Ryan Downie is a talented Web Designer based in Lancaster, England. He’s passionate about Design, XHTML/CSS and Expression Engine and Freelances as well as working at Carrot Media.
I’ve been following Ryan for some time on Twitter and when I asked for participants for this week’s Dock Series I was excited that he was keen to take part.
I asked Ryan if he would give us the lowdown on the applications he relies upon as a designer on a daily basis.
The Intro…
I have a white 13″ macbook running basically as a desktop machine with Snow Leopard installed. This is hooked up to my external 26″ Samsung T260. I also have 1TB external hard drive for backups incase anything goes wrong.
The Dock…
- Finder – Well basically everyone knows what this is as its standard on OS X.
- Mail – For all my email needs, I have tired a few email clients but keep gong back to good old mail.app.
- Adium – I use this to chat to people such as Tony Chester, as this application lets me manage MSN and my GMail in one app.
- Helvetireader – Google reader on the desktop via Fluid and styled by Helvetireader. Very nice piece of kit.
- Time Machine – Backups taking of my mac, encase of any misplaced or deleted files.
- TweetDeck – One of the best Twitter clients, lets me filter groups of friends and search for phrase’s such as ExpressionEngine.
- Things – One of the simplest GTD apps, this application lets me manage and set deadlines for design and development work.
- Littlesnapper – Application for taking and managing screenshots of inspiration. Also lets you upload to Ember or Flickr direct from the application.
- Coda – Where I do my HTML, CSS and ExpressionEngine work. I also have Espresso but prefer Code to this due to personal preference. I also use this as my FTP.
- Bridge CS4 – I use this instead of Finder as I label and stack certain files for ease of use.
- Illustrator CS4 – For Logo and Illustration work when needed.
- Photoshop CS4 – This is where all the magic happens, don’t think I need to go on about this as everyone knows what this is.
- iTunes – For podcasts such as BoagWorld and music library (even though I am using this less and less now because of Spotify) .
- Spotify – One of my favourite applications at the moment, this lets me browse and create playlists from basically any song as well as downloading other peoples.
- Skype – To keep in contact with work Colleges as I work remotely and also to talk to other people.
- Last FM – I have this linked up to my ITunes, hardly use this now due to Spotify.
- Pages – For when I need to do some good old word processing. Like writing some upcoming posts for my new website.
- Vodafone Connect – Due to moving house still do not have the internet on, so connecting via a USB stick for now.
- Folder 1 – Stack for Applications. This lets me access applications really fast if I need to.
- Folder 2 – Stack for Development files.
- Folder 3 – Stack for Design Comps.
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A huge thanks to Ryan for taking time out to take part in the Dock Series.
As usual if you would like to share your dock, just leave a comment with a brief description of your dock apps and a link to a screenshot of it. Or take to your blog and write up a description of your dock as several others have done.
Other Creatives in the Series:
- Part 1 – Grace Smith
- Part 2 – Khoi Vinh
- Part 3 – Matt Brett
- Part 4 – Veerle Pieters
- Part 5 – Tim Van Damme
- Part 6 – Ian Stewart
- Part 7 – John Boardley
- Part 8 – Adii Pienaar
- Part 9 – Ben Bleikamp
- Part 10 – David Airey
- Part 11 – Jonathan Snook
- Part 12 – Antonio Lupetti
- Part 13 – Niki Brown
- Part 14 – Jon Phillips
- Part 15 – Sarah Parmenter
- Part 16 – Tony Chester
- Part 17 – David Cleland
- Part 18 – Chad Engle
- Part 19 – Tom Kenny
With more amazing creatives lined up, make sure to check back every Tuesday for the latest Dock Series installment. If you would like to be featured please leave a comment below.
