I haven’t updated this site much the past… forever. I’ve been really busy since going freelance and I haven’t really had much time to write or update the portfolio. I have a ton of new work I need to post. I’m in the initial brainstorming process of a rebrand of myself so hopefully I’ll get time in the next couple weeks to get that on track and get some new work up.

My most recent iteration of an inspiration saving tool is a quick Tumblr blog. I figured I’m saving this stuff for myself, but that doesn’t mean I’m the only one who see it. So if you’d like a quick shot of inspiration for a design project or just want to check out some cool stuff, you can go to inspire.arkitect.org. I plan on messing around with the design once I have some free time but for now, it’s quick to add to and looks decent.

The design was done by my previous employer, David Roberts, and was handed off to me to do all the development and WordPressification. This site gave me good time to play around with the new features of WordPress 3 like custom post types and custom thumbnails. I tried to make sure all the custom functionality that they wanted in their site was completely built in and easy to use and update. Click here to view the site.

Another thing worth mentioning is that when you’re pulling data from other servers, especially with how popular Facebook and Twitter are, it could potentially make your site stop rendering the page at the number while it’s waiting for the results. This function caches your follower count (which you can turn off) into a text file so that any page loads for the rest of the day won’t have to queue up all three additional servers.

If you are running a WordPress site, just pop the function into your themes functions.php file. The cache text file will be saved into your theme folder. If not, it will be saved to the root directory of your site.

Here’s the function:

////////////////////////////
/*
Function: Subscriber Count

$feedburner is the custom extension of the feedburner url. http://feeds2.feedburner.com/XXXXXXXXX
$facebook is the extension of your Facebook Fan page. http://www.facebook.com/XXXXXXXXX
$twitter is your Twitter username. http://www.twitter.com/XXXXXXXXX

*/

function subscriberCount( $feedburner, $twitter, $facebook, $cache = true ) {
	$count = 0;

	if( $cache == true ) :
		$interval = 24 * 60 * 60; // 24 hr
		if( function_exists( 'get_bloginfo' ) ) :
			$cache_path = TEMPLATEPATH;
		else :
			$cache_path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
		endif;
		$cache_path .= '/subscriber_count.txt';

		if( file_exists( $cache_path ) && ( time() - $interval ) < filemtime( $cache_path ) ) :
			$file = file_get_contents( $cache_path );
			if( !empty( $file ) ) :
				return number_format( strval( $file ) );
			endif;
		endif;
	endif;

	if( $feedburner ) :
		$xml = simplexml_load_file('https://feedburner.google.com/api/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri='.$feedburner);
		$count += strval( $xml->feed->entry['circulation'] );
	endif;

	if( $facebook ) :
		$api_page = 'https://graph.facebook.com/' . $facebook;
		$json = file_get_contents ( $api_page );

		$profile = json_decode( $json );
		$count += strval( $profile->fan_count );
	endif;

	if( $twitter ) :
		$api_page = 'http://twitter.com/users/show/' . $twitter;
		$xml = file_get_contents( $api_page );

		$profile = new SimpleXMLElement( $xml );
		$count += strval( $profile->followers_count );
	endif;

	if( $cache == true ) :
		file_put_contents( $cache_path, $count);
	endif;

	return number_format( $count );
}

To use it, just run this function wherever you want the text to be displayed:

<p>I Have <?=subscriberCount('arkitectdesign', 'mattfelten', '')?> Subscribers!</p>

As you can see, I’m using my Feedburner account and my Twitter account. I don’t have a Facebook Fan Page so I left it blank.

Leave me a comment if you find this useful at all. I’d love to see if it was used somewhere.

Since the fully-automated message is out, that leaves two other options. A) A semi-automated message where you say your name like a zombie into your phone and let the computers do the rest or B) A fully-custom message. I tried option A a couple times (in private of course) and I never sounded like a real person. Option B it is.

Drafting a message is tough, especially for me since I over-think everything. Do I want to say something funny? Yes. Would that be good for business? Probably not. I also don’t want to sound too business-y and have my friends and relatives feel unwelcome. I decided the simpler the message, the better. “This is Matt. Leave me a message and I’ll call you back.” But wait, why do I need to say the “Leave me a message…” part? It’s 2010. Everyone knows to leave a message after the beep. The beep has been around since answering machines have been invented (The 30′s but not widely distributed in the US until the 60′s. Thanks Google.)

Why do we still say that? I left it in my message because without it all I’m saying is my name. I don’t want to just say “I’ll call you back,” because would really much rather send an email then talk on the phone and I’m not going to call someone back if they don’t leave me a message. I couldn’t figure out a suitable replacement. Anyone have any ideas?

Since they have such a distinct style they wanted to keep, I took a strictly developer role in this project. I turned their mockups into a WordPress template, customized the back-end of WordPress a little bit so that adding to their galleries and referrals pages would be as easy as possible and added some security features. All in all, I think we’re all pretty happy with the product. Click here to view the site.

I don’t remember when it exactly was, late 2006 – early 2007, I stumbled across a video by Hillman Curtis. It was a short documentary on Pentagram, the grossly famous design agency with branches all over the world. I’m not sure exactly what it was about the video, something one of the partners said, but it really affected me. It made me understand that design isn’t just coming up with visuals, it’s not just spitting out a poster or a logo for someone. Design is about solving problems.

Since then, I don’t think I’ve bought a single picture book for myself, although I’ll still look through them if I’m walking around at Barnes and Nobles. I’ve also really followed the work of Pentagram. It’s not the most stylistically edgy work out there, that’s what FFFFound is for, but it’s, to me, the most thoughtful and intelligent work I’ve found.

I decided on creating a WordPress backed website and Big Cartel for the storefront and shopping cart since both of those provide dead simple edibility. I also made the storefront the homepage so that any visitors to the site see the goods right off the bat. Click here to view the site.

1. A good list should be short and concise. You can go into detail later.
2. If you are ranking or comparing things, show a summary at the bottom.
3. If the title of your ‘article’ contains any of the following words, you’re wasting my time: awesome, rocks, best, great, fresh
4. You aren’t doing anyone a favor if you aren’t providing links.
5. Bring something new to the table. Just a list is not enough.
6. You are not the top most resource on the subject. Don’t act like you are. Your post is an opinion.
7. Don’t post about something that you haven’t actually used or affected you. It’s how you separate garbage from quality.
8. No matter what, it’s been done before.
9. You aren’t an author if you’re just curating.
10. It’s usually way too long. I’ve got time for 10 bullet points at the most.
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