L-shaped Desk Setup in Essex, UK

Name: Ben Garratt

Location: Westcliff-On-Sea, Essex, United Kingdom

Occupation: Digital Product Designer, Co-Founder of Fare Studio

Room size: 4,95 m² (53,28 ft²)

Cost of the setup: $2,5K — without tech (desk, peripherals, paint, chair etc.), £11,2K — with tech (PC, Mac, Hifi + the above).

Social media: Instagram, Twitter

Hey, Ben! Tell us a bit about yourself

Hey, I’m Ben, I am a digital product designer who's recently moved from East London to Westcliff-On-Sea in Essex.

Leaving London was something we had never considered until remote working became much more normal for people in the tech/design world.

I feel really lucky that it worked out that way for us.

London is a great city but after nearly ten years of renting, we wanted a space to call our own.

Being able to afford that in London would have required a lot of borrowing and a big mortgage, which is all a bit scary and would have had me tied to the sort of jobs I was doing before.

Until recently, I was the Head of Design at a fintech app called Cleo, but about two months ago I joined up with a mate of mine to launch our agency, Fare Studio. We work on all sorts of things, including app and website design and branding projects mainly.

I’m a big coffee enthusiast. There are a couple of hints at that in my space! We have a Sage dual boiler espresso machine and a Niche Zero grinder and use that to make either flat whites or long blacks or pour-over from a V60.

We drink mainly lighter roasted speciality coffee from all sorts of roasters around the UK and Europe. Some favourites include Square Mile, Workshop, Bailies, Coffee Collective, Colonna and Barn.

I’ve been documenting some of the great coffee we have been enjoying specifically during the lockdown last year.

I play tennis regularly and I’m ageing but still an enthusiastic PC gamer. I enjoy a wide range of games from competitive esports titles like CS: GO and Valorant through to Football manager.

I’m also a keen but average photographer, you can check out some photos over on Unsplash.

Can you describe your home setup?

We moved into our Edwardian arts and crafts period terrace house in Westcliff-On-Sea back in April 2021.

The house is small, but for us, the increase in space has been pretty wild. I’d started planning what I would do with the small third bedroom at the front of the house a while before we moved.