You are reading Maker Stations — your Sunday newsletter, where we feature desk tours with makers and creators.
Name: Alex Gow
Location: Australia
Occupation: IT Manager
Hello! Tell us a bit about yourself
I’m currently working as an IT Manager within a global data and analytics organisation, but that’s not all that exciting on paper.
What is exciting, at least to me, is the fact that my clients are government agencies, and I know that every day I’m contributing and giving back to the public.
It’s not always so direct every day, but when the team and I develop an application that can present a real use case to the government and the public sector, I take pride in what I do.
As for who I am outside of work, I’ve just recently become a father, and that’s my main focus, as you would expect.
If you ignore all the sleepless nights, it’s been a great journey so far.
Some days it’s still surreal to think that I’m a dad and responsible for a little human being’s life!
When I get time to myself, I try to jump back into my hobbies, whether it’s playing video games, caring for my plants, tinkering with keyboards, or tidying up my setup (my teenage self would be so disappointed to hear that cleaning is now a hobby).
Take us through your setup
I’m a big gamer who spends most of his spare time on the PC and have been playing video games ever since I was a kid (when my dad bought me my first Sega).
This whole desk setup started about two years ago, two months before my birthday.
My wife cleared out a room for me and said it was mine.
I could finally have the dream setup I wanted — this was her birthday gift to me (best one, by the way)!
Naturally, the main feature of this is my gaming PC and setup, but over the past two years, I’ve slowly been adding more and more of my other hobbies here (plants, keyboards, etc.)
So besides the obvious gaming PC itself my main priority was the monitor, as someone who plays a lot of RPG games I wanted to find a good monitor that could further create the immersion of being in another world.
One thing I was sceptical about was getting an ultrawide monitor. I bought this back in 2020, when ultrawide monitors still weren’t popular, but I’m glad I did — I don’t think I can go back.
The additional real estate definitely created more immersion for gaming, and I also found that it helps with productivity (for anyone that deals with Excel spreadsheets a lot, I can’t recommend this enough)!
The majority of the time it is for gaming, as I have a separate work laptop.
Having said that, on occasion, when I’m working from home, I plug up my laptop into my monitor, mouse, and keyboard, so for the most part, it’s still separate, but I can enjoy the big monitor and a more ergonomic setup.
When it’s time to clock off, I make sure that anything work-related is tidied up, with no loose papers on the desk, so it’s clean.
I think it maintains a nice little balance, so my setup isn’t associated with work all the time — after all, I want this area to be where I relax.
I love the space.
Sure, a bigger room would give me more creativity to decorate, but I’m more than happy with the current size, and if I ever moved, I’d be happy with the same.
All the shelves and my table are bought from IKEA.
I would have loved to build my own to have something more unique, but honestly, IKEA products are just so well designed.
Really happy I haven’t bought anything that I regret.
I’ll definitely upgrade a few items eventually, but for the time being, I love them, and nothing has broken unexpectedly.
I had a small 160 cm table before, and after you put the PC, monitor, and speakers on it, I just felt cramped up on the desk, constantly moving things around, so the upgrade to a bigger space is absolute luxury.
In terms of creativity with decorating, it was less challenging but also something new. Learning colour palettes, complementary shapes/designs, and don’t get me started on photography.
Who would’ve thought that you can’t simply point your camera and get a magnificent shot?
I mention below YouTube; most of the time, it’s just someone talking about the products they buy, but every now and then, you get a few tips here and there.
I’ve considered using those peel and stick wallpapers to trial, but gosh, they can get expensive when you want to cover a large space.
Another thing which I haven’t posted before is the back of the room behind my desk.
I’m just not 100% happy with it and not entirely sure why.
I’m going to step out of my comfort zone and include it here — maybe some feedback from the audience will be exactly what I need.
In terms of struggles, I would say that this has been my first project into something that you could say is creative.
I’ve spent most of my life using the technical and logical part of my brain, which is probably normal considering my occupation in IT.
I’ve never had any skills within woodworking or building, so even putting up shelves was something new to me.
There have been so many times I wanted to build something myself to have its own uniqueness but ended up purchasing instead because I was too overwhelmed to even know where to start.
