Cat-Friendly Desk Setup in Berlin, Germany

Name: Nicholas Christowitz

Location: Berlin, DE

Occupation: Digital designer

Room size: 9 m² (97 ft²)

Cost of setup: ~€9K ($9,8K)

Social media: Instagram

Hello! Tell us a bit about yourself

I’m a designer from Johannesburg, and I’ve been in Berlin for almost eight years.

My career started in graphic design, branding, and illustration, and has since shifted to digital product design, with a focus on websites and apps.

I work for myself, and that has been the case for most of the 14 years I’ve been a designer.

When I was younger and had too much ambition (and the privilege of being able to go back home and live with my folks if it all went wrong), I started a coffee roastery and café company with my best friends.

It’s still growing 11 years later.

I also started a brand consultancy that worked with global brands like Levi’s, Vans, and Ray-Ban.

Running businesses taught me valuable lessons (mostly that I don’t want to run businesses) that have helped me forge the career I want.

At 35, I think I’ve finally found my groove in the industry.

I struggle to work in teams, I shun urgency, I find the startup scene a bit sleazy, and I believe in making things slowly and thoughtfully.

I’ve been lucky enough to pick up clients along the way who feel the same way. Shoutout to Chris from SwiftUI Field Guide and Romario (ex-BLOK PM).

Take us through your setup

My office is a relatively small space (just 3×3 m), but one entire side is glass, which gives me a lot of natural light (essential in Berlin winters) and plenty to look at when my eyes need a break from the screen.

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Maker StationsEditorial Team

I’ve worked from home for most of my career, so having an office in my apartment feels very natural to me.

My workspace has a Mac and a PC setup, and that’s my favourite part.

I play a lot of online games with old friends who live far away, so in the afternoons, after I’ve finished work, I just roll my chair over to the PC setup for some casual gaming.

It’s also useful to be able to test designs on a Windows PC with a non-Retina display and poor colour correction.

I think we often forget that many users don’t have the latest phone or a pro-range MacBook.

The most worthwhile improvement I made was adding the Herman Miller Aeron and an electric standing desk to my desk setup.

The one thing that bothers me about my workspace is my cable management.

It always looks fine in photos, but I know the cables are a mess under the desk, and sometimes I catch a glimpse of them, and I feel sad for an hour or two.

What’s your favourite item on your desk?

It’s the woven basket that my cat, Boh, lies in while I work.

If you’re ever on a Zoom call with me and I look distracted, it’s because I’m watching Boh snore right next to my screen.

What apps or tools do you use to get things done?

Most of my time is spent in Figma.

Like most designers my age, I started in MS Paint and CorelDRAW, then moved on to the Adobe Creative Suite.

Figma was like a breath of fresh air when it appeared on the scene, and it felt exciting to be a digital designer again.

I think it’s inevitable that Figma will eventually follow the same path as Adobe and create bloated, extractive, investor-led software, but for now, I’m really enjoying it!

I use Apple Reminders and Noteplan for daily planning.

Noteplan stores everything locally as .txt files and syncs via CloudKit, so my data isn’t stuck in some startup’s ecosystem.

I also use Loom, Cleanshot, Mimestream, Slack, Apple Calendar, and Notion (which I’m trying to get away from).

What books, blogs, or podcasts recently caught your attention?

I’ve found are.na to be the best source for online inspiration related to my industry, and other than that, I avoid taking part in the design scene.

I’m a guy who uses design to earn a living.

I love my job, but it’s not something I care about when I’m not working.

I enjoy podcasts and books about current affairs, history, economics, sci-fi, and literature as such.

Over the last week or two, my favourite podcasts have been Ezra Klein’s commentary on the political situation in the USA, The Foreign Desk on Monocle Radio, and a dose of Dear Hank and John to make me feel human again.

My favourite books over the last few weeks have been Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman, and The Second World War by Antony Beevor.

I’m also always reading a short story by Borges or the brilliant journalism in The London Review Of Books.

Any tips for other makers who want to improve their workspaces?

Lighting is so important and can make or break a space.

Overhead lights, harsh shadows, and cheap LEDs — all of these can negatively affect the vibe, no matter how good the rest of your setup is.

Indirect and adjustable, high-quality lighting will make you so much happier.

How to Set Up Desk LED Lights

A step-by-step guide.

Maker StationsEditorial Team

What does your typical day look like?

I’m usually up around 6:30 am, and I spend the first hour drinking coffee and hanging out with Boh, or I stroll to La Maison for a pastry and to stare at the swans in the canal.

I’m working by 7:30 am and get about three hours of focused work done while my brain is fresh.

I feel like I do six hours of work in those first three hours of the day because there are no interruptions.

I eat lunch quite early, and then I go for a coffee walk.

I nap for 30-45 minutes just about every afternoon.

Not much serious work happens after that unless I have a deadline.

Around 5 pm, I’ll go for a run or play some games before making dinner and watching TV.

Occasionally, I’ll work a bit in the evenings if I have a good idea I want to try, but I’m pretty good at getting my work-life balance to heavily favour ‘life’.

I’m reading in bed by 10 pm most nights.

I’ve been WFH for so long that the pandemic shift didn’t really affect me too much.

I don’t think a job or project exists that could get me into an office with other people.

I’m quite introverted, and I love being on my own more than anything.

Being around people is extremely exhausting for me, so for the foreseeable future, I’ll always have an office in my home.

I know this has been a tricky adjustment for a lot of people and companies, but like most things, we’ll all adapt and adjust.

Your tips for working from home?

Deadlines and intrinsic motivation keep me focused.

So does leaving my phone in another room and not having more than one or two calls a week.

I find nothing more detrimental to my day than a Zoom meeting.

I really enjoy working at my own pace, so I rarely involve myself in projects that have a sense of urgency to them.

If I don’t feel like my time is 100% mine to manage, I get anxious and annoyed.

Project and client selection is actually one of the biggest factors in my WFH success and would be one of my main tips for people new to the freelance/WFH life.

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