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Setup
Here's are some notes on my current hardware and software setup. Pretty normal stuff here. This is mostly just me complaining about how expensive everything is. Written in November 2022.
Hardware
2019 MacBook Pro
- 13-inch
- Two Thunderbolt 3 ports
- 120GB SSD
I really love this Macbook, but I do think Apple products are overpriced and the overall vibe can get annoying. I don't think I'll buy another one when this one eventually dies. (Although I will be very sad to say goodbye.)
I received this Macbook as an award for a design project, which I'm extremely thankful for. The only Apple product I've actually paid money for was an iPod Classic back in 2009, and I'm weirdly kind of proud of that.
Aside from headphones, I don't use any other accessories. Not even a mouse or external monitor. I like the trackpad and the small screen. Feels nice!
Primary Software
- Adobe Illustrator CC
- Adobe Photoshop CSS
- Adobe InDesign CC
I have a love/hate relationship with Adobe. I've had an almost universally-good time with their software. (Maybe I'm lucky, but I haven't ran into any of the common bugs some of my fellow designers complain about.) But the pricing model is bonkers. Paying monthly for a piece of software is a bad idea to begin with. But charging more than $50/month is borderline uforgivable.
Maybe this price is somewhat reasonable for power users who somehow work in every app (may god bless those lunatics). But I only regularly use Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. And because they're the industry standards that I've spent more than a decade learning, it really feels like I don't have much of a choice but to pay up.
I also really like Figma and had my eye on using it as a potential alternative to Illustrator. (Then maybe I could get away with just paying for InDesign.) But wouldn't you know it, Adobe bought them out earlier this year. Capitalism, baby!
Tertiary Tools
- Blender
- Brackets
- Field Notes notebooks
I occasionally use Blender to make simple 3D models. I've barely scratched the surface of this tool, but I'm constanlty impressed by the things that it can do. And it's open source? Hell yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Brackets is another open source tool that I really like. It's a text editor that I use to write HTML and CSS and make little websites. The key feature, for me, is the live preview. I guess there are other open source text editors that do this too, but this is the one I use.
I also love having a notebook around. (Even if I rarely write in them, the idea of writing in them is endlessly appealing to me.) I try not to be loyal to too many brands, but I've been a fan of Field Notes for many years and love almost everything they put out. Having a little stack of their notebooks within arm's reach is a must.
Updated: 2022.11.25 ✦