Where I Think
Sapper, Calder, and Rand surround me
A few people have asked to see some images of where I work. They want to see my desk, what I have on my walls, my computer set up, and other such things. I’m both surprised and flattered that anyone would care. So here it is.
My desk is clearly the most unique piece of furniture in my office. I’m pretty certain it is the only one like it in the United States. It’s a desk that was part of the ”From 9 to 5″ modular office system that my friend Richard Sapper created for Castelli. It won the Compasso d’Oro design prize in 1987. This now out of production beauty was acquired by IBM in the late 1980’s to evaluate furniture systems with integral cable management features for possible deployment in IBM facilities around the world. Following the extensive evaluation, it was nearly thrown out. Fortunately fellow designer Tom Hardy knew the head of corporate real estate who tipped him off about the desks existence. Tom aptly rescued the desk and happily used it during his tenure as the IBM design program manager. The original ThinkPad design model and other design classics were reviewed by Tom, Sapper and others on this very desk. Now that’s history. When Tom left IBM it sadly went straight to storage in some forgotten New York warehouse. Incredible that nobody wanted this masterwork of modern design. I guess some people just don’t get it.
Original publicity photo of the desk
When I moved to Raleigh in 1995, to take over design leadership for IBM’s Personal Systems Group, my office was furnished with nothing more than a crooked whiteboard, and a upside down trash can that served as a makeshift telephone stand. I inquired where my office furniture was, and was told there wasn’t any. The site architect quipped that I should have brought my old furniture from Minnesota. I was shocked. IBM was out of furniture? I immediately launched an extensive search for something decent. To my surprise, I located the Sapper desk. What a find. It was still in storage, death row as I call it, awaiting a certain demise. I quickly had it shipped to Raleigh where it arrived in a dusty pile of disorganized parts with no directions. The term some assembly required was the order of the day. Sapper graciously talked me through the assembly process to the best of his recollection over the phone. I love the desk, how it looks, and and how it makes me feel to use it. It’s the perfect compliment to my Tizio lamp and ThinkPad. When we moved to our new building I had it repainted with a fresh coat of black laquer for it’s new home.
The pearwood work surface is usually covered with notes to myself, hand drawn pencil sketches, action items, and my calendar of the moment. I always have handy a large supply of blank copier paper for drawing. I hate to draw on paper with lines as it has a tendency to alter your thinking. It’s also difficult to look at the sketch with other lines competing for your eyes attention. I draw with either my Lamy Safari pen, black ink, or a sharp wooden pencil. I can’t stand to use a mechanical pencil. The lead annoyingly breaks all the time and you have no ability to control the weight of the stroke. I keep a red pencil nearby for highlighting ideas or coloring the TrackPoint cap. I love to work with these simple but powerful tools.
The kind of pencil sketch I like to make
My office wall with various artwork and books
Also in my office I have a smattering of design trophies, various design books, a signed Paul Rand poster given to me by Paul, a wonderful photograph taken by my oldest son Eric, and a great construction paper tiger built my youngest son Travis when he was in grade school. On my credenza is a fantastic whirligig dog crafted by the outsider artist Vollis Simpson. Usually you will find plenty of recent ThinkPad design models piled on the floor awaiting review and discussion.
Grrrrrreat!!!
I hope you found this behind the scenes view into where and how I do my thinking interesting. Thanks for asking.
David Hill
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Lenovo H320 desktop
August 17th, 2009 12:11 pm
[...] [Design Matters] SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "See where ThinkPad designs come from", url: [...]
August 17th, 2009 1:34 pm
Do you listen to any music when you design? And if so, who? (Your space looks pretty cool, although I bet you cleaned it up before you took a picture of it)
August 17th, 2009 3:51 pm
Thank you for sharing, enjoyed reading this post.
August 17th, 2009 3:59 pm
The Sapper desk… I envy you!
BTW, what was the original paint?
August 17th, 2009 4:45 pm
Pawel, When I first acquired the desk it was a nice shade of off-white. When it was repainted I changed the color to a nice Thinkpad black. Both of these are colors that it was originally offered in.
August 17th, 2009 5:39 pm
David, thank’s for your answer. I would like to have both of them: the black one for my x200 and the off-white one for my old PB 12″ (as long as Apple doesn’t have a decent descendent
August 17th, 2009 6:14 pm
PS. David, don’t you have a window? I’d like to see waht you see from your desk except for the walls, no matter how decorated they are
PS2. I’m into Bauhaus too
August 17th, 2009 7:48 pm
David, what a fantastic office you’ve got. I love Lamy Safari also.. it’s such a good pen. Classic lines, purposeful, no-frills, excellent value.
Turns out we like similar things.. First it was the M3, now Lamy Safari.. what is it with these inanimate, random objects that attract ThinkPad users? They must share that intangible qualities..
I also love NAD hi-fi for its utilitarian design and great value.. what’s your CD spinner of choice?
August 17th, 2009 8:26 pm
Lionel, you may find this hard to imagine but I also have a NAD system. Still looks and works like new.
August 18th, 2009 1:53 am
seems we are digging more.
I’ll contribute my curiosity: software. What is loaded to your ThinkPad? OS, Office, Edit tool, image viewer, music player, browser etc… looks like we are IT security staff…
August 18th, 2009 2:43 am
What kind of chair do you have? Is it outrageously comfortable?
August 18th, 2009 4:10 am
would you mind taking also a pic of your floor with the piles of design studies?
OK, OK, i understand, Lenovo would mind:-( What a pity.
cheers
Hecke
August 18th, 2009 6:27 am
Alfred, the office chair I use is a Steelcase THINK chair. This is the same chair everyone uses in the North Carolina headquarters. Fitting isn’t it?
August 19th, 2009 11:48 am
Enjoyed the personal information. The Calders Circus poster from the Whitney Museum also hangs over my desk. Keep up the excellent work – especially the TP400S
August 19th, 2009 4:04 pm
Pete, The poster is really beautiful. Calder is one of my favorite artists.Someday when I have nothing to do I want to paint the wall it hangs on a nice dark grey. It would really pop.
August 19th, 2009 4:58 pm
Gosh… somewhat freaky, I love my ThinkPad and I love NAD hifi – but I drive SAAB Aero instead of the M3. Well, that’s just because RWD and split rear axle don’t work out that well in snow and ice on bumpy roads. I’ll have to check out that pen.
Of course I’m also still curious. Firstly – software, secondly – music, third – food. Yes, food. What do you eat while pondering over your design challenges and decisions? I’m rather sure you’re eating something…
I hope no one’s really interested, but I myself have too much software on my system – but not enough. I probably should run Linux, but I’m stuck on Windows – and using Microsoft Office. Well, make that Windows 7 and Office 2010. And then I run Autodesk Inventor 2010… on a T43 with 1 GB RAM and ATI X300 for graphics. It does run… mostly.
And that was another one of my crappy posts. Should probably get me a blog of my own.
August 20th, 2009 3:45 am
That desk is amazing
August 25th, 2009 11:21 am
Fantastic office. That desk found a very good home! Looks amazing.
September 16th, 2009 5:22 pm
Still love that desk. Richard is the man.
March 31st, 2010 5:41 am
I rather like the desk, but it’s hard to tell from the photos: how big it is, the size of the top (width and depth), it’s thickness, how tall off the ground it is (height), nor the size of its footprint, so can i request some specifications?
even though from my calculations assuming the mug is 3 inches wide the desk is 6 feet wide, is that correct?
March 31st, 2010 7:55 pm
Dan, The thickness of the top is about 35mm.