Interview: Maria João Valente from Mac ao Quadrado

8 April 2009 Filed in: Interviews

Hi, Maria, welcome to Marmalade Moon and thank you for taking part in this interview! To begin with, could you tell us about your background? Where do you come from? What do you do for a living?

: iMac icon. Chicano Designs

I’m an archaeologist and university professor at the University of Algarve (Southern Portugal). I was born in the capital, Lisbon, but I’ve been living in the South for the last 10 years (moved when I was 28 years old). I have strong connections to US since my “other half” is from Oregon, US.

Other than that, I’m a Mac geek. I’ve been using Macs for the last 5 years, ever since I fell in love for its design, OS and applications. (Made some switchers out of my friends, family and students… I’m quite proud of that.)

You have a technique for how you keep your desktop organized, could you tell us more about the Fluid Desktop Wonder?

I’m very visually oriented when I’m working on a computer. I like a beautiful, uncluttered, organized environment. Therefore I pay extra attention to wallpapers, icons, and organization of folders and files techniques. This means I’m always searching — online, of course — for the right image or icon. And for the most fluid way to keep my stuff organized in the hard drive.

: Fig 1. Maria João Valente’s desktop

I found out that for me what’s out of my view is normally out of my attention, so I manage to have my most used folders in my sightline. That means they must be on my desktop… but not exactly. :) Let me explain —

Currently on my desktop I have the aliases (an alias is a small file that represents a file or folder) of 6 permanent folders. They are all placed on the left side, so they don’t get mixed up with temporary files that generally end up on the right side of the desktop (see Fig. 1, of the full desktop). They are not the real folders, since the real ones are not residing on the desktop, but instead they are neighbors of the Documents Folder (example: ~/Documents, ~/Downloads, ~/Pictures, ~/New Folder…) or within the Documents (~/Documents/New Folder).

: Fig. 2. How to create an alias

I make aliases of them so I can have easy access while still maintaining the folders in their regular place. (Note: to do that you ctrl+click the folder or file in question and then choose Make Alias. That will create the alias folder or file that you can then move wherever without changing the original item’s place. (See Fig. 2.)

Of those 6 folders, 2 of them are network connections between my MacBook Pro and my iMac (lovingly called Geekmac). Basically they are like conduits to the other computer. As long as I have the network working I can send or receive files in between the MBP and the iMac. (Think of these folders as hyperspace wormholes.)

The other 4 folders are the ones related to my classes; one for each class that I’m currently teaching (for anyone else, these could be folders related with different projects). Again these are only aliases, since the real ones live as sub-folders of the general Documents folder. In them (or in any other folder I cannot see regularly) I only put finished files; i.e., files that I am no longer using, but am already moving to their final destination.

So, where do my currently ‘in use’ files live? Or the files that I’m still to read or to finish? Well, those live in 4 other folders located in the right side of my dock (see Fig. 3).

: Fig. 3 – Right Side Dock

Here I have the ordinary Downloads alias folder and 3 personal ones: Out Zone, ToDo, Work Zone. They are all aliases of the real ones living next to the Documents Folder (i.e. ~/Out Zone, ~/ToDo, ~/Work Zone). What are they for? Well, let me try to explain:

— Work Zone: every file that I’m currently working on.

— ToDo: files I’m planning to work on, but haven’t had the time to do it yet. (Normally, stuff that I downloaded or received and know I’ll have to work on later.)

— Out Zone: general stuff that I have already finished and is waiting for final destination. I normally clean up this folder every month or so, sending its contents to the other folders on the desktop, if the subject is any of my classes, or other less used folders within the Hard Drive.

In a way this is my Getting Things Done (GTD) workflow.

: Star Trek: Command Casual Icon by Dave Brasgalla

Now, since these 4 + 6 folders are so visible I tend to be very picky on their icons. :) The others, far from my eyes, don’t matter that much to me, since I only see them now and then when I’m organizing files. But these 4 (dock) + 6 (desktop) must be pretty and easily distinguished. On the 3 GTD folders I prefer similar shapes and different colors. The Refresh Trek icon set by Dave Brasgalla is perfect for that.

: Note Book Icon by Susumu Yoshida

For the 4 classes icons I’m using the set Book icons by Susumu Yoshida. The 2 Geekmac icons were remade by me using a basic iMac icon (don’t remember the designer). To change the regular icons into these pretty ones I use a great app called CandyBar by The Iconfactory and Panic (shareware).

Oh, and the terrific wallpaper is from fredsarran (ICAscot.com): walldesk3. (He regularly posts his work at MacThemes.)

Could you tell us about your interest in desktop art? What sparked your interest?

I always liked digital art even if I’m not good enough to try it on my own (maybe in another lifetime). I always loved a good placed out-of-the-ordinary wallpaper… However, my real interest only started after using Macs. It’s a shame to have such beautiful hardware and not play with digital art, either web design or icons or wallpapers or…

Is your desktop always neat and newly styled or does it vary? How do you like to customize your own desktop? Do you have any favourite desktop artists?

I tend to see my laptop (more than the desktop) as my office. I’m there all the time, either working, blogging, twittering or zapping through the web. I *need* to have a good looking environment; it’s important to my mental health, therefore I keep things pretty much neat although the style varies a lot.

: CandyBar Icon

I’d say I change my wallpaper every 1-2 weeks and my icon set every 2-3 months. And, yes, I customize a lot, even if avoiding deep changes (for instance, I never change the OS theme).

I currently have a big collection of wallpapers (300 MBs of it in a special folder) and many icons that I regularly use (stored in CandyBar). When I see something I like in the web, I collect it and sooner or later will end up using it.

As for desktop artist I have some favorites: Vladstudio for wallpapers (and some others from DeviantArtor MacThemes… or Marmalade Moon). Louie Mantia,Anthony Piraino, Jonas Rask, David Lanham, Susumu Yoshida, Dave Brasgalla for icons.

Tell us about some of your favourite applications and their icons?

: Mailplane Icon

There are a few I really like and therefore never modify, like the Mailplane icon.

Because it is so easy to identify what it is for: M from mail, a plane and a G from gmail. Simple, efective, balanced. It was made by Jonas Rask, a pro. :)

: Scrivener Icon

Unlike Mailplane,Scrivener’s icon was made by a non-professional designer: Amber Vaesca. She’s a pro on using Scrivener, though. :) You can see it’s less polished than the other ones, but it totally invokes the ambience of the app, which I think it’s the most amazing app for writing ever made. (My PhD was done in it. Scrivener made it less painful.)

: Espresso Icon

The Espresso icon. I like the name and I like the warm feeling of it. It’s a very promising text editor for HTML and other languages. Even before it was ready to download (it’s a brand new app) I had already “stolen” its icon to prettify my desktop. :) (In my dreams I want the original file, so I can change the character as I wish.) I don’t know exactly who made the icon.

: Bean Icon

The Bean icon. The second best app for writing… It’s a freeware app similar to TextEdit but much better in features and with a nice look to it, inside and out. (TextEdit is boring, both the app and the icon.) The icon was made by Laurent Baumann and I want to eat that chocolate little bar next to the coffee.

: DrawIt Icon

DrawIt is my favorite application for making small works related with desktop or web design (like the calendar included in the Desktop), besides it has a very cool and simple icon. I love it because it avoids the regular mix-up of objects that most drawing application’s icons have. A colorful elegant ink drop that I can instantly spot in my dock. Plus, I love orange. This icon was also made by Laurent Baumann.

Finally, what are some of the things you enjoy in your everyday life?

: Battlestar Galactica: Admiral Icon by The Iconfactory.

Let me see… I love reading, including ebooks (both on my laptop or iPod Touch). Am currently obsessing over the end of Battlestar Galactica (damn, I’m going to miss that show). And I just bought a new bike: a Trek FX 7.6 to do Cycle Oregon 2009. In my spare time I’m working hard for that 400-mile ride in September.

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