Ha, It’s not what you are thinking… get your minds out of the gutter.  We all know the type, the designers who don’t want anyone to see whats behind the browser or photoshop layers.  Designers desktop wallpapers, docks, settings can say a lot about them.  After receiving the first five to ten desktop images, I was not only surprised, but overwhelmingly shocked at the number of icons in some peoples docks.  I guess I always had made it up in my mind that Mac users were the simplistic type, but how wrong I was.  Here is a new blog post series that will feature people’s desktop/dock in the community.

Originally, I was going to input the explanation behind the madness, but due to time constraints, I was unable.  To those who wrote me one, thank you, it was great reading your insight and helped me get to know you a bit better.

Rob Alan:

Rob Alan

Larkef:

Larkef

David Airey:

David Airey

Jared Lunde:

Jared Lunde

I Am Garth:

I am Garth

Chris Young:

Chris Young

Clashmore:

Clashmore

Blake Stevenson:

Blake Stevenson

Coin Tilt:

Coin Tilt

Leighton Hubbell:

Leighton_Hubbell_desktop

Nathan Sarlow:

Nathan Sarlow

James Bull:

James Bull

James McDonald:

James McDonald

Shane Guymon:

Shane Guymon

Sneh Roy:

Sneh Roy

Troy Osinoff:

Troy Osinoff

Vonster:

Von Glitchska

Brian Tom:

Brian Tom

Brian Potstra:

Brian Postra

Dayane Straube Rotating Desktop:

Dayne Straube1

Dayane Straube

Mike Martin:

Mike Martin

Stephen Olmstead:

Stephen Olmstead

Mike Kamanski:

Mike Kamanski

Nick Sloggett:

Nick Sloggett

Rod Ligtenberg:

Roland Ligtenberg

Mabu:

Mabu

Matt Klaman:

Matt Klaman

Courtny Cotten:

Courtny Cotten

Design that Rocks:

Design that Rocks

Paul Le Comte:

Paul Le Comte

Tim Mather Work/Personal:

Tim Mather Normal

Tim Mather Work

Richard Scott:

Richard Scott

Razvan:

Razvan

Brian Gray:

BKG_desktop

Nani:

Nani

Matt Dunn:

Matt Dunn

Fashionably late is Raja’s:

raja_desktop

And lastly here is mine and my wifes,

Brandclay:

Brandclay

Katie Farrell (she’s very festive) :)

Katie Farrell

Hope you enjoyed this post and the insight into other designers/developers desktops.  I have to say, out of all of these, I am most surprised with Von’s… that is one crazy desktop.

Leave a comment about which one you like the most, and the winner will receive a $20 gift card to starbucks.  We all could use some starbucks this time of season…

starbucks

40
 
  1. David Airey said:

    Pretty intriguing, Sean. Which did I like the most? Probably Vonster’s, because I know I couldn’t handle so much happening on my desktop. Kudos.

  2. [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by IamGarth and blakestevenson, Brandclay / Sean. Brandclay / Sean said: [NEW] blog post: "Designers Expose Themselves" — http://bit.ly/7npb1A #design #desktop #showcase [...]

  3. Sean Farrell said:

    @David – As you can see from mine, I don’t think I would be able to handle that much stuff on my desktop either. I can’t stand having anything but my hard drive.

    I am however, an icon fiend, and probably change my dock icons daily..

  4. Garth said:

    I like Mike Kamanski’s. We “give” of ourselves daily…

  5. Nate Kay said:

    I have to agree with David. Vonster probably took the most effort and actually inspires me to do that on my Mac.

  6. I can’t believe I was the only one to have your standard photo :) I use my desktop for all of my current projects – similar to Von. Hottest photo goes to Rod Ligtenberg, best art goes to Dayane Straub. Rob Alan gets a highly commended for being able to work with the default background.

  7. Thanks for including me in your great collection. Very interesting to see everyones workspaces. I love mine, but I vote for Paul Le Comte…love the open feeling, with the interesting smaller images and the printing registration marks layout. Very cool.

  8. Sean Farrell said:

    @nathan, I was surprised that you were the only one to have a family photo as well…

  9. Clifwith1f said:

    Ooh I really like Paul Le Comte’s and Brandclay’s. I also agree that Vonster’s makes me want to be that organized. For my setup, I always need motivation: http://www.twitpic.com/st3o2/full

  10. Postra’s desktop is almost the same way i set mine up

  11. Matt said:

    Glad to see my lonely window included there, haha. Great post. It’s interesting to see what other people are working with every day. I’m also surprised at the number of dock icons. I can only have a few at a time or I feel messy.

  12. I like Matt Dunn’s because the dock has an interesting relationship to the window image. Very artsy!

  13. Amy said:

    The image on Rod Ligtenberg’s desktop is incredible! I want to be there.

  14. Sean Farrell said:

    left to right for my dock: finder, firefox, postbox, things, illustrator, photoshop, candy bar, tweetdeck, quicksilver, trash :)

    thank you candy bar

  15. [...] This post was Twitted by DE_ZINE [...]

  16. [...] Check out brandclay’s “Designers Expose Themselves” here. Comments (0) [...]

  17. Klaman said:

    I’m surprised to see another stock background image (Rob Alan) besides my own. I am jealous of the dock on his though. I am also shocked by the volume of dock icons and even more so by the volume of toolbar icons! I enjoy the simplicity of Sean’s whole setup but it would be rigged if he were to win the prize! :)

  18. Sean Farrell said:

    @Klaman, Matt you know I can’t win :) It’s for everyone else, but if I’m going to ask you all to show yours, I have to show mine, right? ;)

  19. Love the post, thanks for this. Vonster’s desktop is a great idea!

  20. Sean Farrell said:

    @clif- hahha i have that as my iphone background :)

  21. Hey thanks, but my link doesn’t work. Interestingly, I thought most designers would prefer the minimal and tidy desktop, so I’m surprised to see the amount of very busy/photographic desktops. Cool post!

  22. Vonster said:

    I created my desktop organizer about 12 years ago. I like to keep current projects on my desktop until I finish them. This helps me keep them organized and I re-arrange based on priority if needed. My colors associate with my own work and rep work and personal projects. I do have a method to my madness. ;-P

  23. Sean Farrell said:

    @brian, fixed! sorry about that.

    @Vonster, pretty smart, but I think you should spruce it up, give it a bit of your illustration spice

  24. [...] This post was Twitted by kaimere [...]

  25. Squarelogo said:

    So, no love for the designers that use a (gasp) PC?

  26. I wish I could vote for all of the fellows with uTorrent open, but since I can’t – I vote for my own.

  27. hoshimo said:

    i vote for mike kamanski cuz he knows a good font library management system.

    it’s fun seeing the similarities and differences we have in our software. kind of amazes me how some people can work with only 3 or 4 in their deck… and also amazes me how desktops lkie vonsters can exist and yet work for them.

  28. hoshimo said:

    and im surprised no one else uses geektool!

  29. hoshimo said:

    i guess i would have to vote for von’s too on that basis. (didnt notice you also used linotype fontxplorer… but i guess you cant blame me for not seeing it the first time around right?)

  30. Paul said:

    Hey thanks for putting my desktop up.

    Nice to represent New Zealand typography here

  31. Chris Young said:

    Vonster gets my vote!

    I like LBOI’s too, simply for the shameless self-promotion ; )

  32. I like Paul Le Comte – Kiwiana!

  33. Jessica said:

    I really like the Holiday one! :)

  34. Sean, thanks for the include.

    Obviously, Vonster has the most interesting and revealing desktop for undoubtedly a very busy guy.
    As for me, mine has my happy place to look at when things get too crazy.
    Nice post.

  35. Sean Farrell said:

    i’ll leave it open til the end of the weekend, but it looks like Von is the leading the pack

  36. Awesome! Thanks for using the Pid’jin wallpaper!

  37. I’m going to toss a vote Paul Le Comte’s way- like the out of the box feel he has. I can really appreciate Von’s as well- I used to run a similar setup. I created a background with regions in it for each project. I also used the color labels in OSX to divide them (green=print, purple=web, red=logo, etc). I had ‘To-Do’, ‘Proofed’, and ‘Stalled’ areas- worked pretty well. That workflow changed though once I got dropbox up and running. Can’t beat syncing all of your projects via the cloud in my opinion. :)

  38. Also as a little bit of a preface to mine, the ‘MacBook Mini’ reference pertains to the fact that this is a screenshot of my little Dell Mini 9 netbook running OSX at a resolution of 1024×600. It’s a little orange beast. :)

  39. Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dustin Watson: RT @sonatacreative: OSX Designer Desktops: http://is.gd/5i9cM (via @brandclay) (Good stuff)…

  40. Imran Anwar said:

    Some of these were simply brilliant. Thanks for posting. Will tweet the link.

    Imran

Submit your Comment