I was looking for something work-related to put near my desk instead of just framing another one of my travel photos. I knew this was the one when I saw it. Designed by the original Macintosh designer, Susan Kare, it brings me back to old Macintosh commercials and it happens to be the first thing you see walking down my hallway; a nice welcome to my home.

I'm a nerd at heart, so I love keeping an eye on what keeps my computer or network busy. iStat Menus lets you put whatever matters to you directly in your menu bar with easy access to learn more about that errant process slowing you down.

I initially got this stand to keep my phone upright while live-previewing designs, but it quickly became my phone's desk home. Easy to see notifications as they come in and keep it nicely plugged in.

I use this lovely Mac app every single day. It's a simple client for The Hype Machine, a music blog aggregator. I use it to play whatever songs and remixes are popular on the site.

As a designer I've got my fair share of notepads, pens, and pencils that I like to keep handy when it comes to sketching something out. I got this beautiful walnut pen cup to tame my favourite pens while matching the walnut desk, coffee table, and bookshelf in my work area.

This thing is like the After Effects of GIFs. I use it to quickly create, resize, and crop GIFs from videos – fun stuff to tweet out or documenting designs during prototyping and testing.