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My name is Eva-Lotta Lamm. I'm a designer, originally from Germany but now living in London.
I work as an interaction designer for Google but I also like doing illustration and lettering in my spare time. You might have come across my sketchnotes from various design conferences and talks (see www.sketchnotesbook.com). They are a form of taking notes in a more visual and engaging way and they help me remember the content of the talk.
Hardware
My setup at home and at work are fairly similar. I have a 15" macbook pro connected to a 24" cinema display. I also have a small wacom tablet instead of a mouse. For sketching, I like staying analogue: My favourite pens are the Pilot g-tec C4, Muji gel pens and the amazing Tombow ABT dual brush pen for grey shading (see here for my full list).
Software
Like most designers, I use Adobe Creative Suite for most of the things I do. I use Illustrator for wireframing and icon design, InDesign to pull together documentation and Photoshop for visual design. I also sometimes use Flash or HTML/CSS/JS to build interactive prototypes and AfterEffects to visualise animations and transitions.
For the planning side of things, I use Google Docs and spreadsheets a lot. It's great because you can work collaboratively on the same documents with several people and you can access them from anywhere.
For presentations, I use Keynote.
Dream setup
I recently tried an HD Wacom Cintiq tablet. It's amazing for sketching, illustration and lettering. But it's also quite big and pricey. Maybe one day.... :)
Inspiration
My inspiration mainly comes from making and practising new (and old) skills. One of my design heroes, Otl Aicher said: "The making influences the thinking". And I wholeheartedly agree. It is amazing what you can discover in regular practice. I do a lot of lettering and calligraphy... and I still have so much to learn. I try to find time to sketch during little breaks in my day and in my commute to and from work.