Rig Specs
If I’ve learned anything all these years in this graphic design cockpit, it’s this: INVEST IN GOOD EQUIPMENT. Before I had a computer (Pre-September 1996) all I had was pencil, ink and paper. And damned if I didn’t make the best of it. I’d use friend’s machines, or pedal my mountain bike over to a Kinko’s on Northern Lights in Anchorage, swipe my credit card and get to work. When did I finally get a machine? After working a whole fucking summer for the thing? I never took the firepower a computer offered to me for granted. I had arrived and there was no looking back. Some 28 years later, things have turned out pretty damned good. Thankful for that. Invest in proper gear, folks. And get an extra monitor, or two! Onward and upward, fellow graphic designers!
The DDC Cockpit
Computer Equipment:
01. Apple Mac Pro 3.2 GHz 16-Core Intel Xeon W tower rig.
02. AMD Radeon Pro W5700 16 GB graphics card.
03. 96 GB 2933 MHz DDCR4 RAM.
04. 8 TB internal drive, partioned into three back-up drives.
05. 4 TB external hard drive, dedicated to Time Machine.
06. 8 TB Pegasus external hard drive, for third back-up.
07. Left monitor: Apple Studio Display 27-inch.
08. Middle Monitor: Apple Studio Display XDR 32-inch.
09. Right Monitor: Apple Studio Display XDR 32-inch.
10. Apple Magic Keyboard.
11. Apple Magic Mouse.
12. Apple MacBook Pro 16" / 64GB / 2TB SSD storage laptopper for the road.
13. Apple iPhone 14 Pro / 512 GB
13. Apple Mac iPad Pro 13. Hewlett Packard 400 M401 laser printer. (Old Faithful.)
14. Epson V600 flatbed scanner.
The DDC Road Rig
Road Equipment:
01. Apple MacBook Pro 16" / 64GB / 2TB SSD storage laptopper for the road.
02. Bose QuietComfort Headphones.
03. Apple Magic Mouse.
04. Filson laptop bag.
Software / Apps
Loaded Software:
01. Mac OS X Sonoma 14.6.1.
02. Adobe Illustrator 2025, 85% of the time.
03. Adobe Photoshop 2025, 10% of the time.
04. Adobe InDesign 2025, 5% of the time, mainly for invoicing.
05. Aodbe Acrobat. (PDFx1a, or get out of town.)
06. Apple Pages for word processing.
07. Apple Numbers for spreadsheetery.
08. Better ReName 11 for global file/folder name equalizing.
09. Astute Graphics plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator. (MANDATORY!)
10. Font Book for font management.
11. TransType4 for font conversion.
12. Google Mail for a spider web of email folders.
13. Dropbox 2 TB, with tower, laptop and cloud viciously synced.
14. iTunes, loaded with EVERYTHING.
15. Spotify for streaming, but begrudgingly. (It’s just a little too much.)
15. Messages for texting.
16. Notes for drafting Instagram posts.
17. Reminders to keep my ass in line.
18. Calendar for upcoming speaking fiascos, travel, concerts and doc appointments to squirm over.
Backyard Shop
Furniture/Storage:
01. Aaron Chair (wide load model.)
02. Steelcase Currency 5-drawer 60” desk.
03. Steelcase Currency 48” desk.
04. Steelcase Currency 3-drawer 60” editor desk.
05. Six oray Bisley 9-drawer steel cabinets.
06. Two oray Bisley 15-drawer steel cabinets.
06. Four orange Bisley 8-drawer steel cabinets.
07. Four orange Bisley 5-drawer steel cabinets.
08. Two orange Schoolhouse Electric stools.
09. Various flat file units.
Tunes / Records / CDs
Music Equipment:
01. Shinola Runwell Turntable. (In the backyard shop.)
02. Shinola Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers.
03. Kanto YU6 Powered Bookshelf Speakers, directly under middle monitor.
04. Wall of records. (The nephew is FORBIDDEN to even look north, when in the shop.)
05. Wall of compact discs. (I just can’t part with them.)
06. Couple old tape cases filled with gems from the late-’80s-to-mid-’90s.
07. Technics SL-1900 Direct Drive Automatic Turntable. (In the house.)
(Updated 11.15.24)