- I'm Brian Sacawa, you're watching He Spoke Style,
and today I'm gonna show you my desk setup.
(upbeat music)
I wanna give a shout out to Brock at The Modest Man
for the inspiration for this, appreciate that very much.
So first things first,
my desk is never as clean as you're going to see it today.
I strive to keep it this clean
because I find the neater things are
at the desk and around the studio,
the less anxious I feel and the more productive I am.
But you know, this is a work space and it's impossible
to keep completely pristine all of the time.
I tend to be someone who's prone to making piles of things.
I know it's only gonna take like 10 to 15 minutes
to neaten up but sometimes it's the last thing I want to do,
though I always feel so much better
when I do put that time in.
All right, so moving on now to the desk setup
and first, the actual desk.
This desk or table is by Bludot.
Bludot is a sort of minimalist furniture company.
It was founded by two architects and a sculptor,
so the form of everything
is always very very well considered.
Everything's got sort of a minimal modern feel
with clean lines and I really like the aesthetic.
This table is the Strut.
It's the large size, it's 75 inches long and 35 inches wide.
It's a huge surface, obviously bigger than I need
for just working at the computer but it's great to have
the extra space for when we're shooting outfit videos.
I can line up all the accessories
like pocket squares, watches, glasses, sunglasses,
and just have them all readily available.
We've also used this surface for a top down video
in the past and of course, this area is where I sit
for this main talking shot.
It is also the area that tends to become the repository
of piles of things but not now,
and I'm gonna try to keep it that way.
Next is my chair, it's very old.
I honestly don't even know what brand this is,
it doesn't say anywhere on the chair.
It's comfortable enough, the height is adjustable.
I personally like the armrests.
It has wheels so it can easily roll across the floor
or to the other side of the desk.
Actually, sometimes I sit at my laptop
on the other side of the desk sometimes for other work,
and the chair makes it easy
to go back and forth between computers.
Speaking of computers, my desktop computer is an iMac.
It's very old, it's from late 2012.
21 1/2 inches.
I completely maxed out the RAM,
so it runs as fast as it possibly can.
I have the Magic Keyboard and the Magic Mouse as well.
My mousepad is by McMurray and Blonde,
it's a small company in Chicago.
They make really nice high-quality leather goods.
So this computer, obviously not the fastest or newest model
but it gets the job done for me.
Since I have Ian who edits all the videos,
I'm not doing any of those things
that would require a real high-speed processor.
Though, in terms of photos,
I do work from an external hard drive
just to keep as much off the machine itself
so it'll run as smoothly as possible.
I'll probably upgrade and get something newer at some point
but until this doesn't turn on, it's totally fine.
I mentioned that I work from an external hard drive
and the hard drive I use and travel with all the time
is the Lacie Rugged Mini.
It's four terabytes and not even half filled up
with all of the video footage
and photos from the beginning of time.
I personally don't worry too much about losing data.
Rob has all of the photos backed up in multiple places.
We have copies of all of the video footage in the Cloud
and Ian also keeps that as well.
I'm really particular about media management though,
as are the other two guys so we have very comprehensive
folder structures for everything.
It makes things very easy to find and a lot less frustrating
when you're looking for that one particular thing
from that one particular time.
Even though I personally don't do
the photo or video editing, I do have a card reader here,
it's by Lexar.
It's a dual card reader so it takes both SD and CF cards.
A lot of times when we're shooting,
we'll just do a quick test shot for lighting or framing
and then just quickly pop the card into the card reader
and check out the footage
so we know we like what we're working with.
Right in front of my keyboard,
I have this pen/pencil holder.
It's by HINE and we had them made
when we launched the shop and sadly,
they are all sold out now.
It's handmade, it has the HSS monogram underneath.
It's a nice little desk accessory and right now,
I have my Montblanc Meinsterstuck ballpoint pen
resting proudly in it.
I am not a fan of making notes on my phone
or making lists that live on my computer.
I feel like if I do that, they just disappear.
I completely forget about them,
which totally defeats the purpose
of writing things down in the first place.
I need to see things in front of me.
I enjoy making lists and then crossing things off.
And then keeping some of my longer term ideas
also top of mind but having them in front of me.
So two ways that I do that.
I have a desk pad here, it's by Exacompta,
also available in the shop.
It's a very simple desk pad.
It's metal.
It has rubber feet on the back so it doesn't slide around
or scratch the surface of the desk.
One of the best things about this is that it's refillable.
You just unscrew these two nuts right here,
and then you can load in another pad
when you're finished with the one you're using.
I'm also kind of obsessed,
I'm very particular about Post-It notes.
They have to be this canary yellow color.
These, I often stick on the bottom of the computer monitor.
Generally, I use these for keeping track of content ideas.
If I have an idea for a video or a series of videos,
I will put them on a Post-It note,
and then on the bottom of the computer screen
right in front of me so it's impossible
for me to forget the idea that I just had,
and it makes it easy to refer back to
when I'm looking for new video topics.
It's not a very modern or cutting-edge system
but it works really well for me,
and really helps keep me on track.
Over here on the side of the desk,
I have the Anker Power Port USB charger.
It has six different slots.
I always try to keep things topped off,
including these two power banks.
One is the Anker Power Core 13000
and the other one is also by Anker but it's much older.
It's not available anymore actually,
and I really recommend the Power Core 13000 over that one.
Fully charged, you can get four
full iPhone charges out of it, super handy.
And all of these things here,
the power port and the two power banks
are things that I always travel with.
Definitely the Power Core 13000 is with me every single day.
Behind the desk is a bookshelf/cabinet by IKEA,
it's the KALLAX model.
On the top shelves, I've got some Rake magazines
and some other random stuff
that is not really organized in any special way.
On the bottom, I've got drawers on one side,
and doors on the other.
The drawers have some miscellaneous gear,
extra office supplies, stuff like that.
And then the doors hide a lot of the piles that accumulate,
so we're not gonna show you those.
On top of the bookcase is my printer.
It's a Canon Pixma IP110, nothing fancy.
It's all I really need.
Next to that is a brass magazine stand by Ferm Living.
This is available in the shop.
In front of that,
a five slot version of the HINE pen/pencil tray.
I've got a letter opener made for us by Abbeyhorn,
going to be available in the shop but currently not listed.
A couple of random notebooks,
a few select books that I keep displayed up there.
Then I have this brass business card holder
which is something we used to carry in the shop.
A super popular item but the brand stopped producing them
for some reason so they can no longer be had.
Then a small desk lamp, I got this at Target.
It's very inexpensive.
And then finally, this brass cup which I use
to keep all of my extra pens and pencils in one place.
So that's it.
That is my desk setup here in the studio.
It's where I spend a lot of my time
doing a lot of the work for He Spoke Style
that you don't see on camera.
And speaking of, we have a video in the works
where I'll show you how we shoot our videos,
what our setup is.
So definitely stay tuned for that.
I'm gonna put links to everything I mentioned in this video
down below in the description.
As always, thumbs up, don't forget to subscribe
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Until next time, thanks for watching everyone
and stay tailored.
(gentle music)