About a month ago, I wrote about why, once again, I’ve shifted the focus of this site. At the end of the post I left a link to a short survey. When I created it, I expected maybe a dozen or so of you to take the time to respond. Unless some of you have far too much time on your hands and submitted multiple surveys, I believe 72 people filled the thing out.

To give you some perspective on that number, my Feedburner account tells me that I have around 500 RSS subscribers. I assume most people have forgotten what RSS is, so I also shared the survey with my 1100 Twitter followers. I’m estimating that there is a large cross-section between those two numbers, so let’s assume (for the sake of my terrible mathematic skills) that the number of potential people to fill out the survey was 720¹. Assuming this, it means that roughly 10% of the number of people I expected to reach took the time to respond to my survey. Given that toothpaste companies only ask 5 dentists what toothpaste they like, I’d say my survey produced a pretty reasonable data sample².

So, what did you have to say? Well, let’s find out, starting with you.

How are you feeling today?

I asked this question for two reasons:

1. To show I care, and
2. To see whether how you were feeling coloured your remaining answers.

To the second point, it appears as though your outlook that day didn’t colour your answers. Those who were having lousy days and those who were having great days both loved and hated certain things about my site.

Only one of you responded that you felt awful. Whoever you are, please let me by you a drink or a coffee or whatever will make you feel better. The vast majority rated your day as a 4 out of 5.

How long have you been reading my site?

I started blogging at patdryburgh.com back in 2007, when I was working as a music director at a church. Its purpose was to track what I was learning about leadership, music, and life in the church. The focus of my life and my blog shifted a year later when my time at the church came to an end and my career in design began.

Though I don’t have the numbers saved anywhere, I remember a distinct drop-off in readership when this shift happened. Understandably so, as my readers at the time were mostly music pastors who had no interest in what the latest CSS3 effect was going to be.

The responses to this question really reflect this shift. 78% of you started reading this site in the past two years. I can count the number of readers who have been reading this site for more than 2 years on one hand and a hot dog.

How do you read my site?

I wrote this question as a multiple-choice question so you could give more than one answer. Your answers were very informative, but there was actually only one answer I was truly interested in: “In a ‘read it later‘ type app.”

The reason is simple: is my content interesting enough for people to want to take their time reading it? When I write a longer article, is it skipped, read on the spot, or saved for later? I realized once the survey had been published that the question didn’t really answer all of these questions, but I still hold to the goal of providing content that is worth postponing to read until you have the time to focus.

Turns out, not many of you read my site in an app like this. I believe this result speaks to the lack of long-form articles I’ve posted to the site over the past two years. I plan to rectify this in the coming new year.

Post Frequency and Link Posts

I asked about my post frequency because I knew what my next question would be. A lot of what I publish here are link posts, which are my way of sharing what I find on the web. I rarely post links on Twitter—I save that space for dick jokes and complaining about Apple products. I care a lot about the link posts, because I truly value the work other people produce and share. If I could make a living sharing with you the work others have created, I would gladly take that opportunity.

It seems as though most of you at least like the link posts. If you don’t, please stop reading my blog. They aren’t going away. In fact, seeing the results of this survey has encouraged me to increase the rate at which I post links. My commitment to you regarding link posts is two-fold:

1. I will rarely, if ever, post something that everyone else is linking to, and
2. I will only publish something I’m really, really excited about or interested in.

Which of the following topics would you like to see more of? / Which of the following topics would you like to see less of? / Have you learned anything valuable from my site?

I asked these questions because I wanted to get a sense of why people were reading this site. Turns out, a lot of you read it for multiple reasons, both professional and personal. That actually means a lot, because it tells me you read this site not only for your personal gain—though I certainly hope you do benefit from what I write—but also because you care about me. As a human being in the 21st century, that means a lot.

Further Input

A lot of you were really nice in your additional comments (especially when it came to complimenting my beard). What I don’t think I’ve communicated nearly enough is that I really, really care about you. I want to hear what you think (in any medium other than a blog comment), how you feel, what’s going on in your life. If you’ve written something you think I’d be into, please let me know. If you’d like to grab a coffee or a drink and get to know one another better, let’s set a date. If you have a question or a problem you think I can help with, feel free to ask. I’ll do my best.

In Conclusion

This site is about me (see: the domain name, the about page, the silly cartoon face), but it’s also about you. I believe this, because I believe that we as humans are inextricably connected to one another. We grow together, we learn together, we laugh together, we cry together. I read your site or follow you on Twitter or like your Instagram photos because I care about you. It feels great to know that’s probably why you’re reading my site, too.

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Around the time I decided to quit my job and work for myself I made the decision that this little site should no longer be a personal blog, but a marketing page for my design work.

The site’s design has changed several times along the way, all with the intention of improving its appeal to potential clients. I updated it with new work, made it responsive, and added pretty new buttons, all the while tracking how each change affected the number of inquiries I received from potential clients.

Quite frankly, it didn’t.

In the past two years, one client has found me through my site.¹ All other clients have come through word-of-mouth and relationships I’ve built over the past 4 years I’ve been in this industry. That’s not to say my site didn’t help at all, but I realized that the time I was investing trying to entice people I didn’t know to become clients wasn’t paying off, especially when a steady stream of people I had a connection with were already happy to hire me.

About a month ago, I took down my portfolio of work from this site. I moved the blog (including link posts) back to the home page.² Most of you likely didn’t notice, as the majority of you read my site through an RSS reader. I didn’t announce it because it didn’t really matter; you were already reading.

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately, why I feel so passionate about keeping a personal blog. These thoughts have been stirring in my head and this evening I finally feel like I have the capacity to put those thoughts into words.

One of my favourite things to do with this site is to share the amazing things people are doing all over the world. Whether it’s a friend asking for help to record an album or a stranger taking my breath away, I want to do what I can to get the word out about it.

I rarely if ever get feedback about the things I share or write. I don’t do this for comments (they aren’t enabled) or tweets or emails. I do it because it’s the best way I know to let you know about what’s on my mind or to share something I’ve discovered.

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A couple of years ago, I took some time away from checking my site’s traffic statistics. It was a great way to gain some perspective on why I was blogging, and to realize what was important were the connections I was making with others through my writing. As I prepare for a trip to LA this week, and as the sweet smell of Christmas begins to permeate the air, I think it’s about time to take another step back until the new year. Not from writing or posting links, but from worrying about how many people are following along.

Before I do, though, I’d love to hear how you feel about what I do here. I’ve never taken a survey of my readership, but I think before I stop worrying about how many of you there are, it would be good to get a sense of the overall attitude towards my blog. If you wouldn’t mind taking about 5 minutes to fill this out for me, I would really appreciate it.

Take The Survey

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I linked to David Redding last week when he featured me in his photo series, The Real London. David is a craftsman. He is able to take a scene which most people walk right by on a daily basis and turn it into a magical location. He did this on our photo shoot last week. Below are the results of his craft.

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Thank you, David, for not only taking some fantastic portraits, but for also showing me what true confidence looks like from the other side of the lens.

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We’re only two weeks from the very first screening of Imprint, the short film for which I am both an actor and producer. It’s been accepted into the London Short Film Showcase happening on Saturday, November 5 at Museum London. The showcase will be the first screening of a project that has stolen my heart for the past 3 months.

We just launched a new website for the film, which includes an updated trailer, a free download of the film’s soundtrack (including a cover of the Antlers song “Kettering” by my new band Burn Like Fabulous), screening dates and locations, and a list of credits for the film.

Speaking of screenings, I’m really excited to announce the second screening of the film happening on Sunday, November 6 at FitzRays at Dundas and Talbot in Downtown London. Burn Like Fabulous will be playing some of our favourite songs, and my dear friend Carly Thomas will be opening the night with her beautiful music.

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If you can’t tell, I’m incredibly excited about this film project. I’ve never been part of something like this. From filming until 4am in the morning to having the cops called on three separate occasions to staying up multiple nights editing to seeing a forklift lifting a demolished Lincoln and dropping it in front of a telephone pole just so we could re-shoot a 30-second shot; it was totally worth it even if the film never makes a dime. The skills, knowledge, and friendships I’ve developed over the course of the project were well worth the cost.

If you’re in the area, I’d love to see you come out to one of the two screenings happening in November. For those who can’t make one of the screenings, I’ll be sharing details about how you can see the film in the next little while.

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I started on the paleo diet last Thursday. It lasted all of 9 hours or so before a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios jumped into my mouth. The following three days were a blur of drinking and eating gluten dipped in spinach dip.

I got back on the paleo wagon on Monday. I felt great and was really happy with the decision. Yesterday was good as well. I picked up some nuts and apples and ate a lot of chicken (pre and post hatch).

Today I feel terrible. My stomach has been aching all day long. I thought I would chalk it up to my body adjusting to a lack of wheat and gluten and all that crap, but surely that wouldn’t happen so quickly. I bought some almond milk and made a fruit smoothy with it, which helped for a little while. I then had a bowl of watermelon around 9 or so. Still feeling like crap now.

I really want to stick to this thing. I’m pretty concerned about my overall health and want to make this change for the sake of my future. I have a doctor’s appointment lined up for Tuesday—my first in several years—to see about having my thyroid checked. Thyroid issues run in my family, so it would be good go know if there’s something I need to address.

Sorry for getting all personal there, Internet.

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Striking out on my own last year, one of my key motivations was to have the freedom to travel. I wanted to be able to hop in my car and go anywhere, anytime.

Well, that plan hasn’t exactly panned out. Sure, I’ve gone on a few trips—the trip to Palo Alto for a job interview that didn’t work out, a trip to Montréal to see my brother, and numerous trips to Toronto to hang with my friend Avery—but nothing like the cross-continent exploring I had envisioned as I left my old office that wonderful May afternoon.

All that is about to change as I have a number of trips lined up for the coming months, the first of which is to the wonderful city of New York, New York to attend this year’s Brooklyn Beta.

I, like thousands of other designers and developers, blinked at exactly 12 noon the day the Brooklyn Beta tickets went on sale and therefore missed my opportunity to purchase a ticket. Undeterred, I began making plans with my designer friend Mike Precious to head to Brooklyn anyway to hob nob and rub shoulders with those who would be attending the conference.

Then, last week I got a surprising email from one Christian Ross—yes, that Christian Ross—offering me his ticket to the event. To say I was blown away by his generosity is an understatement. To say he should be expecting a year’s subscription to a certain colourful notebook brand pretty soon is a factual statement.¹

So, now I’m going to Brooklyn Beta, my first ever web design/development conference. Ever. And man, I’m nervous.

You see, some of the people listed as attendees are people I’ve always believed to be no larger than a 48×48px. But before me they will stand, some of the greats of our industry. Andy McMillan, organizer of Build and publisher of The Manual; Brian Hoff, writer at The Design Cubicle; Cameron Moll, whose job titles would take a post of its own; Dan Cederholm, creator of Dribbble after he basically invented CSS, right?; Dan Mall, brilliant designer at Big Spaceship; Dave Rupert and Trent Walton of Paravel, one of my favourite web shops today; I’m not even half way through the list and I’m going nuts wrapping my head around the people attending this event, not to mention other friends who are planning to make the trek to meet up.

Needless to say, there are a ton of people I have admired for a long time, people who have taught me the knowledge and skills I now make a living with, who for a few short days will be within glancing distance.

I’m excited. I’m nervous. I really need to go buy some more oxford shirts and chinos or something. Damnit, I wish I had more time to buy some Threadless tees.

See you in October, New York.

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It was about 3 months ago when I was on the look out for a simple, fast way to add events to my iCal calendar. I wanted a simple app that would open with a keyboard shortcut, would let me enter the event using natural language, and would quickly get out of my way when the job was done.

I did some searching but came up short. I was beginning to wonder how I would find time to learn Objective C so I could create the app myself when my good friend Patrick Rhone pointed me to QuickCal.

QuickCal was everything I wanted. It was fast, it was simple, it used natural language to create events.

But damn, it was ugly.

I posted a tweet that same day to the effect of “I wish I could get in touch with the QuickCal app devs to discuss redesigning their app for them.” I figured the tweet, like most of my tweets, would go unanswered. But, minutes later I was contacted by Jim Boutcher, the app’s creator, and by the end of the day I was invited to join the QuickCal team as the new UI designer.

I began working on the app’s design immediately, churning out mockup after mockup in Photoshop. I knew I wanted something simple, something that fit in with the OS X UI but didn’t just use standard UI elements. I wanted colour.

After a few rounds of revisions, and even more rounds of refinements and changes, we finally settled on a UI that would become QuickCal 3.0.

I’m very proud to announce today that QuickCal 3.0 is available on the Mac App store. I’m also proud to announce the launch of the new QuickCal site, which I also had the pleasure of designing.

This was the first Mac application I’ve designed and I’ve learned a ton. We’re already working on improvements for QuickCal 3.1 and I’m really excited about what’s coming down the pipe.

If you’d like to stay updated with what we’re working on, be sure to check out our new Tumblr blog, or follow us on Twitter. We’ll be happy to have you along for the journey.

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That’s exactly how I feel in this moment. It’s not easy to put yourself out there, to do something you’ve never done before and then show it to the world. But that’s how we grow. That’s how we become artists.

This past summer my friend Edward approached me with a script he had written for a short film. He had written a part specifically with me in mind. The movie—a dramatic story of three friends grasping at one last chance to live—was full of intense dialogue and dealt with a very serious theme: death.

We shot the film over the past four weeks, and today are proud to release the trailer for our short film, “Imprint.”

Details for the movie’s release are still pending, but I will be sure to let you know as soon as I have more information.

Thank you so much for watching, for sharing, and for your incredible support.

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This past weekend marked the launch of a site I have been working on for some time now. On Stage Dance Studio—the top dance studio in Stratford, Ontario—hired me to redesign their site and build it so they could update the content themselves.

I’ve been reading a lot about responsive web design lately, having launched the responsive version of my own site back in July. I’ve learned a lot since then. For this particular project, I made sure to design for “mobile first,” to ensure that mobile browsers wouldn’t load unnecessary images and other media.

This project was a lot of fun and I’m really proud of how it turned out. Thanks to Meghan and the amazing people at On Stage Dance for everything.

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