A collection of hardware, software, and tools that power my daily design and development work. This setup has evolved over years of building digital products and running a design agency.
Desk Setup
- Machine: 14 inch Apple M3 Max 32GB of RAM and 1TB Storage. Great machine, handles everything I throw at it.
- Primary monitor: 32" 4K BenQ Designer Monitor.
- Second monitor: 24 inch 4K LG 24UD58 - It's an old, basic screen with ugly bezels. Does the job.
- Keyboard: Keychron Q6 Max HE - This is my first mechanical keyboard and oh man, I'll never go back. This model is built like a tank and has the Hall Effect switches. 100% recommend.
- Palm Rest: Keychron Silicone Palm Rest. Pairs great with the keyboard but do not buy direct from Keychron. they ship from China and it takes weeks! try and find it on Amazon.
- Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3S. Best in class, been a staple for years. Don't buy it in white, the colour stains after a few months.
- Deskpad: Generic faux leather pad from Amazon. Does the job well.
- Monitor arms: Ergotron – LX Premium Monitor Arm. I have two of these. Tried many different ones and these came out on top. They're pretty much the most popular.
- Dock: CalDigit TS4. Pretty much best docks for your mac you can get. If you want performance, you can't go cheap on the dock. This model has been superseded by the TS5 and TS5 Plus.
- Audio Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen USB Audio Interface. Very popular, works great.
- Headphones / Headset: Audio-Technica M50xSTS StreamSet Pretty much the only headset with XLR. Extremely comfortable and perfect for those 8hr sessions. I use these for Zoom calls. I also have the Apple Max (for watching TV) and also the famous Sony MDR-7506 (industry staple) for music.
- Charger: Belkin PRO 2-in-1 Wireless Charging Dock with MagSafe.
- Webcam: Insta360 Link Love this camera, really been impressed. There's a new model out now as well.
- Desk: Standing desk legs and frame from Autonomous with a custom oak worktop covered with a walnut-coloured stain for a darker look.
- Chair: IKEA MARKUS. Very popular, pretty cheap. It's not the best and not the worst i've ever had.
- Coffee Mug: Hydro Flask. Have loads of their products.
- Pens: Micron PN by Pigma.
- Notebooks: Only ever Moleskine.
General and Productivity
- Raycast: The first thing I install on any new mac. I try to use Raycast to control as much of my workflow as possible.
- Window Management: Aerospace, Jankyborders and Sketchybar. It's a little hardcore, but once you set it up and get the hang of it, it's an absolute game changer.
- Apple Mail: for personal email.
- Mimestream: for work-related email. This is my favourite native Mac email app. Unfortunately, it only supports Google at this time.
- Apple Music: I'm fully in the Apple Ecosystem now.
- Dato: Menubar app for meetings, calendar etc. To be honest, install anything made by Sindre Sorhus – he's the GOAT.
- Folder Peek: Another menu bar app for quickly accessing files and folders. I love using this tool to quickly grab something from my downloads folder and drag it into another app.
- CleanShot X: Screen capture tool. I've tried them all, this is the best.
- Anybox: my bookmarks manager. I store alot of stuff and im always looking for the next best thing. Right now, Anybox works well and is native on mac.
- Eagle: This is an amazing tool for storing visual inspiration. Downside, there's no iPhone app. Starting to use Cosmos instead.
- MyMind: Use this to store anything and everything. I have also started using Cosmos for storing visual inspiration.
- Hyperduck: Lets me send links from my phone to my mac instantly.
- Dropover: Really nice tool that allows me to group files together and keep them close, for when I need them.
- NordVPN: VPN of choice.
- Blip: Really nice utility to send files from my phone to my mac (especially when Airdrop isn't working).
- Legcord: I use this app instead of the official Discord app. Just feels a little lighter on the resources than the official app.
- Supercharge: Lets you customise settings on your mac. Very powerful.
- 1Password: It's been my password manager for years. It's awesome.
- Google Drive: for cloud storage, also use my own NAS as well as iCloud for backup and storage.
- Apple Reminders: is my todo app of chose. I've used them all. Apple Reminders feels at home on the mac, it's a lovely product, especially with recent updates.
- Obsidian: My notes app / second brain. Also Apple Notes for quick notes and reminders.
- MarkEdit: Awesome markdown editor, that's open source and has just the right amount of features.
- Capture: Absolutely love this tool. Great way to grab quick notes, the kind of notes where it's not really a note, just a word, product, reminder anything.
- Google Chrome is my browsers of choice.
Development and Design
- UI Design: Figma - It's been my daily design tool for years. Previously Sketch, previously Photoshop.
- Web Animation: Cavalry is my new favourite app. It's so powerful. Also use Jitter and SVG Gator to create SVG animations.
- For all things 3D, im learning Spline and Blender.
- Icon Management: IconJar – Great app for storing all your icons.
- Font Management: RightFont – Much better than the native Mac font manager.
- File Optimisation: Clop.
- Code Editor: Cursor and VScode: I jump between these IDE's when I need them. Sometimes use CotEditor too when it's just something quick.
- Device testing and local development: LocalCan – testing URLs locally as well as webhooks.
- Terminal: Ghostty as well as Warp. (with oh-my-zsh and Starship).
- Project Management: Linear and Github Issues to manage projects and tasks. I also use Tim to track time on simple freelance projects. It's such a lovely tool.
- Docker Containers: Orbstack - Prefer this over the official Docker app.
- Photo Editing: Photomator and Pixelmator for image editing and simple graphics.
- Phone testing: Bezel – a super handy tool for previewing your phone designs to clients.
- Gapplin: view SVG images easily.
- Video editing: Final Cut Pro and Descript.
- Mockuuups Studio: for device mockups for design work. I also love using Shots and Maneken for device mockups.
- API testing: Postman is nice but prefer using Yaak these days, really tidy app.
- Pixel Snap 2: Allows you to inspect designs with pixel precision.
- TablePlus: Native mac database app. Use it with Postgress. Also often use Supabase locally (via Docker).
- Image Upscaler: Topaz Gigapixel – if you're doing any generative AI stuff, then you need an upscaler. This one is amazing.
- Umbra: Little utility that changes your wallpaper depending if you're in dark or light mode.
- Video Calls: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams. Depends what's best for the project / client.
AI and Assistants
These change all the time, but the jist of it is as follows.
Video Gear
What I use to shoot video and take photos. I use to have so many fancy cameras and gear. But now, I love using the iPhone. The features now are so good.
