Nathan Barry

Who are you, and what do you do?

My career has gone through a few different stages, but at the core I’m a designer. Though more recently I’ve written three books and founded ConvertKit, an email marketing company for professional bloggers.

What forms of media have influenced you the most?

Probably books. Though when I think of pivotal moments for me they are usually through meeting people and making connections, which usually happens at conferences. I’d say I am far more influenced by people than media.

What hardware / software do you use?

I do my daily work on a 27″ iMac with an additional 27″ Cinema Display. It’s basically screen real-estate heaven. When traveling I use a 13″ Macbook Air with all the files synced over Dropbox and Github.
It was a bit of a pain to get setup initially, but now I love the setup. Processing power and large displays when I need it, but a small laptop with amazing battery life when traveling.
Since I build software a lot of my toolkit is developer focused: Github, Atom, Photoshop, etc. Then everyday I use Trello, Slack, and of course ConvertKit.

What would be your dream creative setup?

I’m a huge fan of busy coffee shops. When I really need to get work done—or there’s something that I keep putting off—I head to my favorite coffee shop and order a chai tea latte (I rarely drink actual coffee). With that little reward I power through whatever work I need.