TechTalk: What I Use / Gina DeConti

I've been following a blog called The Setup for a while now. Every few weeks they profile a creative person and the technology that person uses. As an homage to the The Setup, once a month the TechTalk series will feature a library staff member and the tech, gadgets, and software they use to learn, work, and play. It's called "What I Use"

Gina DeConti, Manager of Creative Services

Who are you?

My name is Gina DeConti and my official title at the library is Manager of Creative Services. My background is in graphic design, multimedia design, illustration and photography. Basically, I'm in charge of branding and maintaining a consistent look and feel over all of the promotional materials created at the library. Creative Services also designs the posters and displays you see throughout the building. My work here includes things like creating large scale three dimensional wall art, designing Library-wide campaigns, photographing programs, and much more. My main focus is for the library to be an amazing visual experience for our patrons. I want them to feel like they've arrived somewhere special when they walk through our doors.

What hardware do you use?

I currently have a brand new iMac 27" with 3.2 GHz. It's an amazing machine. I also use a Wacom tablet, and a myriad of other peripherals that I find indispensable, such as a large format poster printer, Epson scanner, and a beautiful Apple wireless mouse. Which I LOVE.

What software do you use?

My favorite program is Adobe Illustrator for sure, but I also use the entire Adobe Creative Suite daily. Occasionally I have to design something in Word for the librarians to use as a template that they can modify. Creating something in Word is always a painful experience for adesigner.

What would be your dream set up?

I would love to have a Cintiq 24HD so that I could work directly on the screen. I'm also working on getting our department a brand new Epson large format printer that will greatly improve the quality of our displays. And of course we are waiting to upgrade our OS to Lion so that Apple can work out all the bugs first (but I can not wait to get it!!!).