What’s on your desk? Let’s face it, most of us spend our waking ours chained to our work desk. We asked a few design identities to take a picture of their daytime domain and share them with us.
June 27th, 2013
We spend hours on end at our desks; they fast become reflections of our interests, clues to our work practices, and quite often: extensions of our personality. Apply this notion to the workplace of creative types and you have a very interesting little study in diversity.

“Eames leg splint 1942. Not exactly a travel essential… But a good NYC flea market find nonetheless. Perhaps I could wear it to score a sympathy upgrade.” – Henry Wilson, Industrial Designer (ever on the road, Henry sent us his mobile office).
This year, expanding on our Indesign Insiders program that complements the Sydney Indesign coverage, we have asked our hand-picked design scenesters to share their workbench with us.

“My Bose headphones are always in my bag. I’m lucky enough to walk to work each day from my home in Surry Hills and that time out with my music is a real luxury. Took me a while to get over the self-consciousness of wearing them in public though!’ – Neale Whitaker, Editor in Chief: Belle.
Hailing from all corners of the design world: architects, industrial designers, some media as well as design hunters and commentators – they are the critical eyes and ears out there amongst it all, sharing their journey through the precincts and the displays – highlighting their favourite experiences as it all happens.

“I can’t live without my Lyra coloured pencils and liquid paper for mistakes – mistakes are good!” – Dominic Alvaro, Woods Bagot.

“Sketches – everywhere, all over the desk. Somewhat quaint, but I still hand sketch.” – Jonathan Richards, SJB

“I have many Dinosaur Designs resin bangles and they always end up in a pile on my desk!” – Jen Bishop, Interiors Addict
More Insiders Desks will be revealed over at the Sydney Indesign website in coming weeks!
(Hero Image: “iPad mini; my favourite device. It fits in my handbag and I use it for absolutely everything.” – Angela Ferguson, Futurespace)
Sydney Indesign
INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
As Woven Image celebrates 40 years, it introduces a new collection developed in collaboration with Australian artist Ben Goss, inspired by his original artwork Where the Kookaburra Sits into a vibrant collection of digitally printed EchoPanel® murals and patterns.
The magnetic pull of certain spaces comes down to how seamlessly they work and, more importantly, how they feel. Recognising this, Kettal Workplace draws on the uplifting codes of other sectors to deliver contemporary workplace design.
The newest brand to emerge from Cosentino’s creative crucible is Ēclos, a next-generation mineral surface that embodies the organic beauty and tactility of marble in a precision-mineral surface or material.
Aeron Chair’s new shades, Nightfall and Jasper, arrive with a sense of quiet cohesion – no bells and whistles, no loud technicolour; just two timeless, perfectly versatile near-neutrals. But the new hues aren’t just about colour – and their significance is much more profound than their surface-level subtlety might suggest.
On the 22nd of February, the local design scene brimmed with excitement as Unison marked its 10th anniversary by becoming the first MillerKnoll dealer in the Australia and New Zealand region.
BLANCO launches their latest finish for a sleek kitchen feel.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
Shortlisted in the 2026 INDE.Awards are a plethora of projects from Singapore and the Singapore Institute of Architects’ members. We celebrate the talent that resides in this country, as we showcase design that crosses borders and resonates in our Indo-Pacific region.
HDR’s Factory of the Future at Western Sydney University turns an awkward slice of Bankstown City Campus into a hands-on learning environment for robotics, digital fabrication and advanced manufacturing.
In the very heart of Sydney’s CBD, 1 Elizabeth is a vast civic-scale project that integrates workplace design, transport infrastructure, event spaces, and hospitality around some dramatic void spaces.
The magnetic pull of certain spaces comes down to how seamlessly they work and, more importantly, how they feel. Recognising this, Kettal Workplace draws on the uplifting codes of other sectors to deliver contemporary workplace design.