One nice thing about a corner desk is that it can be as small or big as you like. It is truly a versatile piece of furniture. Lets take a look at the basic corner desk and see how it can be adapted to many uses.
First, when you are starting off in life, you simply may not have very much room. So starting out with a very basic corner desk is a great option. This design is small and compact. It sits in the corner with no side extensions. Many do extend up, kind of like a hutch, to provide more storage space on shelves or sometimes small cabinets. Many of this style have slide out keyboard shelves, as well as a lower shelf for a CPU. This style is sometimes referred to as a tower, and it is amazing some of the ingenuity put into their design to get the most amount of use out of a very compact desk. Most of this style that I have seen are made of metal or metal and wood combinations, so they often have a more modern, stylish look.
Perhaps you have a bit of room along either one or both walls, but not enough for a full side extension. A great option then is one or two side pedestals or cabinets. These usually only make the desk about 2 feet bigger in either direction but provide a lot more work space. The top surface is perfect for a printer, keeping frequently accessed files, office supplies or books, or just as extra workspace. The bottom part of the pedestal can come with shelves, a filing drawer or a small cabinet or combination of these options. So, if you have just a little bit of extra space, you can really get a lot more usability and storage in your corner desk than just a tower.
Of course, you may be more established in life and have more space with which to work. If this is the case, then a side extension on one or both sides of a corner desk really allows you to be organized with plenty of room for both computer and long hand work. Now, the corner desks first mentioned above often sit in the corner and have a triangular shape. Some of these larger corner desks can have the same triangular shape and have extension coming off of that work area, or it can be more "L" shaped and fit into the corner. One nice thing about the "L" shaped desk is that it is easy to swivel from one work area to the other, so you can easily do computer work and then turn to do book work. Almost all of this style that I have seen also have drawers, shelves or cabinets near both ends of the "L".
For many, the "L" shaped corner desk may provide everything they need, but if you do need more space, you can add an optional hutch to many desk designs. This allows you to take advantage of vertical space, which can be very handy if you have a lot of books or other items to access while working. I have seen single hutches that just extend along one wall, or you can sometimes find desks that have corner hutches that extend along both walls.
If you really need a lot of work space, you can get one more extension on some models, essentially giving you a "U" shaped desk. This style is used by many businesses in their cubbies.
So, as you can see, a corner desk can suit most anybody in any phase of life, regardless of whether you have very limited or a lot of space to work.