Todd SumamnoIf you’re reading this from your office, take a look around. Is it a mess? Are you drowning in a sea of scrunched-up paper, mouldy cups and plates covered in crumbs? If the answer’s ‘yes’, you could learn a lot from the owners of the 15 minimalist workspaces below, each hand-picked for its coolness. ‘Tidy desk, tidy mind’- uncluttering and beautifying your workspace can have a real positive effect on your output, making you more focused, organised, creative and efficient. A little effort goes a long way, so go on- wash-up those cups!
1. Yummygum
Yummygum is a web and graphic design company based in Amsterdam and this beautiful, monotone-zone is its head office. Keen to reflect brand identity through its workspace, Yummygum has achieved almost complete wirelessness thanks to the BlueLounge CableBox and an obsessive tidying compulsion. Equipment on display includes an Apple 24′ LED Cinema Display, an iMac 24′, Apple Bluetooth keyboards and Apple Mighty Mouses (Mice?).
2. Long
This is the workstation of a photographer known only as ‘Long’ (I won’t even hazard a guess as to how he got that name.) Minimalism runs through this setup right down to the tiny cactus in a miniature, white pot. Long’s currently using a iMac 27′, Apple Cinema Display 30′, iMac Quad Core i5, Bose Companion 3 speakers and a 1TB Time Capsule.
3. iPhone Developer’s Home Office
It’s easy being minimal when all you’ve got on your desk is an iMac 21.5′, a Bluetooth keyboard, a Mighty Mouse and a LaCie hard drive, but the owner of this setup, a certain iPhone Developer, has managed to make it look really slick. If he always keeps it this tidy, I’m impressed.
4. Place to Play
With most fans of minimalist design favouring white, it’s rather unusual to find a minimalist setup in black, but that’s exactly what this is. A dual core Mac Pro powers two standard TFTs (17′ and 19′). A Lexmark P4330 printer, iPhone 2G, Wacom Ultrapad A3+ and Logitech G5 are also on display.
5. Txuma Campos
This setup is Clean, with a capital ‘C’. I particularly love the under-table lighting, achieved using a single reading lamp, which must look stunning with the lights off. The matching monitors and JBL Creature II speakers, in white, of course, blend in perfectly.
6. Verb’d
Web designer and developer, Stanley, loves minimalism so much that he’s even chosen Eve from WALL-E, the most minimalist cartoon character of all time, to be his mascot. The red desk, polished to a brilliant shine, works perfectly alongside the MacBook Pro 15′, iMac 20′, Mighty Mouse, FreeAgent external hard drive and iPhone.
7. Freelancer Room
When I look at this setup, I go green with envy; I just love the chunky, wheelie table. If that’s not made from solid wood, it certainly looks like it is! The whole-wall, black-and-white, bird’s eye view photograph looks stunning too. Sitting on top of the table you can see a Samsung 226BW monitor, a Samsung LE32B652 full HD TV an iMac 24′, a MacBook Pro 15′ and a Wacom Intuos.
8. Juan Solanoy
Workspaces do not get any whiter than this! Squint slightly and you might think the objects in the room are floating in mid-air, thanks to the whiter-than-white laminate flooring. I particularly love the sculptural, wooden branches, which double up as organic hooks, perfect for hanging your headphone and wires on.
9. Benjamin Falk
Benjamin has managed to build himself a minimalist paradise thanks to the affordable IKEA, who provided most of the furniture. Colour-coordinated with the white desk you can see a 23′ Apple Cinema display, a MacBook Pro 17′, a SlimKey stand, a 1TB MyBook external hard drive and a Logitech MX Revolution mouse.
10. Wolfgang Bartelme
User interface and graphic designer from Austria, Wolfgang, is another lucky owner of a great desk, as well as a great ‘2 x Apple Cinema Display 23in’ combo. He also has a Wacom Cintiq 12WX, Apple wireless keyboard, Bose Companion 5 and Logitech MX Revolution, on show.
11. Andreas Maks
White, black and a little bit of green, this office has been micro-designed right down to the finest detail. You can imagine its owner trimming down the grasses with a pair of nail scissors each morning (only joking!) Everything looks perfect, from the street-art on the wall to the wooden flooring, to the colour-matched Mac, speakers, sub, desk, cabinet, chair and shelving.
12. Matt Brett
If you spend 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, sitting at your workstation, like Matt Brett from Ontario does, you better be sure you like what you’re looking at. Matt’s gone for simplistic chic with his setup. He’s got lots of equipment (Apple Cinema Display 24′, Logitech MX Revolution mouse, iHome iP71BRC speakers etc.) and a very small desk, but he’s still managed to create space.
13. Bruno Lima
Bruno’s glass table adds minimalist clout to this otherwise colourful setup, befitting of a Brazilian art director. On Bruno’s desk, you can see an LG Flatron 21′ with remote, MacBook, Iomega 100GB external hard drive, HP multifunction printer, Wacom Intuos and iPhone 3GS.
14. Alex Giron
As you might expect from the head of CSS Beauty, Alex Giron is a fan of all things good-looking, and his workstation certainly lives up to his otherwise high standards. The brick walls take on a trendy, urban look thanks to a lick of white paint and the desk is beautifully balanced thanks to two, opposing Anglepoise lamps.
15. Drew Right
This is minimalism taken to the extreme, but WOW, it looks amazing. The equipment’s not important here. What’s important is the desk, lit from below, like some kind of lightbox/X-ray table-type-thing! Notice the CMYK ink packets propped up against the wall.
This is a guest post by Tom Walker who writes for a UK based supplier of HP 363 ink, toners and print accessories. His writing about design and advertising is available on the CreativeCloud.
Brittany Maslo