GSC)
Sayonara, Zetsubo-Sensei Nendoroid (GSC)
Mikuru Figma (GSC)
Rin Thosaka Figma (GSC)
Saber Figma (GSC)
Yuki Nagato Figma (GSC)
Ryougi Shiki Kimono PVC (GSC)
Saber Fate/Zero PVC (GSC)

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

Rodrigo: For me a clean workspace means a clear head. If everything is tidy and clean my mind goes into a zen-like state from which most of my productive work gets done.

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?

Rodrigo: Probably a Mac. I remember starting to care about my workspace layout back when I got my first Mac. I guess my basic feeling for esthetics deviates from that.

On the other hand I’ve got a XenServer below my desk that currently hosts around 10 different Linux installations for testing. And I even use my Windows Virtual Machine every full moon, so I guess you can’t put me in one camp. :)

The core of my home network is my Mac mini running OS X Snow Leopard Server and is currently hosting everything that I need for my startup.

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Rodrigo: My AKG K701 Headphones. When I first got these I was blown away by the sound quality. Also, the design is just gorgeous.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Rodrigo: I can’t think of anything.

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?

Rodrigo: I have a few apps that are essential for my workflow, but I will cut it down to three:

Evernote: Used for taking notes, bookmarking, writing and planning.
Omni Focus: Great GTD application. I use it to plan the things that need to get done each day.
Basecamp: This is where all my project / client work gets done.

Other apps that I use daily: Xcode, TextMate, Terminal, Git, iBooks, iTunes, Safari, iChat, Mail and Tweetie.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Rodrigo: The floor because it is slowly falling apart, and the walls could use some color too.

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Rodrigo:

Furniture -

Desk: I Don’t know the manufacturer or the origin. I got it from my uncle after he has been using it for almost 15 Years. I even remember playing Myst on his Mac at this desk. Some serious childhood memories are bound to this particular furniture.
Whiteboard: I saw this on dannychoo.com and loved the idea so I got inspired and used it for my own setup.
Server closet: ASPVIK from IKEA. Tons of space for my mac mini infrastructure and it even has a lock.
Chair: Black leather chair from a second hand furniture store.

Stuff -

2009 MacBook Pro 17” 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 256GB SSD & 500GB HDD, 8GB Ram, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
iPhone 3G 16 GB
iPad 3G 64 GB
AKG K701 Headphones
Apple Cinema Display 23”
Apple Bluetooth wireless keyboard
Apple Magic Trackpad
Canon EOS 400
Canon PowerShot G10
Guitar - Epiphone Les Paul

_______________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Rodrigo Haenggi, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

Luka Smuk

stationa — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:38:00 -0400

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Luka: My name is Luka Smuk and I’m from Europe-Croatia, a small place called Bedekovčina.

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?

Luka: For living I shoot weddings and parties, its not big money for starting out on my own, but it’s okay for now. In future I will like to work for a newspaper or on maybe a TV station as a photographer. When I’m not working I’m fooling around with my friends, and in most of my free time I’m playing with my camera.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Luka: All the work I do is on my iMac, editing photos in Photoshop, iPhoto and Aperture. I just love my 24” screen because the color and size of photos is amazing. For personal life, and fun, I use my old PowerBook G4, its okay for browsing on the web and chatting with my friends .

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Luka: Hmmm…. I’m a mix of night owl and early bird because I usually get up really early and go to sleep very late. 60 to 70% of my day I’m on my Mac because these days I’m pretty busy.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Luka: Pretty much everything I do on my iMac is for work. Maybe some small things like editing video for friends and family is done in iMovie or Final Cut Pro, but the rest of the stuff I work on is for work.

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?

Luka: You can find lots of SD memory cards, my iPhone, iPod Shuffle, my PowerBook G4, some papers, and always a hot cup of coffee on my desk. ;) Sometimes my workspace is a really big mess, sometimes, because I have so much work to do, I can’t do anything else, but in my free time its clean like the photos you see here.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Luka: On my desk you can find some chocolate or other sweets, but drinks like coffee and juice you can find in the corner of on my window ledge, which acts as a makeshift shelf when I am at my desk.

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?

Luka: My work space is same as the rest of my room, everything is wood, orange or another bright color. I’ve got an Ansel Adam’s “Think Different” Apple poster, and another AC/DC poster from their “No Bull” tour, as well as some of my own photos which I shot awhile back.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

Luka: I just love my Mac and my setup is influenced by an Apple “way to work” - clean, open-minded, creative and simple.

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?

Luka: Pure Mac finally!! Windows is out of the game for me as I was on a PC for almost 10 years, filled with painful error messages and other headaches. No thanks, never again! :) I’m just to happy with my iMac and PowerBook G4, its like in heaven!

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Luka: I would have to say both my iPhone and iPod Shuffle.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Luka: A 15” Macbook Pro.

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?

Luka: I use iPhoto, Photoshop, Aperture (quite a bit), Safari, iTunes, and occasionally iMovie or Final Cut Pro for video editing. Also Adium for chating.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Luka: I would like to get a new and bigger desk, some shelves, and maybe even a LCD TV on the wall. That would be nice.

15.) Workspace Breakdown;   Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Luka:

2009 iMac 3.06 Ghz,4GB RAM, 1TB HD, Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard
Razer Deathadder Mouse
iPod Touch 8 GB 2nd Gen
iPhone 3G 16GB
iPod Shuffle 1 GB
PowerBook G4 1.5 PPC, 1GB RAM, 80 GB HD
Iomega 360 GB External HD
Nikon D60, D80 & D90
Lens - 18-55 2x ,18-105 2x.55-200
Workspace from IKEA, I think….
Black leather chair from random furniture store, cost about 100 euro.

____________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Luka Smuk, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

Flickr

Facebook - lsmuk

Vimeo - ventilator18

Youtube - ventilator18

DigitalPhotography.110mb.com

Pardon the interruption..

stationa — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:53:04 -0400

We are still here. A return to posting brand new setups is underway. Stay tuned.

Dan LaMee

stationa — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:03:00 -0400

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Dan: My name is Dan LaMee and I live in Boiling Springs, SC.

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?

Dan: I’m a user interface designer for QS/1 Data Systems in Spartanburg, SC, primarily designing interfaces for our pharmacy, home medical equipment and point of sale applications. When I’m not doing that, I dabble in photography and digital post-processing, listen to music, and chat with my girlfriend who is a missionary overseas.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Dan: Since my day job has me working in Windows all day, my work space is exclusively for personal endeavors, which is just fine with me. There’s something a little unnatural about running Windows on a Mac.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Dan: I’m definitely a night owl, at least when I don’t have to get up early to get to work on time. And even that doesn’t really stop me from sitting at the desk working or playing.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Dan: All of it is for creative itch scratching. (See #3)

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?

Dan: Mini-USB (for cameras) and iPhone/iPad/iPod cables are always accessible. If it’s not top of the desk, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is on a nearby bookshelf. My girlfriend are reading the series together so it’s gotta be close!

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Dan: Coffee, hot during the colder months and iced during the warmer, just because I love it! Besides that a glass of water or Dr. Pepper.

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?

Dan: Star Wars and Apple are the biggest influences for decorations, both on the wall and the various Lego sets. I’m a huge LEGO fan, and Star Wars LEGOs in particular. Music is really important to me as well so my CD collection is near by (though most of it is already on the computer).

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

Dan: When it’s at it’s best, the desktop is clean and clear and with the double side bookshelves on the wings, there’s a nice balance and symmetry, properties of design which I use every day. The iMac’s background is usually one of my photographs as well.

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?

Dan: I’m definitely a Mac and have been completely Windows-free for years. My main machine is a 2.4GHz iMac. Recently a 16gb iPad has more or less replaced an old Aluminum Powerbook G4. I utilize Time Machine which backs my system up to a bare 1TB hard drive in a “toaster”, the Voyager Q. I also use an older Western Digital MyBook 500GB drive and an even older 160GB Lacie drive. Printing is achieved wirelessly with an Airport Express.

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Dan: Despite it’s age, I’d say the iMac, the giant 24” screen can’t be beat (well, maybe by one of the new IPS display-laden iMacs)! It’s not strictly used at my desk, but these days I’m also loving the iPad for catching up on Twitter, reading books and playing a few games.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Dan: A great film and negative scanner and a Drobo for photo backups. I’d love to add some really nice speakers and a turntable to the console behind the desk as well.

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?

Dan: Mostly I use Adobe Lightroom for photography, Safari for web browsing.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Dan: I would definitely rip up the carpet and put a hardwood floor in and replace the very old dorm chair with a real desk chair.

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Dan:

Furniture

Bungalow Desk from Crate & Barrel - It was a bit of a splurge, but it looks great and is the perfect size.
Two Expedit bookshelves (2x4) from IKEA - $70 each
Besta shelf unit/extension unit (with legs) from IKEA - $80

Accessories

Lamps and Clock from IKEA
Star Wars Episode II IMAX poster

Paint

Olympic D11-4 “Olive Gray” and D11-5 “Rattan Palm” from Lowes

__________________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Dan LaMee, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

Flickr - kfisto

Tumblr - Motoring Bliss

Twitter - kfisto

Facebook - danlamee

Virb

Justin Kemp

stationa — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:19:43 -0400

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Justin: My name is Justin Kemp, I live in Northampton, MA. I’m known to most as ‘the chillest bro in the valley’.

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?

Justin: I work as an artist assistant for a guy named Tom. When I’m not helping making his art, I make my own. When i’m not making art, I’m still making art because.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Justin: I’ve collapsed the boundaries between my personal and professional life so most of my endeavors can be done in the sandbox.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Justin: Sunrise and Sunset.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Justin: I make no differentiation between work and scratching.

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?

Justin: I like to keep the desk clean to make more room for the internet, where everything is within reach.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Justin: Beer. It’s my relaxation station, my confidence container, my motorcycle sidecar, my little sisters best friend, my finger in the fifth pocket, my accidental spit bubble, my secret sins I never shared in confession..

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?

Justin:

Jack Johnson poster to remind me about life,

The ruby red slippers to remind me of endless possibilities.

9.) 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?

Justin: Mac Pro, 2 x 2.66 GHz, 9 GB RAM, 2 TB HDs. 22” Acer monitors, Logitech Anywhere MX. 13” Macbook pro, 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM Casio keyboard

10.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Justin: Internet.

11.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Justin: Vegetables.

12.) 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?

Justin: Chrome and iTunes. In the future I’d like to learn how to use: Photoshop, Dreamweaver, FCP, After Effects, Flash, Word and many other programs.

13.) Did you build the sandbox yourself? Is it actual beach sand? How did you acquire the materials/know-how to build the box?

Justin: I built the sandbox myself with some wood I stole and sand I bought from Home Depot. There is plastic under the sand as well, just in case someone or something goes pee-pee.

14.) It appears in the pictures that both your TV stand and coffee table are made of the same wood. Did you build those as well?

Justin: Yeah, I made the other stuff in the room, but it’s all super shitty.

15.) After spending some time in the sandbox, how do you manage to brush your feet off so as to not end up with sand all over the rest of the house?

Justin: I don’t brush off my feet and now there IS sand all over my house, and it’s really starting to suck.

16.) What kind of chair is featured in those shots?

Justin: Oh shit, my chair is amazing! It’s the Generation chair by Knoll. Worth every penny, highly recommended for mouse pushers.

17.) True artists never stop making art, but my question for you is what kind of art do you primarily aspire to make. Music? Painting/drawing? Photography? Do you write?

Justin: Ummm… though i hold a Masters degree in Fine Art, I still can’t really explain the kind of art I make without sounding like an idiot. My best answer is just my website, people will get it.

18.) Given that you can work on your Mac Pro in your house with your feet in the sand, do you ever work on an actual beach with your MacBook? Do you find it is easier to relax barefoot in the sand while working, or is it so relaxing at times that you actually get less done?

Justin: The sand is relaxing, but for me, its more a symbol of my permanent vacation. It’s the design of a lifestyle where ‘work’ becomes so satisfying that vacation and retirement become undesirable. It’s a permanent state of chill.

19.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Justin: I wonder if I’ll ever find true love….

20.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Justin:

Computer
Desk
Chair
Sandbox
Jack Johnson
Ruby Red Slippers
Internet
Life is full of endless possibilities

______________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Justin Kemp, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

JustinKemp.com

Twitter - wordsicantpsell

Delicious - lowfive

mousesafari.com

Kyle Rose

stationa — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:40:00 -0400

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Kyle: I am Kyle Rose, and I live in Pennsylvania.

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?

Kyle: I am currently unemployed, because put simply: I’m not old enough to work.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Kyle: Almost everything. Whether it be homework, photo editing, designing something, or talking to some friends.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Kyle: Usually straight after school, because that is really the only time I have to be here. I usually spend around two hours total at my desk each day.

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Kyle: Since a good deal of my school work is done at my desk, I guess that could be classified as work. A lot of it though is me working in Aperture and/or Photoshop.

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?

Kyle: Most likely my iPhone. It’s always on me or right at the nearest charger.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Kyle: I’m a very clean person, so I usually don’t have food on or around my desk. I prefer things to be clean and tidy.

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?

Kyle: I recently redid my bedroom (which is where my desk is located) and painted my walls almost a MacBook Pro grey. The black of my desk goes well with my MacBook Pro, and the room in general.

I am one of those people who just loves just about anything and everything about New York City. I recently purchased a very nice mural of Times Square at IKEA for a mere $80, and it really adds to the room itself.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

Kyle: Since I plan on becoming either a photographer, graphic designer, or a mixture of both, having a good, large display is nearly essential. The display I use (Samsung 245BW; courtesy of my grandfather) is perfect for photo editing. While the colors aren’t as accurate as my that of my MacBook Pro, it does the job. And all in all, having a fancy desk setup just adds a sense of professionalism to someone, and I really enjoy that.

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?

Kyle: Most definitely a Mac. My first Mac was my Uncle’s old PowerBook G4 (15”) and it really turned me into a Mac guy. That Mac, while long gone, still resides in my bedroom. I am looking to get it fixed because the display is really crazy.

I recently got a 17’ MacBook Pro (2.8GHz, 4GB RAM) from my parents this past Christmas. Now why would a fourteen year old boy need such a computer? In all honesty, I thought the same thing. While the computer is near perfect for the fields I participate in, I didn’t need something as expensive as that. Words can’t explain how fortunate I am. I have that MacBook hooked up to the 24” Samsung which is very nice for when I need to work on large images or Photoshop documents.

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Kyle: My iPhone. I rely on it for so much, whether it be talking with a friend, checking Twitter, or just taking photos. You aren’t supposed to love material possessions, but I really can say I don’t know what I’d do without my iPhone.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Kyle: Probably an Apple Cinema Display, or maybe a Canon T2i, preferably that.

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?

Kyle: I use a variety of software. I mostly work in Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS3. I use CSSEdit for when I want to try and enhance my skills in CSS, but one thing that is almost always open on my computer is iTunes. I’d be nowhere without my music.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Kyle: I do wish I had a bigger desk. While it is cramped, I am only a teenager and need nothing more. I also wish I had better lighting fixtures, not too many exciting things about my fan!

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Kyle:

______________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to learn more about Kyle Rose, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

Flickr - “Kyle Rose”

Twitter - KyleRose_

hellomynameiskyle.tumblr.com

Kyle Rose on Vimeo

Ben Brown

stationa — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:52:00 -0400

1.) What is your name and where in the WWW (Whole Wide World) do you live?

Ben: My Name is Ben Brown, I live in Surrey, just South West of London.

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?

Ben: I’m a professional flatwater canoeist, this pays most of the bills. I also run trickimages.com making custom stickers, sign writing and t-shirt printing. Additionally I run pimpmykayak.com as a fun little side project making silly videos and t-shirts.

3.) How much of what you do, personally or professionally, gets done at the work space featured?

Ben: I spend a lot of time at my desk, but most of the time I’m training at Dorney Lake (the venue for the 2012 Olympics). The work I do at my desk is my creative outlet, I spend a lot of time browsing the web for inspiration, and making the popular MacBook stickers I sell online.

4.) Typically, what time of the day do you normally find yourself at this desk, and for how long? Night owl, early bird?

Ben: I spend my days off training at my desk, as well as most evenings catching up with the days orders, and planning my work around my training program. I can easily spend all my time updating my websites and sign-writing vans, I am also learning to tint car windows!

5.) How much of what gets done at your desk is for work, how much is it to scratch your own creative itch?

Ben: All my work outside of my canoeing training is to scratch that itch. I plan to make Trick Images my full time job after my canoeing career, so I want to have a wider selection of MacBook stickers available. I get a lot of custom sticker requests for people who want a unique sticker or they want their company logo on their MacBook.

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?

Ben: My pen pots are a must! I love to draw and markers are a must. My iPhone is never out of sight, its like taking my work with me to send emails. I love Rhodia pads too :) Near my desk is my Vinyl cutter and my heat press for making t-shirts. I have a draw for my spare knives and tools for applying signs/tinting etc.

7.) What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?

Ben: Always a bottle of water, I’ve got to stay hydrated for training. I like to keep my white desk white, so no food allowed! Maybe a nice cold Tiger Beer if I have the day off training…

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?

Ben: I like to have my desk quite tidy as I find it hard to work around mess. There are posters and photos on the wall around my iMac for decoration and inspiration. Really just things that I like to look at… I also have my training program on my wall as well.

9.) How much of what you do, or aspire to do, influences your desk setup, tangibly and intangibly.

Ben: In terms of Trick Images I would say that everything around my desk is influenced by what I want to offer people on the website, taking your Mac and making it your own. I think that answers the question…..

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?

Ben: Mac all the way! I need the reliability and ease of use for design, PCs’ frustrate me! I do have a Sony Vaio for vinyl cutting because I don’t have any software for the Mac that does the same job, so I just have to be patient with it!

11.) What’s the one piece of gear you could not live without?

Ben: That would be my iMac, it’s getting a bit old now but its still storming, and I never have any trouble with big Final Cut projects.

12.) What piece of gear cannot be found on your desk, but you wish it could be?

Ben: I would love a big printer/cutter to print on Vinyl and do vehicle wraps etc, but they are really expensive!

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?

Ben: At the moment I am using Illustrator, iWeb/Photoshop for my websites and Flexisign Pro 7 for vinyl cutting. I would love to be able to make websites on Dreamweaver, but iWeb is brilliant for what I need right now.

14.) If you could change one thing about your desk, or the room it is currently in, what would that be?

Ben: I want to have a bit more room, more desk space is needed for the bigger sign-writing jobs, I also work from home so having a real office/unit would be ideal, but all that space comes at a cost…

15.) Workspace Breakdown;

Think of as many things as possible that comprise the setup of your office or workspace, anything from the paint color 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.

Ben:

IKEA desk
White walls with posters
WH Smith whiteboard/cork board
Laminate floor
IKEA shelving
Old crappy chair that wont roll properly!
Heaps of magazines (I am addicted to magazines)

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If you would like to learn more about Ben Brown, his workspace, or his work, you can find him at the sites listed below;

Flickr - “trickimages”

TrickImages.com