Who are you, and what do you do?
I'm Dan Mall. I'm a husband, dad, designer, creative director, developer, photographer, and musician.
What hardware do you use?
I use a maxed out 16-inch 2019 MacBook Pro as my main computer. When I'm at my desk, I dock it to two LG UltraFine 5K displays with Audioengine A2+ speakers, a large Wacom Intuos Pro tablet, a Magic Trackpad, and Magic Keyboard with Number Keypad attached.
I use a Sony Alpha 6400 as my webcam with a Shure MV7 microphone and 2 Elgato Key Lights.
I've got an iPhone 11 Pro, AirPods Pro, and Bose QuietComfort 35 II wireless headphones always within reach.
I shoot photos with a Canon EOS R and a DJI Air 2S.
I play music on a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-775 and MOTIF6.
And what software?
- Superhuman for email
- Firefox for browsing the web
- Shift as a wrapper for Slack, Teuxdeux, and Pipedrive
- Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, After Effects, Lightroom Classic, Final Cut Pro, Animate, and Keynote for design, animation, and editing
- ImageOptim and ImageAlpha for image compression
- Visual Studio Code for web development
- Harvest for time tracking
- Notion for note taking
- Droplr for screenshots
- Sip as a color picker
- FontExplorer X to manage fonts
- f.lux to adapt display color
- Amphetamine to keep my computer awake
- Bartender for menu bar management
- Zoom to talk to people
- Loom to send videos
- LittleIpsum to copy placeholder text
- MAMP Pro for local web development
- Dropbox for cloud storage
- Spotify and Apple Music for tunes
- 1Password to manage passwords
- Numi for smart calculations
- HiddenMe Pro to pretend I have a clean desktop
- Shush for microphone management
- TG Pro to monitor my computer fan and temperature
- Alfred for better efficiency
- Divvy for window management
- Backblaze for automatic backups
What would be your dream setup?
I think I have all of the hardware and software I'd want, so my dream setup to be desired is more about the space. I'd like a physical space that's comfortable for working and lounging, and looks cool. Probably lots of plants. I want all my books handy a few feet away in the room. I'd like to be able to play music when I want, or film a talking head video for YouTube or Instagram.