With a mindful design approach and minimal taste, our workspaces have the ability to mold into sanctuaries in which we cultivate creativity and innovation. To inspire your daily workspace, we interviewed content creators, designers, and filmmakers to learn their day-to-day lives as working creatives, and to understand their approach to designing their desk spaces.

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@jakeweisler

Jake is a content creator that has been filming high end destination weddings all over the world for the last 3 years. He is an educator at the online Film School, Full Time Filmmaker, where he teaches over 12,000 students how to become successful videographers. 

“When I started to design my space, I had 2 requirements: clean and minimal. I needed a simple and clean desk to focus on creating. An organized mind is a successful mind and any desk should reflect that. I’m also a freaking gadget guy when it comes to items that make my life easier, simpler, and more organized. My workspace is my creative zone, it’s where I piece together stories, script new ideas, and color grade the scene.”

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@zoe.interiors

Zoe is an interior designer and content creator based in Hertfordshire, England. As a previous graphic designer for many years, she found her true calling when she was asked to design the interior of a restaurant. After her son was born, Zoe left the agency she was working for and began freelancing as an interior designer for her friends and family. By word of mouth recommendations and her Instagram page, Zoe connected to a global platform of like-minded people and opened up a whole new career path.

“My creative process is fairly simple. I have a minimal style and signature look that I don’t stray away from because I don’t enjoy excessive color or fuss. I keep the ‘trend’ pieces to things that are quickly removable like the soft furnishings and decorative pieces so that my clients don’t have to decorate every other year. I believe that the spaces we live in impact our mental headspace, and I want to help people make their homes their sanctuaries. The space I designed is an alternative to high wall cupboards, which have always been a pet peeve of mine. I find them difficult to use and wanted to design an alternative that made everything accessible. I also have some beautiful pieces that I wanted to display as they bring me and my family joy.”

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@allisajacobs

As a former special education high school teacher, Allisa found her creative outlet as a home designer. After leaving the teaching field, she joined her brother at Cascade Iron Co., where she developed hardware for the modern industrial home. This brought Allisa closer to her design path as she searched for ways to make her home more intentional and minimal.

“Moving into a smaller, outdated ranch-style home meant I was leaving my designated office space behind. Because I really need a space to think and call my own, I searched for ways to carve out a work spot in our new home. This little nook, though awkward and tiny, seemed like the best solution! By painting the back wall black, I started to embrace this quirky space. I added wall hooks, a small bookcase, and shelf to make it functional. Now, I get to see the mountain views from the window and have a space to work and call my own.”

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@holly.beechener

Holly is an architect-in-training that has a passion for interior design, a career she hopes to professionally pursue in the future. She is also learning pottery and loves to paint.

“As a freelance architect and interior designer, I needed a versatile workspace that could attend to all my needs. I used to spend a lot of time working from the dining room table or sofa. I find that I am not as productive when I work, eat, and relax in the same space. Having this new workspace means I can leave this room at the end of the day and feel like there is a clear separation between work and life. This little workspace is great when you want to hop on the computer for a few hours, whether it’s browsing the internet or doing some freelance work. It’s also a great space to sketch or paint, with consistent daylight and beautiful views from the window.”

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@ralchevd

Drago is a filmmaker and motion designer that works at a large enterprise software company, making product videos and animations. In his downtime, he is also a freelance designer and photographer and works with various brands to create content. As a working creative, Drago spends a lot of his time working from home, so it is essential to cultivate an office space that inspires creativity and productivity.

“I designed this space to be bright and open, without any distractions. I am constantly inspired by good design and aesthetics – I love natural colors and plants, which can also be seen on my screensaver. The Austin Kleon art on the wall reminds me to stay creative and get things done! The carpet was initially selected to blend with the cats, but it ended up completing the desk setup nicely.”

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Our environment shapes who we are and the work that we create — nowhere is this more apparent than the desk that we work at. While the argument for a clean desk void of clutter gives room to the idea behind orderliness in our work, there’s also research behind a disorderly room being advantageous for breaking through tradition and conventional thinking.

Here are the inspiring workspaces of 10 famously creative individuals and how they choose to cultivate their space:

Yves Saint Laurent

Fashion Designer

The iconic designer kept inspiration by his side in the form of paintings, sketches, and artifacts. His faithful dog, Moiujik was a companion that would be frequently be seen by his desk.

Jacqueline Kennedy

First Lady

Before she was Mrs. Kennedy, The First Lady, she was Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy of Georgetown. This is a famous personal desk of hers, inherited from her father John Vernou Bouvier III at her home in Georgetown.

Steve Jobs

Founder of Apple

Despite his minimalist design taste and the aesthetics that Apple products take, Steve’s desk was anything but minimal — often cluttered with books, papers, and other items for his daily work.

Ellsworth Kelly

Artist

The artist Ellsworth Kelly kept his workshop studio filled with the tools of his craft as a painter, sculptor, and printmaker.

Albert Einstein

Physicist

One of the most iconic stories of Einstein’s office is the picture that was taken by photographer Ralph Morse, just hours after his death in Princeton, April 1955.

Susan Sontag

Writer

Her desk would come to be characterized by the many books and ideas that Susan Sontag consumed — “intelligence is really a kind of taste: a taste in ideas”.

Ernest Hemingway

Writer

A standing desk user long before the concept became mainstream, Hemingway would spend hours with a typewriter perched upon stacks of cabinets and books.

 

Thomas Edison

Inventor

Edison’s desk featured shelving and cabinets for organizing all of his papers and inventions.

Vivienne Westwood

Fashion Designer

Vivienne Westwood, known for both her elegance, femininity, and punk aesthetic, brought a new form of culture and fashion styles into the mainstream.

Lisa Congdon

Illustrator

Known for her colorful abstract paintings, patterns, and line drawings, Lisa Congdon’s workspace has bright color palettes that reflect her point of view on design aesthetics.

Jeff Bezos

Founder, Amazon

Before he was the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos’s first desk for Amazon.com was made out of a single piece of plywood that he used to create a makeshift desk himself.

Elon Musk

Founder, Tesla, SpaceX

As the CEO of two large companies, Elon opts for a U shaped desk to maximize efficiency and work space.

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How should we best define the concept of great design? Unsurprisingly, the answer has never been simple. Much like “love” or “success,” design can differ sharply among its admirers and critics. And so, we continue to struggle for a design definition that encompasses all its fields — from architecture to human computer interaction (HCI) design.

What’s resulted is an impressive range in the designer’s experience. As design expands to acknowledge the traditional (architecture, engineering) to the contemporary (animation, user experience), designers draw wider lines around their disciplines. A designer’s discipline can and often do inform their definitions, mediums, and approach to synthesizing human experiences. And in the professional space – as with a fashion or industrial designer – those roles are sharpened still to reflect the motivations of businesses, brands, and audiences.

But we can still find meaning in how iconic designers have since explored personal experiences, challenges, and beliefs about the design process. Here are some useful design quotes on the role of good design and bad design.

ON FUNCTION IN GOOD DESIGN

Originally misattributed to Leonardo da Vinci, it was William Gaddis that went on record to remind us that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” with his 1955 debut, The Recognitions. There’s no telling if he too intended to invoke design’s oldest adage at the time, but thus there it was – finally in print.

Within classic design theory, architects and engineers were driven by viability, not aesthetic. What resulted was an artform informed by purpose, and where good design was considered useful. At its core, classic design theory argued that good design should always serve human needs.

An original proponent of this school of thought, industrial designer Dieter Rams never wavered from functionalism in his extensive dialogues on product design:

Design should not dominate things, should not dominate people. It should help people. That’s its role. […] [Good designers] should–and must–question everything generally thought to be obvious. They must have an intuition for people’s changing attitudes. For the reality in which they live, for their dreams, their desires, their worries, their needs, their living habits. They must also be able to assess realistically the opportunities and bounds of technology.

And while ushering in the bulk of the computer age (with IBM), Thomas J. Watson was the first of the digital age to agree:

Design must reflect the practical and aesthetic in business but above all… good design must primarily serve people.

Socially responsible designer Victor Papanek thought that if design were to have any function, such benefit should be clearly rooted in ecological innovation. He wasn’t fond of manufactured products that were unsafe, unnecessary, or functionally useless:

Design, if it is to be ecologically responsible and socially responsive, must be revolutionary and radical. [It] is the conscious effort to impose a meaningful order.

In 2011, British architect Norman Foster agreed. Unlike his predecessors, Foster asserted that modern architecture could too be transformative.. With his 2011 TED Talk on green architecture, Foster posed that architects and civil engineers had a social responsibility to consider and integrate important issues – such as the environmental agenda – into their design processes:

As an architect, you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown. […] Everything we design is a response to the specific climate and culture of a particular place.

However, graphic designer and architect Ivan Chermayeff advocated for human-centered design. He thought design was strictly meant to solve the problems of humans:

Design is directed toward human beings. To design is to solve human problems by identifying them and executing the best solution.

But designer Lindon Leader thought it was much simpler than that:

“I strive for two things in design: simplicity and clarity. Great design is born of those two things.”

As for American graphic designer Saul Bass? Simpler still:

Design is thinking made visual.

Multidisciplinary designer Massimo Vignelli placed more value on logic than aesthetics when creating his pieces. Vignelli worked on a range of projects from houseware and furniture design to designing the New York Subway Map.

Good design is a matter of discipline. It starts by looking at the problem and collecting all the available information about it. If you understand the problem, you have the solution. It’s really more about logic than imagination.

New media designer and filmmaker Hillman Curtis too thought a designer was only as good as his ability to anticipate and address common problems:

“The goal of a designer is to listen, observe, understand, sympathize, empathize, synthesize, and glean insights that enable him or her to ‘make the invisible visible.’

But ultimately, it was architects that first threaded form and function together. Upon its birth, architectural design was only considered “good” when it best performed its primary function: shelter. Regardless of its design, a building’s shaky foundation or structural flaws rendered it useless, and thus: badly designed.

With the expansion of modern architecture design, architects were seen as public figures, invited to theorize about their creations at public showings. Here, buildings could be considered both craft and refuge. Yet the first modern architects held fast to “designing with purpose,” reluctant to assign any artistic value to their creations – as evidenced best by architect and professor Michael Graves:

Good design to me is both appearance and functionality together. It’s the experience that makes it good design.

Celebrated architect Frank Lloyd Wright took “function-as-form” even further by designing The Guggenheim Museum as a testament to his explicit belief that form and function shared the spotlight:

Form follows function – that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.

Still, for Zaha Hadid, known for her modern aesthetic and unique style of rendering surprising new spaces with fluid forms, there was an intangible quality of taste and pleasure that good architecture design should have on a space. Hadid believed that:

Architecture is really about well-being. I think that people should feel good in a space… I don’t think that architecture is only about shelter. It should be able to excite you, to calm you, to make you think.

With the boom of the American luxury goods market, product engineers and designers were inclined to agree. As architecture served an explicit human need, so did the original car, digital device, and household products. It didn’t take long for traditional design theory to give way to modal design processes that hyperfocused on rapid iteration. With the rise of design behemoths like Apple and Microsoft, designers quickly spurned the warnings of Charles Eames (of the pioneering design duo Charles and Bernice “Ray” Eames), who once advised that:

Designers should only innovate as a last resort. […] Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.

Imagine if James Dyson hadn’t fundamentally disagreed. (The idea for his $3-billion Dyson company sparked from his childhood hatred for vacuums.) In Margaret Heffernan’s book, A Bigger Prize: How We can Do Better than the Competition, Dyson once argued the case for modular innovation, noting simply that “people buy products when they’re better.” In 2011, while heralding Apple’s intuitive products, he went onto complain that:

Far too few designers put any thought into usability, ending up with a great product that’s completely inaccessible. You read about all the amazing things it can do but when you try to use it you’re just frustrated.

ON DESIGN AS COMMUNICATION

Nearly twenty years before Ive’s contributions to design, Paul Rand, the father of American graphic design saw design as a vehicle of expression and a means with which to communicate ideas or emotion. By 1997, modern graphic design had already integrated heavily with the modern advertising industry, a booming luxury good market, and experimental design software. Graphic designers had entered a buzzing job market dedicated to assisting brands and businesses in the art of creating iconic narratives. It was in this time period that Rand remarked:

Graphic design, which evokes the symmetria of Vituvius, the dynamic symmetry of Hambidge, the asymmetry of Mondrian; which is a good gestalt, generated by intuition or by computer, by invention or by a system of coordinates, is not good design if it does not communicate.

Rand believed there was more to good graphic design than previously believed. A year later, for the The School of Visual Arts’ Paul Rand Symposium, he expounded his original assertion by detailing the delicate web of thought and skills necessary for emotive, intuitive design:

Design is a way of life, a point of view. It involves the whole complex of visual communications: talent, creative ability, manual skill, and technical knowledge. Aesthetics and economics, technology and psychology are intrinsically related to the process.

A new practice at the time, graphic design faced the challenge of redefining mass communication with an entirely novel set of tools: graphics, logos, colors, typography, and the modern desktop computer. Iconic graphic designer and artist Milton Glaser had already built a considerable toolbox of his own by the time he co-founded New York Magazine in 1967. He too joined Rand in asserting:

To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master.

Massimo Vignelli took this much more literally:

“Styles come and go. Good design is a language, not a style.

Like communication in language, good design should be simple and easy to understand. It’s a principle that Steve Jobs famously remarked about the importance of focus and saying no to the things that don’t matter. The multi-hyphenate writer, poet, journalist, and designer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry remarked:

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

One of the first graphic designers to theorize on developing one’s graphic design process, James Van Hamersveld noted:

I look at graphic design as communication, meaning that the work has to have a vibe to connect to the viewer or perceiver. I make a black and white drawing and then add color digitally, bringing in a contemporary pattern to the composition to create a vibrance.

Decades later, David Carson has taken up the mantle for intuitive design, a facet of design theory that has further bled into digital product design, mobile application design, and user experience design. Carson, famous for his use of experimental typography said:

I’m a big believer in the emotion of design, and the message that’s sent before somebody begins to read, before they get the rest of the information; what is the emotional response they get to the product, to the story, to the painting – whatever it is. […] Don’t mistake legibility for communication.” Just because something’s legible doesn’t means it communicates. More importantly, it doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing. So, what is the message sent before somebody actually gets into the material? And I think that’s sometimes an overlooked area.

More so than its peers, the fashion industry’s dependence on visuals paved the way for its adoption of graphic design as a tool for creative people to utilize. From advertisements to branding, fashion ebbed and flowed by the invention of exciting, functional clothing products and the inventive advertising campaigns that housed them. Luxury or haute couture fashion could clearly invoke a certain feeling, mood, or look with imagination or exclusion. Long before “fast fashion” flooded the market, fashion was only considered viable when could produce the desired emotion about one’s body or self – or so says celebrated Gucci designer Tom Ford:

When you are having fun and creating something you love, it shows in the product. So when a woman is sifting through a rack of clothes, somehow that piece of clothing that you had so much fun designing speaks to her; she responds to it and buys it. I believe you can actually transfer that energy to material things as you’re creating them.

But even Ford could rightfully acknowledge that fashion needed a little help when communicating such complex messages:

[…]The key to marketing is to make something people want. When they want it, they buy it. When they buy it, you have sales. So the product has to speak. The product is what markets things. Advertising is of course important because advertise is the final design. It’s the last layer that speaks to the customer, that tells them what you have.

EVERYTHING IS DESIGN

In its loosest form, “communicative design” still relied on the idea of functionality. Much like the architects before them, modern graphic designers believed that design was a tool meant to accomplish a purpose. With further experimentation across subsects of fashion, architecture, digital design, and advertising, design theory took on a certain fluidity, like many of the logo designs from Paul Rand. To let Paul Rand describe it:

Design is everything. Everything! […]To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit: it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse.”

What’s important about good design is that there is a point of view and a worldview expressed by combining ideas from different parts of life. As the influential graphic designer Paula Scher writes:

Be culturally literate, because if you don’t have any understanding of the world you live in and the culture you live in, you’re not going to express anything to anybody else.

Graphic designer Robert L. Peter shares the same idea as Paula Scher around the role of design in shaping culture with his well-known design quote about how culture shapes values:

Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future.

Designer Tom Peterson was convinced that design wasn’t just part of the process, it was the process in creating good work:

The dumbest mistake is viewing design as something you do at the end of the process to ‘tidy up’ the mess, as opposed to understanding it’s a ‘day one’ issue and part of everything.

As did communications and multimedia artist Erik Adigard, who thought design to be the composition of many integrated practices:

“Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things; it’s a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda and philosophy.”

At Apple, Jonathan Ive had since expanded his “function first” views into an overwhelming indifference to the traditional product “design” process by 2012.

Design is a word that’s come to mean so much that it’s also a word that has come to mean nothing. We don’t really talk about design, we talk about developing ideas and making products.

Great user experience can also be one that surprises and delights. For Frank Chimero, such thing as joy and delight can make the difference in the design experience.

Design doesn’t need to be delightful for it to work, but that’s like saying food doesn’t need to be tasty to keep us alive.

This ethos is shared by the iconic web designer and entrepreneur Jeffrey Zeldman. For Jeffrey Zeldman, the user experience is everything:

Put simply, if an interface is poorly designed, I will not see the data I looked for, even if it is right there on the page.

In Axel Madsen’s 1991 biography, A Woman of Her Own, Coco Chanel had since warmed to the idea of fluid fashion design. Though never one for rules, fashion’s trailblazing maven had maintained a rigid set of rules in her approach to creating the signature Chanel look until that pivotal moment:

Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.

Twenty years later, in 2011, James Dyson echoed Chanel’s sentiments in the world of digital product design:

When you say ‘design,’ everybody thinks of magazine pages. So it’s an emotive word. Everybody thinks it’s how something looks, whereas for me, design is pretty much everything.

American architect Buckminister Fuller, however, thought designers themselves must be “everything:”

A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist, and evolutionary strategist.

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Nike designer Tinker Hatfield thought all designers sourced from their own experiences consciously or otherwise, as related in a Nike Sportswear ad in that same year (2011):

When you sit down to design something, it can be anything, a car, a toaster, a house, a tall building or a shoe, what you draw or what you design is really a culmination of everything that you’ve seen and done in your life previous to that point.

Poet and cultural critic George Santayana saw graphic design as the culmination of self-expression, capable of translating the beliefs and experiences of the designer themselves:

Graphic design is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, abnormality, hobbies and humors.

Unlike fashion, streetwear learned quickly to blend the instincts and experiences of urban youth culture with the innovation of haute couture. In the vein of Chanel, streetwear icon, former Nike designer, and current Louis Vuitton creative director Virgil Abloh further thinned the line between design and the ordinary:

There’s endless inspiration in the mundane. That’s the cheat code of streetwear. […] You can take this and claim that it is a sculpture, it is a work of art.

Sitting at your desk is something that the average person spends 6 hours a day doing. With all that time at your desk setup, the tendency to slouch is real — and while comfortable in the moment, not having the proper desk posture can lead to pain.

Here are 5 tips that Jon Cinkay from the Hospital for Special Surgery recommends you do to prevent back and chest pain. The result is an ergonomic workstation for when you’re sitting at the desk.

1. ADJUST YOUR CHAIR

Whether at home or at the office, the average desk height is around 29 to 30 inches tall. For some, this can be too tall or too short — you want your desk height to be just right for your height to ensure proper desk posture.

That’s where your chair comes in. The first thing you want to do is adjust the height of your chair. Aim to make sure your elbows are bent to 90 degrees when rested on your chair’s armrest to get to that ideal ergonomic desk height.

If your feet aren’t touching a floor, this can become an issue. To solve this, try adding a footstool or a DIY workaround is to add a stack of books or papers as a makeshift stool.

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2. ADJUST YOUR MONITOR

The ideal distance between your monitor and eyes is close enough, but not too far where you’re squinting. This works out to be around an arm’s length so that you’re able to read without having to strain your eyes or bend forward to adjust your posture.

What you want to do is raise the monitor up until the top of the screen is at eye level. If your monitor isn’t adjustable, you can also use a stack of papers or books here too.

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For an ergonomic desk setup with two monitors, consider how you use them. If you like to use one monitor as the main screen, you want it directly in your center at eye level. If you prefer to have two monitors equally, you want both of them lined up so that you’re in the middle of the two.

For a laptop only set up, you want to use a kickstand so the monitor can be at an easy to see height. Then, you can add a keyboard and mouse or trackpad.

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3. MIND YOUR MOUSE & KEYBOARD

When arranging your desk setup, where you place your keyboard and mouse can play a role in your desk posture as well. As a rule of thumb, where your hands end up is where your keyboard should be. Your mouse/trackpad should end up right next to your keyboard.

When switching between your mouse and keyboard, you want to move from your elbow instead of your shoulders to prevent overuse or strain. A good reference check is to see whether you can keep your elbows positioned while pivoting your hands between your keyboard and mouse.

The key is not to reach for your tools. Let them do the work for you.

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4. POSITION YOUR ESSENTIAL ITEMS

You want to position the essential items that you use regularly to the right of you on your desk (if you’re right handed). If you’re left handed, aim to position your tools to the left of your keyboard/mouse. Whether it’s a phone or a notebook to take jot ideas, having your tools within range will reduce the pressure put on your shoulders.

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5. MOVE & STRETCH

After 10-15 minutes of sitting at the desk, we all begin to slouch on our chairs. To maintain a healthy desk posture and give your back a well-needed refresh, try some basic exercises that you can do while sitting in your chair.

The first exercise is a chin tuck. To do this, move your head back and forth in a straight motion while keeping your neck in the same position.

The second is for your upper traps. You’re going to do a basic stretch where you bend your head to one side and gently pull for a little more tension. Switch between your left and right side to balance out the stretch.

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The third exercise is called a scapular retraction. You’re basically going to squeeze your shoulders back and forth. You can also rotate them as you make the movements as well as do an up and down type of motion.

The fourth exercise is for your lower back, this is called a pelvic tilt. Similar to moving your shoulders back and forth, you want to start with your lower back touching your chair and then sit up straight to where your back is almost 90 degrees. Repeat this motion to really give the lower back a nice stretch out

When you’re sitting down for long periods of time at your desk, the most important thing you want to do is get up out of your chair every hour. Whether it’s going for a walk, getting something to eat or drink or simply pacing around, moving up and out of your chair does wonders for your body – not to mention the context switching provides a nice mental break.

I wanted to create a space that was minimal and tailored around the needs of my work. 

For the past 15 years, I’ve worked in various industries from advertising and branding, to education. Currently I’m the Chief Content Officer at The Futur, a design education company where I teach and share what I know through video content, thoughtful articles, interactive workshops, and speaking engagements. 

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I focus on the intersections of communication and the creative process so my time is usually split between doing two things: making content and managing the team.

So my workstation needed to be a space where I could be both a maker and a manager. Something that would allow me to do deep work and incorporate systems to help me focus on the most important day to day tasks.

Here’s how I did it. 

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To start the office design process, I blocked out the space in my favorite 3D program. (I know, super nerdy). This helped me figure out the general layout, before committing to any big efforts or purchases. I personally like dark minimal spaces, so I decided to paint two of my walls dark grey, which I color matched to the other areas of the building.

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For my desk, I chose the Sway desk by Ergonifis. It’s a motorized sit stand desk that’s made of solid walnut and has black detailed finishes. It gives me a lot of real estate to work on and has programmable settings so I can lock in the optimal height for both sitting and standing.

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For the rest of the space, I wanted to keep a consistent aesthetic, so I tried to match the rest of my accessories, to pair with the walnut wood of my desk and the dark paint on my walls.

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I also created a “cozy corner”, to help me relax between sprints of work and add a little warmth to the space. This corner of my office is specially designed for decompression. A big comfy Barcelona chair, surrounded by beautiful green indoor plants. The round rug on the floor helps to visually anchor the open area, and the organic shape of the plants break up straight lines of the room.

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To light my space, I was looking for a flexible system that would adjust as the day transitions into night. To accomplish this, I invested in a set of Phillips Hue Play lights to place behind my monitor, and a few bulbs for the lamps I had in the room. This gives me plenty of ambient lighting. Which I can adjust for cool temperatures during the day to help me focus. And can shift into warm temperatures at night, when I’m winding down.

There’s still a lot of empty space in the room for potential shelving or decorations, but for now, I thought I’d keep it minimal and live in the space a bit, before I add anything else (yet). 

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‍Matthew Encina is the the Chief Content Officer at The Futur, a design education company. He also serves as a creative director at Blind, a design consultancy where he creates interactive experiences and content for brands, tech, and video games. 

You can learn more about Matthew by visiting his Instagram @matthewencina & @mod.musings, YouTube channel @matthewencina, or by going to his website: matthewencina.com‍

A shift in culture towards less is more continues to popularize the minimalist movement. It’s a philosophy that is reflected in the core principles of good design, where simplicity is at the core of any useful and lasting product.

As people aim to simplify their life in this highly chaotic world (insert Marie Kondo meme), embracing a minimalist lifestyle with the objects that we carry, whether for work, travel, or leisure, can also be productive.

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What defines minimalist bags aesthetically?

The impact of Scandinavian design plays a role in many digitally native brands today, even ones that are based outside of Europe. Scandinavian design adheres to simplicity, functionality and clean lines supporting the philosophy of one living in harmony with his or her environment.

A minimalist backpack has a focus on sleek visually clean design, without excessive seams and details. There will be a focus on a single or maybe two types of materials, that are strong on uniformity and high utility.

Monotone color themes are most common in these subtle backpacks, as there is an emphasis on letting the person wearing the bag stand out, instead of the object itself.

Clean lines, simple use of color, limited zippers, little patterns or panels- are all foundational to the design principles of the minimal backpack.

Whether the materials used to create these bags are nylon, polyester, or leather, they tend to be in a matte finish compared to their shinier alternative. Rather than opting for a more ornate silhouette, many minimalist backpacks can have the shape of a tombstone (‘U shaped) backpack or top loader backpack with limited zippers, two of the more classic types of backpack shapes.

At most, minimalist backpacks will probably contain one to three outer zippers, but only where they seem necessary and useful. The goal is always to reduce visual stimuli while fulfilling utility.

Because of its focus on classic silhouettes and simple details, the minimal backpack tends to be timeless in its appearance, free from the fluctuation of most seasonal trends. Like the use of white space in graphic design, minimally designed bags can draw the viewer into certain details, without being too loud and ornate.

This makes minimalist backpacks perfect for work and travel as they can be interchangeable with any outfit. There’s also a gender-neutral element that’s unique to a minimalist backpack. They can be used (and look good on) anyone, making them versatile and appealing for everyday use. This coincides well with the growing trend of unisex fashion.

In addition to visual aesthetics, good design must also be environmentally friendly. Honoring the materials used for the products, in union with utility and appearance, is a component that many minimalist brands that create backpacks and bags seem to have adopted a part of their product philosophy.

What kind of functionality can you expect in a minimalist backpack?

The digitization of our lives and the need to carry less contributes to this growing interest in minimalist backpacks. For someone living in an urban environment, the ideal backpack volume will be around 16-20 liters, enough space to fit a few pouches (like a tech pouch, make up pouch), or clothes and gym shoes, or a laptop, books and papers for a work day.

Because of the need to have fewer objects to achieve the same results, a minimal backpack will typically have the 16-20L of storage space available as well as a focus on either a laptop compartment or shoe compartment, depending on what the use case of the bag is geared towards.

As an everyday bag for work, gym, or school, the focus on a single feature use case, as well as a simple minimalist look, makes it well suited and a preferred choice for many people who appreciate the design aesthetic.

What you won’t find in a minimal backpack are extra zippers inside the bag or additional pockets that aren’t essential for what the bag’s primary use case is for. Going back to Dieter Ram’s core design principles, “because it concentrates on the essential aspects, the products are not burdened with non-essentials.”

Some may come with an additional carry handle and only an essential outer pocket, like the ISM Backpack. The occasional embellishments found on minimal backpacks include items like a leather strap or tassels on the zipper to give it effortless flair. Whatever attention it draws aims to remain minimalist in its approach.

Whatever reasons you have in being drawn to a minimal backpack, it’s clear that good design principles are setting a precedent for people to use products on a more global scale that are aligned with this ethos. The philosophy towards great design, sustainability, and utility in the material items we possess.  

“We shape our tools and, thereafter, our tools shape us.” — John Culkin (1967)

It’s no secret that a thoughtfully designed workspace can elevate the mood and optimize your workflow.

To inspire your daily setup, we are launching Workspace Inspiration, a series to showcase the minimal and elegant desks of today’s working creatives.

From interior designers to content creators and curators, here are 15 inspiring workspaces:

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As an interior designer and content creator, Anna’s (@taannamadwochsynow) workspace is inspired by muted colors, simplicity, and Scandinavian design.

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N.Team (@n.team.design), a Ukraine-based interior firm, designs a monochromatic reading nook that is carefully positioned to last through the years.

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As a data scientist doing remote work, Julia’s (@juliakbrou) workspace for the day is filled with sun and greenery in Barcelona, Spain.

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Creative director, and fashion content creator, Naufal (@falzuh) integrates men’s style and minimalism in his daily workspace.

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Italy-based architecture and interior firm, Studio Didea (@studio_didea) designs a structured, workspace with a wooden shelving unit.

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Kerri (@kerr_webb) is an interior designer and content creator that designs mindful content and calm spaces in her Ottawa, Canada home.

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Lauren and Nick from Sunday Hours (@sundayhours) maintain a clean and monochromatic workspace to produce lifestyle content for brands.

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Deskspace inspiration account, Minimal Setups (@minimalsetups) features a neutral pastel workspace for two (photo by Roman Kot).

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Indonesia-based founder and director, Agi (@agiputraaspian), completes his black and white, minimalist workspace with his ISM Backpack.

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Berlin-based interior blogger, photographer, and shop owner, Doitbutdoitnow (@doitbutdoitnow), incorporates an array of plants to her wire shelving unit.

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Loft4C (@loft4c) designs a clean, futuristic office space (featured on @desk.inspo).

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Fashion and lifestyle content creator, Mooka (@thegrayhaus), captures the space in which her creativity flows best—a moody, desk set-up.

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Interior designer, shop owner, and photographer, Katharina (@__katharinamaria), works from a bright, white office with crafted pieces and neutral colors.

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Content creator and creative director, Darren (@mrdrowlands), shoots a workspace filled with antique pieces and framed images of historical figures.

Nikolay (@nicolay.t) of the Beauty of Technology (@beautyoftechnology) designs a clean and minimal workspace, with functional and aesthetically-designed tech tools to complete the look.

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Where we work can impact the approach that we have towards our work. It’s why iconic creatives like Ernest Hemingway used to write at the crack of dawn or how important an ergonomic workstation is to your productivity.

Public places are also an inspiring (and free) space to get work done and there’s no better public space than a library. Here are 14 of the world’s most beautiful libraries to work in:

Old Library, Trinity College

Dublin, Ireland

At Trinity College in Dublin is one of the oldest modern libraries in the world. Originally built in 1733 by the Irish architect and engineer Thomas, Burgh, this library uses dark wooden features like 213 long chambers and a barrel-like ceiling. It also is home to the Book of Kells, a 9th-century gospel known for its beautiful illustrations of the New Testament.  

Kanazawa Umimirai Library

Kanazawa, Japan

Designed by architects Coelacanth K&H to bring the outdoors indoors, the Kanazawa Umimirai Library pays homage to Japanese minimalist aesthetics. Its white walls are filled with 6,000 little holes to let in natural light, and also is designed to provide structure to the building in case of earthquakes. The vast size of the space makes it one of the 100 largest libraries in the world.

Vasconcelos Library

Mexico City, Mexico

A mega-library in the heart of Mexico City, the Biblioteca Vasconcelos was designed by local architect Alberto Kalach to “reorganize human knowledge” in a way that is user-friendly and aesthetically inspiring. The result is a massive 409,000 square-foot library that also showcases local Mexican artists and is connected to an outdoor botanical garden.  

George Peabody Library, Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Home to a collection of 300,000 rare books, the Peabody Library at Johns Hopkins was designed by local Maryland architect Edmund G. Lind in 1878. Its main atrium rises 61 feet, lighting up the space with beautiful light during the day. Inspired by Greek design, the library features large columns with gold scalloping along with classical style embellishments. The center of the atrium has desks for working and reading.

Cerritos Millennium Library

Cerritos, California, USA

Known as the first “Experiential Library,” The Cerritos Millennium Library was the first library to create different spaces to curate unique themed experiences. It houses the “Old Room” with ornate European design elements like a fireplace and mid-century columns as well as a Children’s Room with a marine aquarium theme. The library was also the first building in the world to use Titanium plating for its exterior, a practical and aesthetic choice by its architect, Maurice Fleishman.

Fisher Fine Arts Library, University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Victorian-era red bricks color the outside of the Fisher Fine Arts Library at UPenn, paying homage to the look of the Philadelphia factories during the 19th century. On the inside, high ceilings and open space are paired with Shakesperean style furniture. The library was designed by architect Frank Furness and is a National Historic Landmark.

 

National Library of Sejong City

Sejong City, South Korea

A swooping facade characterizes the National Library of Sejong City, symbolizing a book page that has been turned over. Open to the public in 2013, it’s a modern library that houses a collection of both digital and print books — including over 3 million digital books. Architects S.A.M.O.O designed the space to include large conference and seminar spaces, as well as a dining area, and a book-themed park.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Alexandra, Egypt

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina pays homage to the great Library of Alexandria, known as the capital of knowledge and learning. Its 11 stories house both 8 million books as well as 4 museums, 4 art galleries, and a large planetarium. Its Norwegian Architects designed the outer granite walls with 120 different Alexandrian scripts as a tribute to the history of human language and knowledge.

Philological Library, Free University of Berlin

Berlin, Germany

The unique shape of The Philological Library combined with its location at the Philology Department at Berlin University has given it the nickname “the Berlin Brain.” It houses thousands of rare books in its four-story structure, as well as ample desk space for studying and working. At night, a beautiful checkboard lighting can be seen through the library’s transparent partitions.

Admont Abbey Library

Admont, Austria

Constructed in 1776, the Admont Abbey Library houses over 200,000 rare books and sculptures, including Joseph Stammel’s “Four Last Things.” Architect Joseph Huber designed the hall with a gold and white palette and seven separate cupolas (domes). Each dome has art by Bartolomeo Altomonte’s “Frescos,” representing different types of human knowledge.

Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois, USA

At the University of Chicago is the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, also known to locals as “The Egg,” due to its oval dome shape. The architects Murphy/Jahn designed the library to be 55 feet underground so as not to take up physical space on an already crowded UChicago campus. The library houses over 3.5 million volumes, including one million of them in a rare-archives collection. With a transparent dome glass roof, the library gets beautiful natural lighting during the day.  

Tama Art University Library

Tokyo, Japan

Designed by Japanese architects Toyo Ito & Associates, the Tama Art University Library provides a collective space for gathering, studying, reading, and even watching films. The library’s concrete and steel arches provide structure and an interesting play on the eyes as they guide the viewer into the entrance to the building.

Stuttgart City Library

Stuggart, Germany

Minimalist at its core, the Stuggart City Library takes inspiration from the Pantheon in Rome, but with a modern minimalist, grid-based adaptation. Designed by German-based Yi Architects, the building includes airy staircases and bright, white open spaces. In the center of the library is a multi-floor meeting area.

Seattle Central Library

Seattle, Washington, USA

The Seattle Central Library draws you in with its distinctly geometric design and was created by renowned architect Rem Koolhaas. The 11 story building was designed with the ethos of creating a “continuous layer of transparency,” and this is reflected in the building’s outer skin of glass and metal. Home to 1.4 million tonnes of books and over 400 computers, this public library opened in 2004.