Barry Doyon is a graphic designer who is involved in print, web, and other multimedia work. He was recently featured in my “Top 10 Multi Display Mac Setups” list. After exchanging a few emails with him, Barry agreed to be interviewed about his Apple art centric office and general way of life.

What exactly do you do, and what does your job entail Barry?

I am a Graphic Designer involved in print work, web, and other multimedia. This involves the use of apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, etc.. My work varies, from photo editing, website design and maintenance, and print ads for local clients. But recently I’ve been getting into some audio and video work that’s pretty exciting. 


What is your current Mac Setup?



PowerMac G5 - Dual Core 2.3GHz, 8GB RAM, 2x 250GB Hard Drives, Superdrive, 2x 20” Apple Cinema Displays, Wireless Keyboard and Wacom Graphire 4 6×8 Tablet.

MacBook Pro - Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz, 2GB RAM, 120GB Hard Drive Superdrive,

PowerMac G4 - 1.25GHz, 2GB RAM, 1x 80GB Boot Drive + 3x 750GB Hard Drives (2TB JBOD) 1x 20” Apple Cinema Display + 1x 17” Apple Studio Display

The PowerMac G5 is my main workstation. It’s been a great machine, capable of handling any task I threw at it. When I’m out and about, I take my MacBook Pro with me. It has been awesome as a secondary Mac and had performed very well on occasions where I’ve had to use it for some production work. My PowerMac G4, which used to be my main work station, is now used as a network storage server. I’m planning to get a 4th Mac soon, a Mac mini, to use as a home media center.


How did you go about choosing the Dual 20″ Apple Cinema Displays over any other monitor configuration?

Well, I had been using dual displays, a 20” and a 17” with my PowerMac G4 and I liked having all the screen real estate. With the work that I do, it really pays off. When I decided to get a G5 system I wanted to get new displays for my setup as well. The aluminum Apple displays looked so nice when paired with the G5 tower. At the time, one of Apple’s 23” displays cost just about as much as two 20” displays and I couldn’t afford to get two 23” displays and the 30” was way out of my budget, so I went with dual 20” displays. I suppose I could have gone with Dell’s 20” panels to save some money but they just didn’t look as nice.


Any thoughts of switching to a Mac Pro anytime soon?

I purchased my G5 tower in January of 2006 so It still has plenty of life to it, and as long as it can keep up with the work that I need it to do, I probably won’t look at a Mac Pro for at least a few more years.


How much money do you estimate on average you spend annually on technology?

Over the past few years I figure I’ve spent an average of about $5000 - $6000 (CAD) a year on computer hardware and software. That’s a bit high because in that time I’ve updated my entire setup, moving from my PowerMac G4 desktop to my PowerMac G5 desktop and my iBook g4 to my MacBook Pro.


One highlight (literally) in your office is the large illuminated Apple logo behind your monitors. How did you go about making this, and where did your inspiration come from?

I get asked about my “Apple art” often so I’ll try to be thorough. It wasn’t too difficult to build and all the materials you’d need should be available at an Arts & Crafts store. It was about 4 or 5 years ago when I was still setting up my current office. I wanted a nice big piece of art on my wall but wasn’t sure what I wanted. I’m not sure what prompted me to do it but I decided on a large Apple logo “poster”, and that what it was, at first I made a large poster out of matte board and I put an Apple logo on it. I posted a photo of my setup on Spymac, which I frequented often back then. I got a lot of nice comments and feedback on my office but one comment suggested that “it be cool if the logo glowed like a PowerBook”. And that led me to redesign my “Apple art”



I got a large dark grey matte board, about 40″ x 32″. I cut the Apple logo out of the matte board using a sharp knife. I covered the logo cut out, from the back, with frosted mylar (a translucent plastic). Next, to give the board some strength and build it out from the wall a bit I “framed” the perimeter of the back side of the matte board using canvas stretchers. I bought the stretcher bars to make  a ‘frame’  that was 40″ x 32″, the same size as my matte board. I glued the frame together, painted it black, just to look nice, once dry, I glued the frame to the back of the matte board with regular white glue.  When was done I screwed in two eyelets and strung some picture wire to hang it.
To make the Apple “glow” I’ve tried a few different ways.

My first try was with an LED keychain light, mounted on the back, it used watch batteries so I could only have the light on for short periods. Eventually the batteries died and the watch batteries were too expensive to keep replacing.  My second try was with AA battery Christmas lights mounted around the logo on the back. This gave out a lot more light and the batteries were more affordable to replace but I still didn’t leave it on for long because the Christmas lights would get  a bit too hot … didn’t want to start a fire.

I’m planning on remaking my glowing Apple art this time using plexiglass, adhesive vinyl and a fluorescent backlight… so stay tuned.

How much do you estimate it cost you in time and money to create the piece?

To date, I don’t think I’ve spent more than $100 (CAD) total on that piece, including the various backlighting I’ve experimented with. And I’ve probably spent maybe eight hours, tops. It really is inexpensive and simple to do, as is most of my other “Apple art”.

What other Apple centric pieces do you have on display in your office?

I have several art prints hanging on my walls, all of which I printed and framed myself at minimal cost. I have four frames on the same wall as my glowing Apple logo, where I’ve had still images of Apple’s iPod “Silhouette Dancers”. Originally they were the simpler style with bright background colours, blue, green, yellow etc… I now have stills from the Eminem iPod ad in those frames.

One the other side of my office I have four more frames. Each has a print of an OSX default desktop wallpaper. Tiger, Panther, Jaguar and the original Aqua. I’ve made some other fun thing with an Apple theme including t-hirts, tissue box covers a clock and some custom designed paper Macs.

Do you have any favorite websites, blogs, or podcasts you enjoy?

I tend to hang around the ehmac.ca forums every once and a while and I do like to check out Flikr. I like looking at all the photos just for fun. I do try to keep up on Apple news and rumours so I tend to frequent macrumors.com, appleinsider.com, macworld.com on a daily basis. There’s only two podcasts that I like to watch/listen to regularly. There’s the Geek Brief with Cali Lewis, and then there’s the MacCast with Adam Christianson. Both great podcasts.

What do you think of Barry’s stylish suited out office?