This right here is my ink swatching spot. It’s our dining room table, just adjacent to the kitchen. Near the kitchen sink for easy pen water and pen rinsing action, away from the carpeted floor (though I’d hate to clean ink off the hardwood!) and with lots of elbow room. You can see my elegant brown paper bag used as a blotter for any spills. In the past few years, our entertaining has dropped to a nice round zero, so I’m not sure I’ve cleaned up my inky spot in quite a while. What you don’t see are all the crates and cubes that used to sit on the table, the floor, and the next chair over.

Why don’t you see those cubes? It’s not embarrassment that keeps me from sharing them (though maybe it should be)… it’s that I finally fixed the problem. While I know Ana loves her Raskog cart dearly, I went ahead and ordered a knockoff from Target last week. And on Sunday when it arrived I gleefully cleaned, sorted and emptied out all those different spots and loaded everything onto a handy rolling cart. Now I can store it in my closet to keep it out of the way and roll it out when I’m ready to swatch. In that top tray? New inks I’ll be sharing soon, a new notebook, and a few other fun things.

Three cheers for getting organized!

The post My humble workspace. appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

I’m a huge fan of Rickshaw Bags. Ever since my first daily-carry Zero Messenger Bag (now 10 years old and still looking great), which has traveled with me to four continents, I’ve found reasons (and excuses) to buy more bags in other colors, sizes, fabrics and styles. I also have several stationery accessories. Handmade in San Francisco, the products are all well made, durable and – the most addictive part – color-customizable!

Rickshaw’s Plush Valet Tray ($34) is not an item that initially struck me as useful. Traditionally, a valet is used by men as a pocket dump. Since I don’t carry coins, keys, knives or anything else in my pockets, I don’t have this need. However, I do have a specific art table need, and when I spotted the cushy valet, I suddenly realized what its purpose is.

When I’m working on a drawing or other project at my desk, I’m constantly picking up and putting down various pencils, pens, scissors or other tools, and I don’t like the noisy clatter they make on my desktop surface or a hard tray. I’d tried paper towels and fabric to set tools down on, but round pencils kept rolling off.

The rectangular 4-by-8-inch valet is an ideal size for giving my currently used tools a soft, silent place to land – it’s plush-lined! Yes, my pencils now have a more comfy seat than I do. I don’t have any of Rickshaw’s gorgeous, plush-lined fountain pen cases or Coozies because I refuse to let my pens be better dressed than I am. OK, I do have one Clover Pen Sleeve (alas, no longer available), seen in this post, which also shows a couple of my many Rickshaw bags. But the Clover has a specific travel purpose beyond keeping my pens warm and stylishly dressed.

I chose Cordura fabric in Iris on the outside (in homage to my original, well-traveled Zero Messenger) and orange plush on the inside. 

The valet has an interesting and functional design: In use, the four corners are snapped together into a simple tray. When unsnapped, the valet goes flat for storage or travel. It’s also available in three square sizes and a slightly less cushy version in waterproof EPX fabric.

This is one of those things that I did not know I needed until I saw it, and now I don’t know how I ever worked at my desk without it! Did I mention that it’s color-customizable? Don’t play with the customizing tool just before bedtime. I guarantee you will stay up too late trying out all the color combos.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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After I wrote my post on the new Facebook office spaces, my friend Andy made me put my money where my mouth was and invited me to Facebook to tour the offices for myself. Since that was one of my most commented upon posts I couldn’t pass up the chance to see the campus for myself.

Was the campus overwhelmingly large? Yes. So much so that there are shuttle buses and bicycles to get people from building to building. But is also filled with light and art and posters and a sense of play. It was also a lot quieter than I expected it to be. People were very respectful of the open seating and kept their voices down in the open areas. They used the closed conference rooms and outdoor areas, the coffee shops and other communal areas for conversations. It was actually a very congenial environment and not at all what I was expecting.

There was so much art. And posters and graphics all pinned haphazardly to the walls which gave the space a casual vibe and made it feel partially like a college campus and partially like Disneyland for coders.

I also work in a large office with tons of cubicles and an ongoing attempt to have “open seating” despite the photo from the previous post, Facebook’s space actually has a warm comfortable vibe of a loft apartment rather than a corporate office that stripped all the walls out of the cubicles. Each employees space has personal touches that show their personality, some more than others, of course. Some folks work on large desktop machines while others work on laptops to be more mobile. Some people work on mobile apps and just wander around with their phone in their hands. What a way to function!

All in all, it was an inspiring day and I feel quite differently about the landscape, both inside and out, of the Facebook offices. And I’m supremely jealous that the weather is such in California that Facebook employees can essentially work outside in the roof garden 11 months out of the year. Makes me dread January in KC.

For even more photos, check out my full Facebook HQ album on Flickr. And yes, I’m eating my words a little now. At least they taste like asian noodle bowl and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

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A post shared by Andy Welfle (@awelfle)

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I was listening to Cortex yesterday and Myke and CGP Grey were mentioning the new Menlo Park headquarters for Facebook and the large, open-plan work space. This space is not a trend unique to Facebook. Many companies and office spaces are transitioning to open-plan work spaces for more “open communication” and collaborating. But is this type of space really the solution to that? Do people really collaborate more and do critical thinking in a space like this or do they end up trying to drown out all the distractions with headphones or go hide away in a closet somewhere to get some actual work done?

I find the interior space of the new Facebook office neither aesthetically appealing nor engaging for working or collaborating. It just looks cluttered, messy and noisy. The fact that no one is given any storage space nor are they encouraged to have personal items on their desk seem to only make it more disheartening and cluttered. The overly high, unfinished ceilings with cables descending down are even worse! I think of something Trevor Noah said about not moving into Jon Stewart’s office after he left the Daily Show… he talked about how the whole point of moving up in the worked and getting out of poverty meant he didn’t want to have to live in a space with exposed brick walls again and what was it with white people and exposed brick? I feel the same way about wealthy tech companies and exposed wiring? You can afford to have that sh*t covered up! This whole space gives me a case of the hibby jibbies!

For a more in-depth view of the new Facebook work space, there is a 3+ minute video tour on YouTube.

I really hope that the pendulum of the open floor plan office starts to swing back the other way because I don’t believe that this much openness is genuinely conducive to non-distracted working and thinking. I believe it leads people to seek out other places to work, or they choose to come into work either early or stay late in an attempt to avoid distrations. I think the myth of multi-tacking needs to stop. It makes people sloppy and tired. We can multi-task for a little while but, in the end, I don’t think its effective, efficient or healthy. I don’t think we, as idea workers, can come up with our best ideas when we are constantly distracted by co-workers, bleeps, or other disturbances. Yes, its nice to have a way to bounce ideas off other people, but we need to find a better way to do it other than forcing people to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with headphones on while they madly type into their laptops and mobile devices. That’s not really collaborating, is it?

Thus endedth the tirade.

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I loved seeing these pastel bright desks full of great organizational and storage ideas. I particularly like the the pegboard is just propped up behind the desk instead of needing to be mounted to the wall making it a good solution for renters and space to hide cords. While originally designed for a kid’s room, it doesn’t look all that different from my desk, I have my own stash of ponies and dolls too!

Images from:
Petit & Small
Love Print Studio
Marie Mersier

For more desk inspiration, be sure to check out The Well-Appointed Desk Pinterest board.

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I found some beautiful work spaces today.  Lots of natural wood in this week’s Desk Set plus the requisite white workspace —  but this white space is a bookshelf with built-in desk and doubles as a room divider.

The post The Desk Set: Warm Wood, Bookshelf Divider and Color appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

I found two lovely desks this week. The first is a unique purple and gold accented desk that has a vintage-luggage-meets-modern sensibility. I love all the geometric patterns in the room.

The second is a lovely, wood roll-top desk mixed with a bright, mid-century chair for an eclectic look. Of course, its from a home in Paris. Parisians have an innate ability to mix and match everything for a perfect blend of chic and lived-in.

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(From left to right, top to bottom: Better Homes & Gardens, Brownstoner, Jeremy Bittermann for The New York Times, Danielle de Lange.)

I hope these spaces feel colorful and inspiring. So many of the images I find around the internet of workspaces lately have been stark white and barren and don’t feel like inviting workspaces. These spaces felt tidy but productive with evidence of people actually utilizing the space for a variety of tasks.

The post The Desk Set: Cluttered but Clean appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

There are lots of great detail photos and “where to buy” guides interspersed in this office tour of fashion blogger Caroline Harper Knapp of House of Harper. Also interspersed are other workspace and office tours previously posted on My Domaine. Eye candy galore.

(via My Domaine)

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Portland-based, Hand Eye Supply has created the site Desk Inspired to feature short interviews and photos of workspaces of some very interesting creative folks. The articles feature the tools and methods they use in order to be creative each day. The photography is gorgeous and many of their favorite work tools are available for purchase through Hand Eye Supply.

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