Coffee
Coffee is a necessary part of my daily routine. I get into the office and brew pot of Stumptown in the mini coffee maker behind my desk. When I say I would give up booze or meat before giving up coffee, I mean it.
Headphones
Music and art go hand in hand. What music goes best with design? Depends on who you ask, I would say either Tech-House or Balearic Revival Disco.
Macbook Pro
My workhorse. She hasn’t failed me yet (knock on wood). Anything from a 729 x 90 pixel banner ad to a 30 x 15 foot building wrap is no problem for this pixel pushing juggernaut. They don’t make them better than this.
Auxiliary Display
With the amount of multitasking I do on a daily basis, one screen certainly isn’t enough. I typically do most of my work on the screen of my MacBook. I use the auxiliary monitor mainly for file browsing within Adobe Bridge. Other than that it’s all iChat and iTunes. Now if I only had an auxiliary pair of hands…
Wacom Tablet
I’ve been using a Wacom tablet for four years now. While I can get by with a mouse, I’m infinitely quicker when I have a stylus in hand. It’s great for clipping paths, vector graphics and Photoshop brushwork. For layout and typographic work I rely on my…
Magic Mouse
I can live without the iPad (for the time being at least), but the Apple Magic Mouse is an essential part of my design kit. The whole damn thing is a touchpad, so there’s no better tool for quickly scrolling through a document to find that specific area you need to edit. In the morning I boot up my Google Reader and I can know what’s going on in the world with just a few flicks of the index finger.
Sketchbook
Despite my ample collection of technologically advanced computer input devices, nothing can really beat the old pencil and paper. I do a lot of concept development sketching, and I find the ideas flow more readily when I’m working directly on paper. My left-handedness may cause me to smudge the lead as I draw and write, but I’ve learned to live with it.
Epson Scanner
This stalwart scanner allows me to get my sketches into the computer. In Photoshop I’ll clean the sketches up and add bits of color to liven things a bit. I’m also a texture junkie, if you didn’t know. I love to scan interesting pieces of paper, an ink wash, a piece of fabric or even my own hand. Why buy textures off some stock site when you can scan anything yourself? A good scanner is a necessary part of any designers arsenal.
Ergonomic Wrist Cushion
Laugh if you will, but carpal tunnel is no laughing matter. When you work on the computer as much as I do, the strain on the wrists can really add up.
So this is my setup. I’m sure this is pretty typical amongst designers. I’m at home here, and I seem to be able to get a decent amount of work done. What’s in your setup?
