Design Sojourn

I too have found it difficult to position the tablet, keyboard, and screen accordingly. It is a design problem. Hmmm…

I finally stepped out of my cheap box and bought a big ass LCD monitor (23″) to go with my trusty $5 17″ CRT

I see the light now. Working with a bigger screen in tandem is such a pleasure.
Here’s a picture of the setup if anyone’s interested.

Click on image for a bigger picture.

btw is that an ikea table you have there? It looks very familiar.

Click image for a bigger picture.

So this is mine, i was feed up with the wacom being so thick and it always felt like scrubbing on a Collegebook i hated it and my arm too. So i Masket the area of the Wacom and milled a hole into my desk. (the desk is a simple natural wood plate from IKEA, not to expesinve and very solid).

The Cintiq came later so this is kinda standing lonely aside but its not as practical to put the cintiq in the hole thats why i kept the old A4 Wacom.

My beloved mighty render machine is boxed into a simple wooden stand, which includes a “clutter box” and in the rear all the power plugs are hidden (ist midly warm in there but not dangerously hot its fine).

The backside of the stand has a aluminium hole shetmetal so it looks nice (the desk could stand free and still look decent) and lets the hot air out.

Only downside is the setup it takes a while to put all the cables in position and then stack it all (cables tend to be t short to make these detours).

Anyway next up is whe apple updates here Display line to get a nice one with Mic and camera to get rid of the last resort of cable clutter.

I personaly hate laptops to work on I think they are ergonomically a bad choice.

I am sorry for the cheap picture compositting.
have fun and keep DS up.
regrads Jan.

Jan, very practical idea to integrate wacom into the table. Thanks for this advice, next time I make a table I’ll consider that and pick a massive wood plate.
If you come up with such a smart idea to solve the cable management issue, let us know.

I wonder why does wacom not integrate a tablet with a keyboard. (and provide on outlet usb port for a short cable mouse) Does anyone know a product with such a combination?

Cheers,

Turgut

Like Vaughan’s, I think a big screen monitor would visually shrink that tablet… imho…

Hey mate, yes I do. Few years ago a designer mate of mine at GE Plastics decided he’ll stand behind a raised drafting table, with all the stuff on it, cause it’s healthier to stand than to sit. It took me a few years, and MAJOR back problems to realize how true this is, and convert to this belief – I now have 2 desks, one of which is raised on custom stands I made, and holds my big-fat 3D cad machine with largest Wacom on the planet. And I’m loving staning behind it.

One comment I’ll make on your setup is that it’s unergonomic, by default, since you’re using the laptop. I.e. laptops are desperately unergonomic, no matter how big they get or how well their keyboard’s designed. The scrunched neck and cramped wrist position that laptops induce is terrible for the spine and hands/arms in the long run, though the best thing about them of course is instant mobility.

The closest thing to making any laptops more ergonomic is some well-designed lifter stands I’ve seen, to keep your head angle elevated, and extra keyboard and mouse on the side. That is the ONLY way I’ll use any laptop for any extended period of time.

Thanks for the post mate!
GI

Macbook hooked up to a Dell 2007 WFP / Apple Keyboard / Logitech Bluetooth mouse / Intuos3 6″ x 11″

WoW jan nice space and workplace . thanks for sharing this nice post.

I don’t have any interesting stories, I do have a question though. I use a wacom tablet hooked up to a laptop and I like sitting in bed sketching with the laptop resting in front of me and the wacom tablet on my right. trouble is I don’t feel i’m getting the best out of it. I was wondering if there is a swivel table u can get that can be positioned while you are sitting up in bed sketching on the wacom tablet. thanks