function twitter_sc($atts) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
		'name'=> '',
	), $atts));
	return '<a href="http://twitter.com/'.$name.'/" title="'.$name.'s Twitter Profile">'.$name.' (Twitter)</a>';
	}
add_shortcode('twitter', 'twitter_sc');

Once you put this into your theme’s functions.php file, all you need to do is type out

[twitter name="THE USER ID"]

with “THE USER ID” replaced with the actual twitter ID, and a link to that user’s profile would be displayed, as well as what site is getting linked to within the parentheses.

What the shortcode function does is take the user ID provided by you in the declaration, assign it to the variable $name, and insert $name into the link target URL, the link title, and as part of the text for the link. If there is no ID provided, a link to twitter.com will be created by default.

After I had this much figured out, I knew the possibilities for this shortcode didn’t stop there. This shortcode use could be adapted for any website that provides a user profile. I proceeded to adapt it for: Identi.ca, Facebook, Reddit, Digg, DesignFloat, Linkedin, Stumbleupon, and Myspace. All that you need to know is the user ID for each site. Below is the combination of each declaration ready to be pasted into your functions.php file.

function twitter_sc($atts) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
		'name'=> '',
	), $atts));
	return '<a href="http://twitter.com/'.$name.'/" title="'.$name.'s Twitter Profile">'.$name.' (Twitter)</a>';
	}
function identica_sc($atts) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
		'name'=> '',
	), $atts));
	return '<a href="http://identi.ca/'.$name.'/" title="'.$name.'s Identi.ca Profile">'.$name.' (Identi.ca)</a>';
}
function facebook_sc($atts) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
		'name'=> '',
	), $atts));
	return '<a href="http://www.facebook.com/'.$name.'/" title="'.$name.'s Facebook profile">'.$name.' (Facebook)</a>';
}
function reddit_sc($atts) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
		'name'=> '',
	), $atts));
	return '<a href="http://www.reddit.com/user/'.$name.'/" title="'.$name.'s Reddit profile">'.$name.' (Reddit)</a>';
}
function digg_sc($atts) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
		'name'=> '',
	), $atts));
	return '<a href="http://www.digg.com/users/'.$name.'/" title="'.$name.'s Digg profile">'.$name.' (Digg)</a>';
}
function designfloat_sc($atts) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
		'name'=> '',
	), $atts));
	return '<a href="http://www.designfloat.com/user/profile/'.$name.'/" title="'.$name.'s DesignFloat profile">'.$name.' (DesignFloat)</a>';
}
function linkedin_sc($atts) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
		'name'=> '',
	), $atts));
	return '<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/'.$name.'/" title="'.$name.'s Public Linkedin profile">'.$name.' (Linkedin)</a>';
}
function stumbleupon_sc($atts) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
		'name'=> '',
	), $atts));
	return '<a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/'.$name.'/" title="'.$name.'s Stumbleupon profile">'.$name.' (Stumbleupon)</a>';
}
function myspace_sc($atts) {
	extract(shortcode_atts(array(
		'name'=> '',
	), $atts));
	return '<a href="http://www.myspace.com/'.$name.'/" title="'.$name.'s Myspace profile">'.$name.' (Myspace)</a>';
}
 
add_shortcode('twitter', 'twitter_sc');
add_shortcode('identica', 'identica_sc');
add_shortcode('facebook', 'facebook_sc');
add_shortcode('reddit', 'reddit_sc');
add_shortcode('digg', 'digg_sc');
add_shortcode('designfloat', 'designfloat_sc');
add_shortcode('linkedin', 'linkedin_sc');
add_shortcode('stumbleupon', 'stumbleupon_sc');
add_shortcode('myspace', 'myspace_sc');

Just remember, you need to provide the user ID within the shortcode call on either your posts or your pages, like so.

[reddit name="tw2113"]

and the result will be tw2113 (Reddit)

The shortcode declarations should be easily adaptable for any website that provides user profiles. With a little bit of code studying and changes to the appropriate spots, you can create your own to add to the list for whatever site you want.

Hopefully this proves useful to many people, especially anyone who links to these profiles frequently in their posts or pages.

No related posts.

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you and why?

Michael Beckwith: Mary Elizabeth Winstead so that I’d be considered really f’n hot for once.

Oh, I have to stick to the appropriate gender? OK. Hmm..Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I have always enjoyed his work, from my time in high school watching 10 Things I Hate About You to my recent time realizing how great of a show 3rd Rock From The Sun was. He has also shown a lot of serious acting chops the past number of years as he’s matured. If JGL wasn’t available, I’d have to go with Yahoo Serious, famous Australian actor/writer/director of such films like Young Einstein and Reckless Kelly. The reason for choosing Yahoo is because I recall growing up at a really young age watching Young Einstein when it came on tv. Very satirical and funny take on Einstein’s life, including splitting a beer atom to discover E=mc^2. Love it

What would I find in your refrigerator right now?

Michael: Due to the fact that I have not really gone grocery shopping lately, especially for things that need to remain cold, not much. Bit of milk, your usual condiments. My freezer however…a ham, some small cuts of beef, hot dogs, breakfast sausage. I used to have some bacon, but I eated it!

I should really invest in a shopping trip.

When it comes to building WordPress themes, what is your absolute favorite feature / capability / tag?

Michael: I guess I don’t really have a specific love of a feature/capability/whathaveyou, but I have noticed that I enjoy the challenge of a client wanting some sort of specific functionality and me being the person in charge of making it work. The idea of determining what information I need, how to retrieve that information, what to do with it, achieving that need, and then outputting the result. A lot of it is php and programming logic, but when it comes to WordPress themes, half the work tends to be done already through the built-in functions, making it somewhat entry level programming. However, you still need to know what functions you need to achieve these results, and how to make the functions format the information to fit your need. Other than that, just seeing all the areas of the theme working the way the designer and the client envisioned and requested. When that is true and the code is good, then I know I did my job.

I recently had a job interview for a “web developer” position for a local company, but they told me it’d be a lot of PSD to WordPress theme development. As soon as I heard that fact, I knew I wanted the position and that it’d be along my knowledge and current skill set. I should hear about if I landed the job or not this week, if I haven’t already by the time this post goes up.

What is one thing that you have learned in the real world that contradicts what “they” taught you in school?

Michael: Given the fact that my alumnus was big with Microsoft and taught a lot of their stuff, probably that Internet Explorer is a decent browser. Whether actually spoken or implied, I forget.

What is the very first thing you learned in college?

Michael: While some would argue that learning that at some point I’d get to use Microsoft Frontpage later in my first semester of Intro To Computers 101, should be the first thing I learned(and the first thing I should have wished to change), I’m going to not go with that one. Others would argue that it’d be my first chance to really learn how to live on my own and be away from my parents. While definitely true for a decent amount of incoming freshmen, my brother and I spent the summer living on our own in a (really) small apartment about an hour away from our hometown. It was far away enough to be “away from the parents” but close enough that they could easily check up on us in person if needed.

No, none of those are the first thing that I learned in college. I am going to go with what I learned in English 101, much to the initial annoyance to my teacher. The very first thing that I learned in college is that I no longer had to ask if I could go to the bathroom. I was allowed to just go.

What is your single most desired quality in a client? The single most hated?

Michael: For most desired? I won’t be alone in this one, but having the client comprehend and understand that, unlike their nephew/son/family member offering to do things for free, they hire the designers and developers because those people know what they are doing and have been doing it for usually many years on professional levels.

They need to learn to put their trust into the people they are hiring. Chances are the designer/developer isn’t going to try and screw the client over, because they want to earn their worth on the project as well as a decent living like everyone else. You know, one of those things called a career. Also, the designer/developer is going to want to produce work that is going to, hopefully, bring in more work in the future from either the same client(unless a really bad experience happens), or new clients.

For most hated? Going based on a previous WordPress project I was commissioned for: unavailability. If you know you are going to be unavailable for a period of time during the duration of the hired project, let the people you hire know that it will happen ahead of time. Don’t just suddenly pick up and go for awhile, while they’re trying to work on the project and may need to contact you. Also if you know you’re going to be gone, ask ahead of time what material or information the designers/developers need in order to get the project going steadily, and provide as much as you can before you leave. It’s really difficult to work on detailed style presentation when you have no example content to put in the work-in-progress site.

What has been your biggest accomplishment?

Michael: Hopefully something not done yet! Other than that, I’m going to list being trusted my whole life to learn how to survive and make my own way through it, while always having my parents if I need them. They have really been wonderful and put their trust in me at ages that most parents would not. For that I’m always eternally grateful for them for letting me become the man I am today.

How do you spend your days off?

Michael: Admittedly, I really lack a good solid social life. On top of that, I am currently not at a point in my eventual career that I’d like to be at. I am still trying to get my foot in the door on a local level. I have come to reason that an office-style job would not be a bad thing for me, so a lot of my off-time from my day job is spent trying to stay caught up in some very fast moving industries, and doing what I can on a freelance level to shape and evolve my portfolio. I am a pack rat when it comes to magazines, and lately you can see me somewhat frequently at one of a small handful of local coffee shops sitting there reading older issues of .Net Magazine or Web Designer Mag while sipping on a large round of roasted coffee. Why are all the decent web/graphic design magazines from the UK? Come on, I don’t want to have to pay $15 USD because they have to be imported!

Are there any go-to bands or artists you rely on for a long day and/or night of working, coding, or designing?

Michael: I don’t know if I really have any bands that I constantly rely on, where they’re a shoe-in. I do notice that I go through periods of listening to certain artists regularly or certain styles. The Manic Street Preachers are one of those that I can tend to listen to a lot of for a long while, but then leave alone. Right now, at least when driving somewhere, I’ve been listening to a lot of Sonic Youth. I think I have four of their albums in there right now. All the while, I also tend to have a “hot tracks” tendency. This is where certain tracks, usually from new entries into my personal library, get listened to frequently. The latest example would be “It’s Getting Boring By the Sea” by Blood Red Shoes. This is one of the songs from the soundtrack to Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, and it’s the one that stood out the most to me. It’s been played quite frequently since then. The video is playing as I type this sentence .

Seeing as I have typed a novel that in no way relates to the actual question, usually whatever is going on in the above novel is what gets listened to during my hard working days and nights of coding/theming. Either that or musical scores to movies!

Aside from the usual (Gmail, Twitter, etc), what are some of the websites you’re drawn to check on a daily basis?

Michael: In terms of my bookmarks, my own site admin to check on spam comments and empty appropriately, Okcupid in attempts to work on my personal life, as well as a small list of music group forums that I have joined over the years. After that would just be my RSS feeds including various design/developer related blogs, Dlisted for my gossip and celebrity trashing, my favorite web comics, like XKCD and The Brads, and Digg/Reddit category feeds. Too many get checked too frequently.

If you could create an unique HTML tag, what would you call it and what should it accomplish?

Michael: The self closing Michael tag. Insert it anywhere with <michael> and have it return my name as a link to my website. Sure it can be done as a WordPress shortcode, but that’s not universal to HTML! Pure narcissism baby!

From who and where do you tend to get most of your inspiration?

Michael: For a who, I’m going to go ahead and list chriscoyier (Twitter) as I have subscribed to his blog and am consistently blown away by his sheer knowledge and creativity in both CSS as well as WordPress methods and ideas. I wish I could have as much output as he does.

For a more generalized answer, any person who thinks outside the circle or any result of an idea that comes from left field. I am always trying to come at things from new angles to see the results. While I don’t always succeed with this(there are only so many angles), I do my best and am inspired by those who do succeed.

If you could animate your dreams, would they be PG or R rated?

Michael: Tragically I do not remember my dreams 97% of the time, and I really find that to be a shame. If you know me well or have talked with me on a personal level, you know I have a healthy and sometimes rather offbeat personality. I imagine my dreams would be my awake personality multiplied and it would be awesome to be able to remember and write down the best ideas for future use. That said, I imagine the dreams would be at LEAST PG-13 or worse.

What is your favorite part of the interview process?

Michael: While I probably answered this in my post about how I go about conducting each one, I’ll reiterate what comes to mind as my single favorite part. Reading the answers for the very first time and getting a sense of how much fun the interviewee had with the questions I came up with. This round I got put in the hot seat so this is pretty fun too.

Sum up your life story in 140 characters

Michael: I was born, I’ll die. What I do with the unknown amount of time in between is up to me. You’re all welcome to tag along as long as you want!

Bonus: What got you started in web design/development?

Michael: Angelfire and too much time on computers in the ancient days of 1998/1999. It stuck and I went with a career path.

Related posts:

1. Do You Think You Know Jon Phillips?
2. Do you think you know Selene M. Bowlby?
3. My Time, So Far, as a Minion…or What It’s Like To Work For An Over-hyper Elf

Who are you and what do you do? Where can we find you online?

Cheryl Harrison: I am a good idea! I’m work in the communication space with a focus on using social media tools. I’m currently working as the Tactical Lead for Social Business Strategies, consulting with companies to develop an interactive strategy and establishing internal teams to implement that strategy.

And where CAN’T you find me online?! I blog at Being Cheryl, Greatest City Of All, Tapped In TV (the last two being Columbus-centric). I’m also active daily at cherylharrison (Twitter), cherylharrison (Facebook), cherylharrison (Linkedin) and cherylharrison.yelp.com Though frankly, if the network exists, I probably have/had/will soon have an account on it.

Obviously twitter plays a huge part in your daily life anymore. Who would you recruit first for a twitter army to fight the bad practices of the social web?

Cheryl: I would recruit RedHeadWriting (Twitter) because she’s sharp, snarky and offensive as hell. Our smartass redheadedness combined, we could rule the world. Or at least the interwebz.

Over the past year, location based social media has grown in leaps and bounds. Where do you see this going in the future? What are some of the benefits of location based social media vs. the notion of privacy?

Cheryl: I love the trend towards location! For individuals, location is great for knowing where your friends are, discovering new businesses, meeting new people, getting sweet discounts and just plain ol’ fun — gaming mechanics like badges for collector-types and leaderboards for competitive-types make the game a good time.

For businesses, location is great for advertising — and free, at that (the “nearby special” notification that pops up is free for small businesses to set up currently), consumer insight and taking advantage of the influence your customers have within their social networks.

If you were to write your twitter profile url in the sky, what font would you have the pilot use for the task?

Cheryl: Tahoma. Simple and understated.

However, If I were to write my MySpace URL in the sky… Comic Sans. Anyone still use MySpace? Seriously. Anyone?

Say you were given the chance to work with and help improve any top name brand for one month, which brand would you choose and why?

Cheryl: Woot.com. Not that they need me to improve their stellar brand, it would just be seriously fun. Hey Woot, did you hear that? Call me up to contribute some of your brilliant copy, cool? Send me some free wine.woot while you’re at it.

The social web is in an ever changing state at very rapid paces. Where do you see social media in 6 months?

Cheryl: Everything is trending towards localized and niche content — even broad networks like Twitter and Facebook are integrating geographic-focus features — and I think that trend will continue. It’s cool to chat with someone from Australia while in Ohio, but it’s really cool to connect with like-minded people who live around the corner and can meet up in real life.

Do you go sailing on the high seas as a social media pirate or do you stick to stealthy social media ninja moves?

Cheryl: Arrrgh matey. I have no idea how else to respond to this. Next.

It shows that you truly love your city of Columbus, Ohio. What are some of the city’s strongest assets, especially as it pertains to people in your career line?

Cheryl: Columbus has a very creative, tech-savvy culture, which is a perfect fit for me. Oh, and uh, we have a lot of readily-available craft beer… which is a perfect fit for me.

What is your favorite social media stereotype? Why?

Cheryl: The whole idea of working in “social media” has been tainted by douchebags who want to make a quick buck and scam small businesses out of a few grand to “set up a Facebook page.” I cringe every time I see another smarmy sales guy/gal who signed up for Twitter last week and is qualified to TOTALLY CHANGE THE WAY YOU DO BUSINESS FOREVS!!!11!!

…some poor sap is gonna hand him/her a bag of money, too. (Speaking of which… any and all bags of money can be sent my way via PayPal or FedEx.)

In your opinion, what is one of twitter’s primary weaknesses that could dethrone it in the longrun?

Cheryl: Aside from the big “WTF is our revenue model” issue, Twitter.com is Twitter’s primary weakness.While they have been slowly unrolling features to make it better (lists was a great one) the site pales in comparison to third-party services like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and Seesmic for functionality and usability.

Would you consider yourself an android or do you lead an iLife?

Cheryl: I’m an Apple fangirl fo’ sho’, but I use Google so heavily that it would realistically make more sense for me to do the droid thing. Mostly, I’m stubborn.

What website, with any focus you want, do you want to promote here and now because you believe it deserves more users and more people knowing it exists?

Cheryl: Haha, this is such a random answer, but when I read this question I thought of Kingdom of Loathing (kindomofloathing.com. It’s a MMORPG…kinda? With stick figures. And sarcasm. And meat as currency. And absurd character types like “turtle tamer,” “disco bandit” and “seal clubber.” It’s seriously hilarious. I used to play it alllll the time, but haven’t really touched it in a year (which is why it is such a random response) — but occasionaly when I get sad or really, really bored, I go back for a couple hours of poorly drawn laughs.

Is the Columbus beer stein half full, half empty, the glass is too big, or “wtf, who drank half of my awesome Columbus beer?!?!?” ?

Cheryl: MY Columbus beer stein is always half empty, but it’s ok, because there’s always a freshly brewed refill waiting for me at Columbus Brewing Company or Barley’s or Elevator

What job has been the one you have liked the least since entering that whole “working world?”

Cheryl: My last job as the Digital Content Manager for three local radio stations. But it was also my favorite! The disconnect was in the way that stations are structured — the on-air staff and the programming directors were awesome. I was totally invested in the stations’ brands and enjoyed communicating with listeners online and coming up with creative new ways to do so. I wish the energy had been the same on the sales and business side of the organization.

At the end of the day, how much of a good idea is being Cheryl, really?

Cheryl: I’m not sure, but have someone else claim “I am a good idea” and watch how fast I slap their ass with a lawsuit! Ha, yeah right, like I afford to file a trademark or hire a lawyer. I’m just ok.

Related posts:

1. Do You Think You Know Alex Cook?
2. Do You Think You Know Rachael E.C. Acklin?
3. Do You Think You Know Emma Taylor?

Emac?

No related posts.

I recall the day that the idea of interviewing him came up. Selene M. Bowlby and I were talking and I went to my twitter list to see who I could interview next. Jon’s profile showed up and to me, approaching him felt like aiming for the stars. I mentioned the idea to Selene and she was for it 100%, She suggested to mention herself in my introduction email since her and Jon had conversed a lot in the past. Thankfully, Jon agreed to participate and here we are, about to get to know Jon Phillips.

On top of being a designer, you are also a musician in your spare time. Have you been privileged to work with other musicians and help them with their branding and marketing?

Jon Phillips: Actually I haven’t. I try to keep design and music separate as much as possible. I’m usually too involved with the music to be able to design something with an outside perspective. I did design my band’s blog, but it was a one shot thing and it felt like designing my own site — and we know designers often have trouble designing their own sites

The smartphone market is hotter than really really really hot things. Which smartphone are you? Has anyone approached you about designing for any apps?

Jon: I doubt the smartphone market can be hotter than my apartment right now but once I get a new air conditioner I’m sure it will be considered hot again. I’ve never designed any apps and to be honest it’s not something I’m particularly interested in. For some reason the whole ‘apps’ market gives me a weird feeling of deja-vu — remember when CDs were all the rage?

If you put a gun to my head and gave me a choice, I’d go for the iPhone (well I’d go with the iPhone even without the gun part).

Would you be interested in joining a harmonica/kazoo/cowbell/wawa pedal experimental music group? We’re looking for new members.

Jon: Totally! That’s exactly what I’ve been looking for for years! Just tell me when and where and I’ll be there! (if you provide the cowbell I’ll explore the studio space like there’s no tomorrow!)

WordPress 3.0 was released in late June, with a plethora of new features. What elements are still not part of a WordPress default install that you’d love to see made default?

Jon: I’m very happy with all the new features in WP 3.0, but there are definitely some things I would’ve liked to see. Things like a built-in spam flagging system and a stats package that offers more than the WordPress one would have been nice. You can do so many thing with WordPress with custom templates, functions and plug-ins, but those two things should really be in the WP core in my opinion.

Pretend for a moment that you were asked to gather, from your twitter list, a team for a record label’s web and marketing department. Who would you tap on the shoulder for the task?

Jon: I think the first person I would ask is Marc Davison (1000wattMarc (Twitter)), not only cause he’s a cool and professional guy but also because he knows a ton about the music business and he’s got years of experience in the music and web fields. I would also ask Tean Schultz (Schrecker (Twitter)) for similar reasons, of course we’re in the same band, but he’s also a sick producer and songwriter.

I know I would also post something on my Twitter feed asking for recommendations. That’s the beauty of a service like Twitter.

What are some of the best and worst uses of typography you have seen by musicians?

Jon: There’s a lot of extremely unreadable logotypes in the metal scene, especially in the more obscure branches of metal. I can’t just pick one cause that wouldn’t be fair, but just to give you a taste of how unreadable it can get sometimes, have a look around the Brutal Death Metal Logos blog.

As for great uses of typography, I really like John Mayer’s website, I think the typography there is pretty sweet. There’s also Jamie Cullum’s site, nice typography and a great minimalist layout with good color contrast. In case you didn’t know, I like simplicity and minimalism

Rumor on the street is that you failed art class in the 4th grade. Did the teacher give you low grades due to you claiming all of your doodles were you playing with wingdings/webdings?

Jon: Haha, well I failed my art class mostly because I didn’t care too much about drawing and painting and all that artsy stuff when I was that age. I didn’t get into design until I was much older. I got into music at around 12, and then years later started getting interested in design.

Have you devised any digital “Subscribe to me” pullout cards to replace the ones from print magazines?

Jon: I have not, but it’s a great idea! Can I use it and give you credit?

What are some challenges in running a digital magazine that people may not expect compared to a print magazine? Advantages?

Jon: I can’t really compare the two because I’ve never run a print magazine but I’m guessing that some advantages would be the very low start-up, operating and maintenance costs of an online magazine compared to a print one. Of course running an online magazine will incur some costs (in both time and money) such as hosting, paying writers, maintenance, marketing and promotion, but at the end of the day it’s cheaper, easier to get up and running and reaching a large audience may happen sooner.

Have you experienced an 80s heavy metal hair phase yet? If so, did you use bad client stories to poof up your hair instead of Aqua Net ? If not, you now have an idea to achieve the effect.

Jon: I have! I kept the long hair for about 7 or 8 years and about 3 years ago I decided that phase was over (a bit tired of head banging to heavy bands). As for Aqua Net, to be honest I had to Google it to find out it was hair spray cause I had no idea what it was. Then I found out there’s also a band called Aquanet — that really really made my day!

What is your position on the whole music piracy topic, being a musician yourself? Is it personally a benefit for your band The Gods of Now or more a harm? Have you given any considerations to less restrictive licenses like Creative Commons?

Jon: Of course being a musician, making money from CD sales is great, but I believe music should be free. The whole music industry is not even about the music anymore anyway! That’s probably why a lot of the major labels are going belly up and you see more and more independent labels pop up everywhere. A lot of bands and artists these days make more selling t-shirts and stickers at shows and live events than selling CDs.

I still believe it’s wrong to steal music though. If an artist chooses to sell his or her music, don’t steal it, buy the album instead. I simply believe more artists should follow Radiohead’s and Trent Reznor’s steps and give the music away for free and find other means of making money.

Where can we find online, both your designer half as well as your musician half? Also, any last thoughts?

Jon: You can find my designer’s half on SpyreStudios and my musician’s half on the TGON website

Borrowing this wording from a very popular topic. Team Pirates or Team Ninjas?

Jon: Definitely Pirates. Ninjas don’t drink Whiskey, Pirates do.

What is the most inventive way you have mashed up your two trades, design and music?

Jon: Well I haven’t tried to mash the two together (like I said I like to keep them separate). It could be interesting though.

What trends in design would you love to see fade away, never to return?

Jon: The glossy and mirrored Web 2.0 logos. Oh, and designers calling themselves rockstars, ninjas or gurus (pirates are ok). What about Pornstar Designer? That would be cool. (Editor’s note: said like a true rockstar)

Like with all of my interviews, I’d like to thank Jon for agreeing to participate and hope that he had fun answering the hairbrained questions I managed to come up with.

Related posts:

1. Do you think you know Selene M. Bowlby?
2. Do You Think You Know Michael Beckwith?
3. Do You Think You Know Alex Cook?

There are likely still many of you asking and wondering why someone may want to go through all the effort. As I have already stated above, if you have something to say that requires more than 140 characters, you can get it all in one tweet. Obviously, creating one by hand would require more time and effort than typing it through the site or your favorite twitter client, but imagine the joy someone will experience when they get a handwritten message directed at them. I know my first @mention, directed at emtaylor (Twitter), made her day.

Writing it out on a piece of paper and then posting a picture of it, also provides a broad canvas that allows for creativity to flourish. You can draw little doodles, provide decorations, or anything else you can think of. I KNOW twitter is full of creative types and I don’t see why we can’t show that off more.

Just because you write out the actual message on paper or some other medium, doesn’t mean you can’t use your allotted 140 characters. Some of them would be used for the image URL, but the rest can be used for more @mentions and #tags.

I know well enough that any idea or trend that grows online is very hard to control, if not impossible to. That said, I am not setting any “method of use” for handwritten tweets, just explaining the origin and some uses that have already come to mind. I don’t know where the idea will go, if anywhere, but I would love to see it go somewhere.

Be inventive, be creative, make someone’s day, pay it forward…do SOMETHING.

Handwrittentweets examples

• gracesmith (Twitter) sent this one to all of her followers here
• domencolja (Twitter) did this one as an alternative to dribbble as he lacks an account here
• designcoyote (Twitter) sent this one quoting Judy Garland here
• rudedoodle (Twitter) asked this good question here

What about yours?

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If you are reading this post, then chances are high that you are well aware of my ongoing interview series “Do You Think You Know…”. If you have managed to beat the odds and do not know what I’m talking about, just read some previous posts, the series will stand out and you can get caught up easily.

At this point in time, I have conducted six interviews, and they all have had varying levels of popularity and high levels of enjoyment for both myself and the person we’re getting to know. Within this post, I hope to explain and describe the general process used going into each interview, even as it is bound to change and evolve with time and experience. I also hope to clarify motives for why I choose to make the effort.

Sadly, I am do not hold an employment position that uses any of my design and development knowledge. Any design or development work has been done during my free time away from a 40hr/week day job. While I won’t comment further on my day job, I will admit that I do still appreciate the amount of time available to think and brainstorm, even if it does suffer distractions. It was during that free time that the first draft of this post was written then on yellow legal paper. This is also when all questions, for the person in the hotseat, are conceived. I am able to sit, figure out what I am going to ask, and how I’m going to word them.

I have done what I can to keep the questions pretty open ended but also keep some topics regular with each interview. Questions involving favorite colors and fonts, preference between pirates and ninjas and the occasional zombie or pirate, and a nonsensical question involving birds on powerlines, have all been used regularly. One that I take a lot of pride in and put a lot of focus on is about twitter users that the interviewee recommends. This focus is because almost all of the people that we’ve gotten to know together, I first met on Twitter. One of the best parts about this question is the allowance granted to the interviewee to highlight some people important to them. Little bits of promotion and recommendation facilitates everyone winning and meeting new people.

At the end of the brainstorming stage, I have fifteen questions that I’ve done my best to tailor fit the person, their personality, and their areas of specialty. The questions are a mix of serious and (hopefully)humorous questions. Before sending the questions, I organize them in a manner that goes back and forth between serious and humorous. I do what I can to accomodate for busy schedules by sending the questions about two weeks before the day I plan to publish the post. I also send friendly reminders, if necessary, a couple times during the two weeks.

Once I receive the answered questions back, I put everything into a new wordpress post, apply the necessary styling, add the associated settings and metadata, and schedule it for the right date and time. The post going live is what I look forward to the most, as it is when myself and the interviewed get to have fun promoting the interview and spreading the love. Reading the twitter replies, retweets, post comments, and anything else make all the time and effort worth it.

At the end of the day, I get to take pride in that I got to promote someone I care about, support, and believe in. Meanwhile, that person gets to be in the spotlight for a day and be the focus of peoples’ attention. I hope that it is considered a huge honor, with them being in a field where so frequently they do the highlighting, primarily for clients. That is why I put forth the effort.

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This is also a very personal interview for me. Out of everyone, Alex may be the one who I know the most, and knows me the most in return. I have known her since sometime in mid 2009. When I had the idea to include her in this post series, I knew that it would be my chance to offer a lending hand and help her out as much as I could. With that said, lets help her get her feet off the ground and get to know Alex Cook.

Please introduce yourself to everyone. What did you major in and where at? Did you specialize in any areas?

Alex Cook: Hello! :3 I’m Alex Cook, your typical unemployed, yet hopeful graduate with an interest in design, writing and film. Seriously, talk to me about movies and I’ll likely love you forever. Anyways! I recently graduated with a BS in New Media Publishing from Rochester Institute of Technology. My major includes a mix of graphic design, web development, printing, business and IT. At RIT, I concentrated/specialized in both French Language and Culture and Contemporary Publishing. Think eBook creation and designing, studying the pros and cons of the New York Times Reader, and so on!

You just graduated this past spring. What do you hope for in your near future, and what fears do you have given the current job market?

Alex: Good. Question. Since I’ve graduated, I’ve come up with such a multitude of plans, it’s borderline ridiculous. Do I want another bachelor’s degree? In graphic design? Journalism? How about a masters in human computer interaction? Who knows. I think I’d really just like to get some more design practice and experience.. we’ll worry about the job front later. (aka I’d prefer to not think about the current job market. ;p )

If you could choose for the pigment in your skin to be any color possible, what would that color’s RGB/CYMK value be?

Alex: Oh man, ideally? #333366. I’m crazy about this purple. (C: 93% M: 90% Y: 31% K: 20%) (R: 51 G: 51 B: 102) Realistically though, I need a tan. –__– #CC9966. (C: 20% M: 41% Y: 67% K: 1%) (R: 204 G: 153 B: 102)

If you had control of who follows your twitter account, what four people would you add to your followers list? Why?

Alex: Eeeee! dessadarling (Twitter). Dessa is hands down my favorite artist/rapper/author. Her lyrics and essays are a constant source of inspiration for me in writing, illustrating, so on and so forth.

disneypixar (Twitter). Yet another source of inspiration for me. To say that I never dreamed of working for Disney would be an absolute, terrible lie. If you could see my wish list of books right now, it’d be over 75% full of Pixar art books.

andrewhussie (Twitter). I follow the newest MS Paint Adventure like it’s my job (“Homestuck,” go read it! :p). He’s got one heck of an imagination, seems to write like a pro, and oh man are his drawings cute or what?!

Andddd ConanOBrien (Twitter), because everyone loves a little attention now and then, amiright?

Below, is a question and answer

Recently, you returned to Minnesota where you had an internship last year. Is there anywhere in the area that you would absolutely love to work at? Any specific companies?

Alex: Minnesota is so full of major corporations, I’m certain holding a design position at any would be more than fine in my book! (Hey there Target, Best Buy, 3M, General Mills! (; ) If dreams could come true, I’d die to work for Rhymesayers Entertainment, an independent hip hop record label based in Minneapolis. I missed out on a design internship for them due to poor timing, but shall we keep our fingers crossed for the future? And as for an area? Anywhere. Seriously, I’m so in love with the state.

What are some of your favorite bands to listen to while designing?

Alex: First and foremost, Dessa. I mentioned the inspiration deal already, but she’s just an awesome artist regardless. Otherwise, Portishead, Bjork, Cat Power, Death Cab for Cutie, P.O.S, Bright Eyes, or mostly my collection of film soundtracks and scores. Anything that I can listen but not have to put all of my attention into really. Oh, and of course, the Glee Cast station on Pandora when I need something peppy and exciting. ;3

A zombie, pirate, politician, and ninja have all made it to the Rock/Paper/Scissor final four. Who are you rooting for and who do you hope they beat to win the championship?

Alex: The zombie, of course. And it’d have to beat out the ninja, seeing as the politician clearly wouldn’t make it to the final round.. and, well, I just don’t like pirates sometimes.

Do you have any preferred styles of design or art?

Alex: Absolutely. Anything with some vector-y goodness in it and I’m more than sold. Also, anything that’s got a vintage feel, or even something that’s “totally adorable” and appeals more so to children will always catch my eye. So think vintage Disney (especially Disneyland attraction ads and signs) and maybe even my favorite collectables, Golden Books. I go crazy for these.

Although you are still very young in your career, can you recall any client/customer moments that made you go D: ?

Alex: When I was interning at a printing company, I was a customer service rep for mostly donation jobs. (why is it that anyone getting anything for free will always be disgustingly demanding, finicky, and on the occasion, insane?) I’ve had a two hour+ phone call proofreading a brochure (there were only three paragraphs!). I’ve hand delivered pieces because a client told me he’d pick up the final product, then changed his mind. My favorite D: moment though, at my first job developing pictures, is when a customer accused me of ruining her negatives and making them.. blurry?

If photoshop features or method tricks could report people for overuse and abuse, which one(s) would be able to report you?

Alex: How about.. undo? :p I don’t use Photoshop nearly as much as I should, but if we were talking about Illustrator.. Well, probably anything related to the pen tool. And live trace/live paint. And undo.

Is there anything about being a student that you’ll immediately miss? *cough* adobe product discounts *cough cough*

Alex: Adobe product discounts! I absolutely love being a student. I like learning, assignments, essays (love these actually) and lectures, I already know I’ll miss all of that. But most of all, having a set schedule and things to do daily.. even if I’m stuck on campus till 5:30 am writing XSLT for the first time, working on research papers, or illustrating an eBook.

Are there any areas where you wish your degree program(s) focused more on? less on?

Alex: I could write a novel for this answer unfortunately. My degree was brand new, ever changing and confusing. Professors were never able to give us a definition of New Media Publishing, saying it was “too new, there’s always something changing!” (You know, aka “we have no idea.”) I wish my program offered more than two beginner design classes and one basic business class, employed professors who told us more than “I don’t know what you can do with your degree to be honest,” and was simply more organized in general. Oh, and I really wish we didn’t have to literally beg professors to get into any interesting or worthwhile classes outside of our program.

If you were a design super hero, who would you be and what would be your super power?

Alex: I’d have to be Vector Girl! Using mathematical formulas and specifications of geometric elements to fight crime (ha ha!) with my paths and lines..gun. And looking all around spiffy and clean and wonderful. Gonna need a sidekick though, anyone down to be Illustrator Boy? ;D

Any final thoughts?

Alex: Thanks soso much for having me do this interview! Beats all of those job interviews that seem to be missing in action any day of the week.

And seriously, Illustrator Boy, whatchu think?!

The absolute greatest thing that all of you readers, who have been in the industry for awhile already, could do for Alex is to give her any advice you have for someone in her position. Think back to when you were in Alex’s position, what advice would you have loved to get from your peers? What do you wish you knew then that you know now? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below and I will make sure Alex reads it all. Follow her on twitter at her twitter profile cooxie (Twitter).

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Your identity and branding are based off of coffee and caffeine. How much do you drink on a productive day?

Rachael E.C. Acklin: I drink about two cups, if I’m paying attention enough to finish them before I forget they’re even there. I make a small pot of coffee in the morning, and it only holds about 2.5 mugs’ worth of coffee in it, so I end up washing about a half a cup down the drain when I rinse out the pot. I used to make a big 12-cup pot, but I never even drank half of it so it was a huge waste. I don’t believe my own hype enough to drink way more coffee than I actually can handle.

Why should someone take a drink of your “coffee” and hire you for all their design needs? What sets you apart from other brews?

Rachael: A very specific thing that sets my design style and work style apart from many other designers is that I really care about my clients’ success as it relates to the project I’m working on for them. I spend a lot of time talking with them, asking them questions to help their own creativity and idea generation processes. I also incorporate every piece of feedback that I get from them, whether I can actually deliver what they want, or can explain why something won’t work and give them a different suggestion. I’m not one of those designers that is so convinced they know their craft that the client is always wrong, and I don’t get so personally attached to each design that I get upset when the client needs me to change it. I am really proud of the way I’m able to build a trust-filled working relationship with my clients because of the way I do things.

You’re planning a party at your favorite local coffee shop. Who would be some of your twitter cohosts for this gathering?

Rachael: OH MAN. There are so many fantastic people that I’d love to cohost a coffee party with: Crystal (bigbrightbulb (Twitter)), Adam (adamkingstudio (Twitter)), Sarah (leianajade (Twitter)), Kyle (kpdurand (Twitter)), and Andy (andrewghayes (Twitter)) are the first people who come to mind. And everyone else I talk to every week. THIS IS A TRICK QUESTION, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE?!

What are some of the most overcaffeinated and energetic fonts in your collection and can you describe any projects that you got to use one of them in?

Rachael: You know, I don’t really use very many overcaffeinated fonts. I like fonts that imply intelligence, strength, character, and occasional quirkiness. Recently, one of my favorite thing to do is pair a script font with a sans serif font. However, Scriptina and Georgia have become my brand fonts in the last several months, and I love how they compliment each other.

What is your favorite coffee roast and from what country?

Rachael: Dark roasts taste the best to me, although hilariously, they contain less caffeine. HA HA HA. I’ve loved and enjoyed coffee from Africa and South America, but none are my favorites. They all taste marvelously perfect and distinctly different.

You know 8-bit graphics are a bit trendy right now. Have you ever been tempted to fire up MS Paint or some other basic bitmap pixel editor and do some mockup work there? What type of project do you think this would actually be good for?

Rachael: Nope. For real. Maybe I’m not very good at following trends. However, I think that 8-bit graphics might look really sweet on a geek-style webcomic design, along with some hand-drawn illustrations.

If money was not a question, what would you purchase or upgrade in order to achieve “the perfect setup” with your office space?

Rachael: I would scour the earth in search of the perfect ergonomic chair and desk combination that works for EXCESSIVELY SHORT PEOPLE who have EXCESSIVE SHOULDER PAIN from all that awesome design work. It’s so difficult to find chairs that work for you if you’re just over five feet tall!

A ninja has just swiped your source of awesome and coffee. Do you call him a traitor to your ninja brethren or do you gather up your pirate crew on deck in order to pursue?

Rachael: First I am upset and I have a good cry. Then I gather up my crew and explain what’s going on, and tell them how I need their help. We find the ninja, find out what happened, and find a solution that works for everyone. Even horrible problems have solutions if you’re willing to work at finding them.

What lessons do you want to pass on to new designers? Are there any that you wish you learned earlier?

Rachael: First lesson: don’t take jobs just because you need money; take jobs because they fit what you love to do. Second lesson: if you have a client that you cannot make happy no matter what you do, and you’ve actually tried everything and been honest, don’t be afraid to fire that client. Third lesson: you can’t please everyone, so stop trying; find your right people and stick with them. (All of these, I wish I’d known earlier than I learned them.)

Have you ever found direct design influence in anything that one of your kids has created or drawn? If so, tell us about it.

Rachael: I haven’t been directly influenced yet, because I haven’t needed to put explosions, airplanes, dinosaurs, and aliens in a design yet. YET. However, their creativity never ceases to amaze me. It’s really fascinating what they will create with only a few sheets of plain white paper and a box of crayons.

Did you ever hear back from William Shatner at all? I recall you trying to drum up support for you to redesign his website.

Rachael: No, the Shat never got back with me. KHAN!!!!!! But it was fun, trying to get him to respond. Also, I am actually more fond of him now than I was before, despite the fact that I had no contact with him whatsoever. The internets are so awesome like that.

What are a few things from cubicle life that someone couldn’t pay you to miss?

Rachael: 1) Uncomfortable seating arrangements; 2) guilt over taking a needed break; 3) fluorescent lights; 4) lunch at my desk; 5) never knowing if I was doing a good enough job; 6) driving to work and back every single day.

Whatever happened to the Caffeinated Podcast? Is that a project that never got to take off? or is it just dormant at the moment?

Rachael: It’s just dormant right now. One of my awesome friends, who is also a ninja for me sometimes, is going to team up with me and we’re going to bring it back, BABY.

What are some stereotypes that you wish designers had?

Rachael: I wish that designers were known for good communication skills. I also wish that designers were known for caring about the client, not just the specific project being worked on.

If you could, what coffee company would you purchase some stock in and why?

Rachael: I would find a coffee farmer in the third world who needs money to make his business bigger, and invest in that. I wouldn’t even want him to pay me back, like Kiva.org, even though the work they do is phenomenal. I would rather put money into something that can become a great and sustainable thing, than to buy stock and sell it later, honestly.

Related posts:

1. Do You Think You Know Alex Cook?
2. Do You Think You Know Emma Taylor?
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