No. 276 · March 29, 2023

Lilit Balagyozyan

Product Designer at Kickstarter

Lilit Balagyozyan is a Product Designer at Kickstarter, working on the payments team.

Follow Lilit on Twitter, Behance and LinkedIn.

What is your favorite item in your workspace?

My favorite item in my workspace is my little clock. It helps me visualize my day when I planning.

How do you spark creativity?

I explore Pinterest daily for inspiration and when I have a spark of creativity, I usually start by moving over to the studio desks and rolling out some butcher paper to scribble my chaotic ideas down on. I find butcher paper to be a low pressure medium to let go on. I take a photo of the good ideas to move over to other tools to bring it to higher fidelity.

How do you manage work-life balance?

I’m lucky to work at a company that fiercely protects work-life balance and we are piloting a 4-day-work-week starting in April. But as a general practice, to protect my work-life balance by I planing religiously. I block out time to focus, as well as time to step away and relax; exercise, meditate, read, draw, etc.

Lilit’s gear

20 items.

On the desk20

Computer M1 MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) 32GB RAM, 1TB
Personal laptop. I went all out on this machine with the intention to practice 3D modeling/rendering with Blender later this year.
On 64% of the desks we’ve published
Computer MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) 1TB
Work laptop
On 64% of the desks we’ve published
Mouse Apple Magic Trackpad Shop
I have one for each laptop
On 19% of the desks we’ve published
Keyboard Apple Magic Keyboard Shop
I have one for each laptop. For my work keyboard I designed DIY stickers to label my Zoom hotkeys.
On 26% of the desks we’ve published
Headphones Apple AirPods Pro Shop
My preferred headphones. I just wish the battery life was longer.
On 16% of the desks we’ve published
Hub / Dock Apple Lighting Dock Shop
To charge my Apple AirPods Pros and iPhone
Headphones Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones Shop
I used to share an office with my partner so we both wore these to prevent our microphones from picking up each other’s voices during overlapping meetings. Fantastic battery life.
Monitor Dell UltraSharp 27 4K USB-C Monitor - U2720Q Shop
Work monitor
Monitor Philips 4K Ultra HD LCD Monitor
Personal monitor. I love it, but no VESA mount means I needed to buy an arm mount to hold it up.
Webcam Logitech HD Pro Webcam Shop
Desk Butcher Block tabletop from Homedepot Shop
which we stained lightly
Monitor Arm Fully Jarvis White Monitor Arms (2x) Shop
These are so utterly beautiful. They have a dual monitor arm, but I bought 2 separate ones so I have the freedom to modify my set up in the future.
Desk Fully Jarvis White Frame/Legs Shop
The legs on these are set back rather than centered, which I really like the look of. It works like a charm.
Accessories IKEA HELMER Drawer Unit Shop
Chair BenchPro Chair Shop
These were the chairs we used in our design studio and I immediately hunted them down upon graduating from my design program. I intentionally looked for a chair that was made for counter to bar height, which I prefer for focused work. This also means I almost always have my desk between bar and standing height.
Accessories Rubber Office Chair Casters
I love these. They are very gentle on the floor and make no sound. My only issue with them is that I set my chair to bar stool height so feet are dangling, and so I need to anchor myself in place with my elbows otherwise I occasionally roll away
Accessories Analog retro clock
I find analog clocks help me visualize (and thus, manage) time better. I always keep one within eye view of my work stations.
Accessories Marble Coasters Shop
I’m terrified of coffee staining my beautiful butcher block table
Laptop Stand Upright laptop stand Shop
High on my requirements list was finding a stand without a logo stamped somewhere on the front, somehow a surprisingly rare feature.
Hub / Dock Twelve South StayGo USBC hub Shop
Love this thing

On the screen16 apps

Figma
For product design work and collaboration. It’s also where I make my habit tracker each week, build brand elements, prepare to print stickers, etc.
Adobe Creative Cloud
I use a good mix of Illustrator, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Indesign for high fidelity graphic design work.
Adobe fonts
Essential for exploring logos and branding and works together with Webflow
Webflow
for my portfolio, and for building websites in general
Coda
For documenting & organizing my life and projects
Miro
For flowcharts and diagrams
Apple Mail
For an aggregation of all my emails. I find the interface much smoother than gmail.
Pinterest
For mood-boarding and inspiration. It’s the best visual search engine in the world, I’m constantly amazed by it.
Slack
For collaboration and communication
Freepik
For vectors/illustrations
Behance and Dribbble
For visual design inspiration
Noun Project
For icons
Google Chrome
Inspect and extensions are a must have, though the interface could be more minimal.
Twitter
For design community and design news
Concepts App (on iPad)
For sketching ideas when erasing and copy/pasting is preferred. Otherwise I use a roll of butter paper to sketch on
Unsplash
For stock images