- Hey designers.
Today I want to talk to you about computers and hardware,
and all the technology that I use
to get my design work done.
(lounge music)
Let's start off with my main machine,
the computer that I spend the majority
of my working hours sitting at and working on.
And that is my iMac Pro,
that you can see in the background here.
This is a really recent purchase for me.
It's the 2017 model,
which I'm pretty sure is the only model
that's out currently at the time of making this video.
It's got a 3.2GHz processor,
it's got 32GB's of RAM, graphics card
and I bought it from the Refurbished Apple Store.
This is a really great way
to get Apple products for cheaper,
because basically someone else bought it,
maybe used it for a little bit,
decided they didn't want it, so returned it.
Apple refurbishes it, makes it just like new
and then sells it on at a much cheaper price.
So I got this for 4,159 pounds.
Which is, a very expensive computer.
But, if I bought it from the Apple store itself, brand new,
then it would have cost me 4,899 pounds.
So there was a saving.
740 pounds, that is definitely worth it,
to shop on the Refurbished Store.
This computer is a beast,
it can export videos in mere minutes.
It keeps up with me no matter what I'm doing,
no matter how many applications I have open at any one time.
I absolutely love it.
So even though it was a lot of money.
For me, it was definitely worth the purchase price.
I'm not the type of person who
upgrades a computer every year,
or even every two years, anything like that.
I know I'm going to own this thing for many years to come.
And it's going to be a great device,
that keeps being great over time.
Since I work from home,
and especially now that I have my own office to work in.
I really like working on a desktop computer.
I was previously using my boyfriend Marks iMac,
but when he started working from home as well,
fair enough, he wanted that back, to use for himself.
And I just decided I couldn't go back
to using a laptop and a monitor,
which is what I'd used previously.
I wanted to get an iMac.
So that's why I invested in this one.
The screen is beautiful.
I'm pretty sure it's like 5K
and it's like super clear and amazing.
And I like that it's got a lot of inputs to it as well,
at the back, seems like a simple thing.
But these days most Apple computers don't come with many,
so it's nice to be able to put my memory card in it
or as many USB's or USB-C's as I need to,
there's room for it all.
I tend to have my camera charger
plugged in there all the time,
same with a cable to charge the Trap Pad
and keyboard that I use.
And speaking of Trap Pad and keyboard.
The iMac Pro comes with black peripherals,
I've got this black keyboard, black mouse.
I don't use either of these.
Which is a shame, because they are beautiful.
The mouse I knew I wasn't going to use,
because I prefer to work with a Trackpad.
I use the external Apple Trackpad.
It's just basically a big white block.
They do make a black version of this,
to match the keyboard.
Which I was kind of thinking of buying,
if I had stuck with the keyboard.
I tried really hard to like this keyboard.
But if I show you the current one that I use,
let's hold them up together.
This keyboard is like a longer version of this one.
So it's got a numeric keypad added on to the end to it.
And I didn't find this useful at all.
I don't know.
Nothing about my work flow
requires me to have a numeric keypad like that.
I guess it's kind of handy having these arrow keys here,
but I was already used to using them
down the bottom on this keyboard.
I tried for a while to use this,
but I felt like I was always sitting over to the side of it
to make space for the numeric keypad
to be at the side there.
I gave up on it in the end
and just went back to the previous
external Apple keyboard that I had.
I think a lot of people find it quiet weird
that I design using the Trackpad as my main device.
I don't use a mouse.
But I got really used to using
my laptop when I moved to London
and I didn't have an external monitor
or a proper set up at home.
I would just be using the Trackpad on my laptop.
So when the time came to figure out
my home setup I did get a mouse
and in the end I decided that I just preferred
working with a Trackpad more.
I like all the gestures you can do with it,
I feel like I'm really quick using it.
And I do have, I don't know if you can
see here in the corner, it's like a little wrist pad,
to use with my Trackpad,
just to make it a little more ergonomic.
This iMac Pro and those peripherals
are what I use for the majority of my design work.
Now something you may know about me
if you've watched my videos before, you've seen my vlogs,
is that I travel a lot.
For work and for fun, doing remote work while I'm traveling.
And sadly can't pack this up and take it with me on a trip.
When I travel I take laptop with me.
This is my favorite little traveling laptop,
it's the 12 inch MacBook.
This is the very first model I think.
So I will say that it's gotten a little bit slow now.
Going from the crazy fast speed of the iMac Pro,
to this little 12 inch,
quiet the shock to the system.
However, the size of this,
kind of makes up for a lot of that speed annoyance.
It's super tiny, super light,
so that makes it great to travel with.
I tend to take it with me on trips
that are one or two weeks max.
Because any longer then that
and I do find myself getting frustrated
by how small the screen is.
Especially for doing design work.
Like it's just slightly too small
to be designing a full width desktop website in Figma,
because you've got to have the side bars
of the design tool in there.
Short trips for writing on and things,
this is a great device.
What I take with me on longer trips,
is my 15 inch MacBook Pro.
This computer, very heavy, compared to that 12 inch.
I bought this when I first moved to London
also from the Refurbished Apple Store.
And it's quiet old now.
I'm pretty sure this is a 2014 model.
I think I need to get the battery changed,
because lately it's been having a few problems,
when I turn it on and it says it's got like 70%,
but then I use it for five minutes
and it shuts off and needs to be
plugged in again to be able to be used.
That's probably a warning sign
and something I should investigate.
But this machine has done me good for a very long time.
And I think I would recommend,
if you're wanting to invest in a computer,
one that will be a great all-rounder,
to take traveling, to use at home,
then I do think a MacBook Pro is a really good choice.
Because it's got that power, it's got that portability.
Before we moved into this flat,
I used to use this as my main machine
and I plugged it in to a 4K monitor.
Now I kind of need to sell that monitor,
because it's just sitting around doing nothing.
I did think about, for a second,
plugging it in to the iMac
and having a duel screen thing going on.
But I'm quiet liking the focus that a single screen brings.
I think I'll keep sticking with that for a while.
I'm in kind of an annoying situation right now
where both of my laptops are not quiet cutting it
and I think that I might replace both with one
13 inch MacBook Air.
Potentially, I don't know, I haven't decided yet.
I'm going to see how much more
life I can get out of these first.
It's pretty easy for me to switch between all three
computers because I use software like Figma,
where all your files are saved in the cloud
and I use Dropbox for most of my
image assets, document storage.
So that's all in the cloud and easily accessible as well.
Thought about doing a separate video
about how to have an at home
and a travel set up
and keep all your files in sync.
So let me know, I'll put a poll up,
if you would like to see that video.
One more main device to show you
and that is my new baby, the iPad Pro.
This is the 2018 model, it's the 11 inch version.
I got it with 256GB of storage,
because that felt like enough.
And obviously got the Apple Pencil to go with it,
which just sits on the top there.
Previously I had the 9.7 inch iPad Pro,
I think this was the first model, potentially,
came out in 2016, something like that.
And the original Apple Pencil as well.
This was great, it served me really well.
But, I did find the screen
was just ever so slightly too small
for getting good solid work done.
As you can see they're sizes are fairly similar.
This one isn't that much bigger then this one,
but because it's got so much less Bezel around the screen
it's just so much bigger
and I find it's the perfect size for getting work done.
So I'm really happy I decided to go for this one
and not the bigger one,
because this is just much more compact
and to travel with.
I do think the new Apple Pencil
is vastly better then the old one as well.
This new one has, kind of a matte finish to it,
where as this one was kind of glossy.
And just makes this nicer to hold.
It's also got a flat bit,
where it magnets to the top of the iPad to charge,
which makes it, again, nicer to grip, I think.
And it's got a special thing
where you tap twice on it to change
between tools in some of the drawing software.
So that's nice.
And unlike having to plug this one
in to the end of the iPad to charge,
this one just charges by sitting on top.
Which is a very nice touch.
I have done a video,
and it was using this older iPad,
all about how I use the iPad, what apps I use
as part of my design process.
And that hasn't changed, Procreate, Concepts,
Astropad, to turn it into a graphics tablet.
So I'm going to leave a link to that video,
you can go watch it if you want to see what apps I use.
I'm just using them all now on this iPad instead.
I got two covers for it.
This is the pink folio cover,
so that I can stand it up nicely if I need to.
And then I also got the folio keyboard.
I wasn't so sure about this at first.
It felt a little bit weird to type on to get started.
And it's still not, I don't know,
not the best keyboard.
But, look at that slimline profile,
it's super nice to be able to have just an iPad in its case,
but also it turns into a keyboard.
I spent a really great session the other day
at a coffee shop, doing some writing on it.
And I came to love it basically.
I spent two hours with it,
had a great focused writing session with it
and I'm on board, I'm converted, I like it now.
This iPad, especially with that folio keyboard case,
it's kind of replaced a lot
of what I was using my old MacBook for,
it was my favorite writing device previously,
but now the iPad has over taken it.
I just wish that I could use Figma on the iPad.
Imagine me going to use the pencil
to move stuff around in your Figma files.
That would be amazing, but I did try it
and it didn't seem to work.
But I do want to just give a disclaimer
that if you're getting started in design
and watching this video for tips on what computer to buy,
you absolutely do not need three.
That's ridiculous, I've just happened
to collect these over time I suppose.
They've just come into my possession.
I also don't think that you need
to have the latest and greatest of any model
in order to do great design.
They are super expensive devices,
especially to buy brand new
and it's just not necessary to be a designer.
You don't need a fancy computer,
you just need a way to access the design software.
Because a lot of design software
is based in the browser these days it's not Mac specific,
you can get whatever computer
you can afford to get your work done.
I do really like investing in devices
that are going to help me work faster
and also that I enjoy using.
Obviously you saw a lot of Apple products in this video,
I just really like Apple products,
I like the Apple operating system,
I like the whole ecosystem that it's a part of.
So please no one in the comments
tell me about a great PC that does the exact same thing
for half the price.
I'm just not interested.
I like my Apple products.
I would love to hear in the comments
what the main devices that you work on,
is it a laptop is it a desktop.
What one have you chosen to go with.
If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up
and if you're new then hit subscribe,
because I make new videos about design every week.
And I would love to see you back for the next one.
All right, thanks for watching.
Bye.
(lounge music)