I’ve been putting this off for a while now, waiting for my site to finally feel settled. With the launch of the new design yesterday, I decided today would be the opportune time to share what led to where I am today.

I’m going to start with a couple of terrible, incomplete, but necessary screenshots. These were when I was first trying out the Athlete brand. Looking back, I’m almost embarrassed to say I designed these, however design is not just about the end product but about the process by which we get there.

Sometimes I design things like this just to get a feel of how certain elements work together, such as the browser frame jutting out from the top of the content section to give the design some depth. It also gives me a chance to work out the type of grid I want to use to build my content in.

Once I had gotten these out of my system, it was time to buckle down and really think about what I wanted to communicate. I was just getting into photography, and was thinking about ways to showcase some of the higher quality work I was producing. I also wanted to play with some big, bold type and Helvetica Neue, a personal favourite, was an obvious choice.

I actually completely finished this site, and was so close to pushing it live when it was done. I had some amazing help from friends like Jonathan Christopher and Phil Coffman, who really helped me hone in on how to get this site to function and look its best.

This was my first experiment in using the Pods CMS plugin for WordPress, and it really changed how I viewed WordPress as a content management system. In the past I have built sites using WordPress and a messy array of custom fields that I would later have to explain to the client. Using Pods, I could create unique panels for each set of data I would have to work with, creating fields for only the types of data I would need. For instance, the Portfolio Pod only had a title, a screenshot, a project link, and a description. I didn’t have to mess around with custom fields or other pieces I wouldn’t need. It was really a dream come true.

I am still very proud of this design, and it took a lot for me to let it go. What I eventually realized, however, was that it was so dependant on my photography that, should I not have the chance to take appropriate shots for the header section, the design would quickly get stale. Plus, it really felt more like a band’s website with the musicians in the header.

So, I went back to the drawing board. I realized I wanted a few specific things out of my design:

• A clean, minimal layout.
• Beautiful typography.
• A header image that would rotate through different projects.
• A way to display client testimonials.

Around this time, I started playing around with a tagline that would become the driving force behind my freelance company:

We craft amazing experiences.

About a year ago I wrote a blog post about taking pride in your craft. It was a revelation to me to begin thinking about design as a craft; something you constantly develop and perfect over time. During my time at the church I worked at I had also developed a passion for creating irresistible experiences. I wanted what I created to be of such high quality that people couldn’t help but be drawn in.

With all of this in mind, I struck out in a new direction. I made some modifications to the amazing 960 grid system by Nathan Smith to extend it to 1008 pixels wide by increasing the margins to 12px. This gave the typography a bit more room to breathe, as well as allowing the screenshots and photography to display a bit wider than normal.

This design really followed the same general layout of the previous shot, with type on the left of the screenshot. What this meant was that the screenshots weren’t quite as wide as I would like. This site also really felt incomplete. All it could really do was display projects, not communicate what I could offer. And so, back to the drawing board again.

There are few things I am as proud of as this design. I felt it had beautiful typography, clear communication of what I offered, a beautiful wide display, and clean lines everywhere. The browser chrome, which is also featured on Sam Brown’s new Massive Blue design, was generously supplied by my friend Rogie King.

Some people made the comment that this site had a lot of content to read, to which I would reply, “That’s the point!” I knew that the types of clients I wanted to work with would not be put off by maybe 600 words of text. Through clear information hierarchy, I felt I was able to clearly communicate what I did, what people who I had down work for felt about what I did, and present a bit of a sales pitch down at the bottom (which didn’t get written until later on).

I was also pretty proud of the icons I designed for this design. I am not a great icon designer, but inspired by work I had been seeing on Dribbble around the time I was working on this design, I figured it couldn’t hurt to try. You can see some of the icon design process here.

In so many ways I felt this design was the right way to go, however I still needed to tweak it a bit. There was another layout around this time that I unfortunately can’t find a screenshot for. The main display image took up the entire width of the site, and had a height of almost 600px. It was big, bold, and very “me” in a lot of ways. Not sure why I talked myself out of it, but I did. I still regret that decision.

After several retries, several designs and a bit of fighting with WordPress, I finally felt I had come up with something I would be happy with for a long time.

This site was full of win for me. From the logo on the front page that revealed a sliver of the screenshot beneath (idea courtesy of Rogie King), to the inclusion of a “recent work” section, to a more balanced look throughout, I really felt this site was a strong design.

What this site did lack, however, was personality. Looking back, it feels a bit like a template taken from somewhere on the web. The masthead image is plain, the navigation is plain, the overall look is, well, plain.

After launching the site, I submitted it to several design galleries. I do this not so much for the recognition but for the benefits of having large sites link to you. However, as embarrassing as it is to admit, not even CSSMania — who appears to accept just about anything with a CSS file linked to it — didn’t even accept the submission. Justified or not, this really stuck out as another indication that this design was just a little too plain.

So, back to the drawing board yet again. This time, I was starting to question whether the Made by Athlete brand was appropriate for me (which, as I announced yesterday, wasn’t) so I began working on a new design with my own personal branding.

Using the same 1008px grid I used on the Made by Athlete design, I constructed this site that really portrayed personality while still communicating what I do. I really liked how Paravel let their screenshots break out of the box, and I wanted to do something similar to my site. Looking back, I think the implementation is a little too close to what they have done, but I was still a ways away from launching this.

I really loved the diagonal lines on the side of the site, that stretched to the right as far as your browser window would allow. I also liked that I reintroduced the overlapping effect with the main display image, giving the site some depth.

A few other things I really liked about this design:

• I like that I was able to communicate who I was and what I did in a more personal way.
• I love that each page would have its own colour scheme.
• I had just started working with Futura on the Hello Kelly Myspace design, and had started to fall in love with it.
• I liked the way I was able to have portfolio sections, differentiating between web, print, and other types of work.
• Because of the way this site was layed out, my dream was to do something similar to Jason Santa Maria, Yaron Schoen, Trent Walton and others with a more art directed approach to blogging.

This site also came very close to being fully developed. I wanted to try to learn something new, and so I used this as an opportunity to start teaching myself ExpressionEngine. I still have a bit to learn, but I feel pretty strongly that I will be offering ExpressionEngine development as a service sooner than later. It is such a joy to work with, and in my mind is even easier than Pods for the end user.

Although I really liked this design, I was not happy with what I would have to give up to launch it. I’ve really enjoyed working with Tumblr, and couldn’t imagine giving up on the platform just months after switching to it. I was also inspired by something I read on Frank Chimero’s profile:

Make only what you need, right?

While I enjoyed working on ExpressionEngine, for my purposes a combination of Tumblr and Cargo Collective is really all I need. Maybe one day in the future I’ll need some more advanced features that these services can’t offer, but for now this is the perfect combination of providing what I need and doing so in a simple, accessible manner.

Which leads me to my most recent design. I was constrained a little bit due to having the site already setup on Tumblr, which meant my home page would be a blog and not an introductory page like my ExpressionEngine site. There are pros and cons to this reality. On the pro side, I won’t be losing the audience I have developed over the last few years blogging here at PatDryburgh.com. The con is that it becomes a bit harder to communicate what exactly I do. And so, I decided the best way to circumvent this issue was to just be really clear in my site header.

The other element I wanted to make sure I highlighted in this design was my photography. While working on the Made by Athlete designs, I was just getting into photography and wasn’t certain it was something I wanted to pursue in a serious manner. Now, after just 4 months I have now worked on my first serious photo shoot and have been learning a lot. It’s definitely something I want to push in my site, so I wanted to make sure the layout of the photo posts was bold and attractive:

I wanted the photography to display across the full width of the post (as the screenshots in this post do as well), giving them prominence and letting the reader see the shot without having to click to see a high resolution version.

The other big change from previous designs is the use of a serif font, specifically FF Tisa Web Pro delivered by Typekit. Inspired again by Frank Chimero, as well as Liz Danzico’s Bobulate, I fell in love with FF Tisa Web Pro, and decided it was perfect for what I wanted to present: clean, delicious typography on a simple, modern layout.

I am sure there will still be tweaks to this site as time goes on, and I do have a few ideas to develop a bit of an art directed approach to some of the posts. With the move to freelance, I am sure I will have more to share about my design process, and would love to hear your thoughts as well!

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When I was first learning design, my main goal was to build a few websites for my band, maybe help out a few friends, and just have a bit of fun with it. My girlfriend at the time would constantly tell me I should take some courses in web design as I seemed to be pretty passionate about it and had a bit of natural talent for it. I shrugged those suggestions off for months, instead following a path towards ministry and music.

As I was working at the church as a music director, I found myself with a few opportunities to flex my budding design muscles. From message series branding to designing the logo of the new church plant, I had an awesome opportunity to learn design while creating something that would be used in real life.

When I left the church, I had this new found passion for design, but wasn’t sure what to do with it. It was mid-March, and school wasn’t going to be an option for at least 6 months. I did, however, know a friend whose father owned a design studio in London. We had a meeting in which we discussed the possibility of me coming on as an apprentice, and not long after I started working at Images. My responsibilities ranged from web design and development to digital print management, a field I was not familiar with but which I have had the opportunity to learn a lot about in the past two years.

Also over the past two years, I have been teaching myself a lot more about web design, print design, and most recently photography. I have loved every moment, and have come across some amazing opportunities. Some time last summer, Michael Mistretta of Fusion Ads approached me about taking on some overflow ad design work, an opportunity I was more than happy to take on. Since then, I’ve had the chance to design about 35 ads, each time taking on the challenge of communicating a company’s message in just a single 130x100px graphic.

I have also had the opportunity to work on some other cool projects, including a WordPress theme for my friends at Band Themer, a couple personal projects, and some other work I have coming down the pipe. All of this led me to my announcement on Thursday.

Going Freelance

My father, for 9 years of my teenage and adult life, as well as many years before I was born, owned his own business. I watched him wake up early in the morning and come home late on occasion to take care of things at work. We didn’t go on many vacations, though that’s not to say we didn’t go on any at all.

What I do remember most, however, was that my dad was able to design his own life. He was able to come to school events during the day, or leave work early to catch us playing sports. He could take us to hockey practice in the morning knowing he set his own hours.

I don’t have kids, but I can appreciate the freedom my dad had. Even though it wasn’t total freedom (he still had to work, had to pay rent on his shop, pay an employee or two, etc), my dad was able to do what he wanted to do. I admired that a lot.

And so, about 6 months or so ago I started seriously considering going freelance. I was debt free, free of responsibilities, had started developing some clients of my own, and could imagine pursuing my own business. I realized that I would never be fully content until I had at least had the chance to prove myself in the open market, to buckle down and tackle my own work. I needed the opportunity to challenge myself.

And so, on Thursday, I gave my two weeks notice. The response from friends on Twitter and Dribbble was overwhelming to say the least. It was a bit nerve-wracking leading up to finally telling my boss, but once I did I knew I had made the right decision. The kind words and encouragement from friends all over the world only helped to bolster my resolve: I am going freelance.

Made by Who?

Many of you will remember that not long ago, I launched a site for the freelance design work I was doing at the time called Made by Athlete. I had spent 4 or 5 months trying to determine a strategy for my freelance business, and thought I had come up with a great brand (I still believe I had). However, after a lot of thought and discussion, culminating in a conversation with some friends on Twitter, I decided to forgo the Made by Athlete brand.

I’ve been on Twitter now for over two years. I’ve been writing at PatDryburgh.com for twice that. When friends think of me, they know that I am a designer. That type of brand recognition is perfect for word-of-mouth marketing:

“Hey, do you happen to know any designers?”

“Yeah! My good buddy Pat Dryburgh works in design! You should give him a call.”

Adding a second layer to this in the form of a separate brand name only adds unnecessary confusion. If I had employees, that’s a different story, but right now it is just me. I am the business, I am the brand. And so, for the foreseeable future I will be working under my own name.

New Digs

As you can see, this post coincides with a new design for my site. Between the launch of the Made by Athlete site and this one, I have worked on at least two or three other designs for this site, going back and forth about what I wanted to accomplish with it. Having observed some incredible discussions around design and business lately, I’ve decided that I really want to work more at making this site a place of ideas. I want to share what I’m learning and get your feedback as well.

For a while now, I have been a proponent of not having comments on my site. Inspired by sites like Daring Fireball and others, I came to believe that my site was my place for my voice. But I am not John Gruber. I am not Shawn Blanc. I am Pat Dryburgh and I thrive on conversation. That is how I learn best. I learn from the conversations happening on Jonathan Christopher’s site and sites like it.

That said, this site is still powered by Tumblr, which does not include a comment system. I am also not a fan of the plugin comment systems available. However, what Tumblr does have is a notes system, where if someone responds to a post of mine using the reblog feature, their response shows up in my stream, where I can find it and respond in turn. There is also always Twitter, where some amazing conversations have happened over the years. And if you would like to keep the conversation private as many people have, my email is just a click away.

Accepting Work

I have two projects currently on the go, one that should be wrapping up in a week or two and another that will take me until the end of May. After that, I am open to accepting projects. If you or someone you know would like to discuss how I could help with your design needs, please don’t hesitate to connect with me.

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My friend Steph and I went to the Jónsi show in Toronto this past Friday. We also got to chill in the beach area, which is now my new favourite place.

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My friend, Corrie, and I went to Montréal this past Easter weekend, so I could visit my brother who is in basic training. We had an amazing time, and I was able to take some cool shots around the city.

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When Steve Jobs announced the iPad, Apple’s newest technological marvel, jaws dropped. Almost two full months after the announcement, blogs all over the internet are still debating whether this is the worst mistake Apple’s made in the past ten years or whether it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.

One of the arguments that has sparked much debate amongst those in the tech world is whether Apple’s strategy of simplifying the user experience is a positive thing. I have argued that the iPad is a step in the right direction in terms of minimizing the confusion that comes with computing for the average user.

There is one issue, though, that I personally have not seen mentioned in other posts. And if Apple does not have a solution for it, it could cause a lot of heartache and frustration once people really start using their iPads.

Trash Talk

In 1982, when Apple created the Apple Lisa user interface, they implemented what they called the Trash can. The trash can is essentially purgatory for files a user no longer wants. Once sent to the trash, the user has the option of restoring the file back to its original place, or annihilating it completely from the computer’s hard drive. Unless there is a backup of a user’s system from before the file was sent to the trash, there is essentially no way of restoring that file once the trash has been emptied.¹

This metaphor was carried over to Windows 95 in the form of a Recycle Bin. Perched on the desktop of countless millions of averages users was this bin which, when empty, looked empty, and when it contained files, looked full.

There is safety in the Trash Can metaphor. I know that in order to really delete a file from my system, either on Windows or on Mac OS X, I really have to work at it. Yes, there are times when files are accidentally deleted, but for the most part if I realize my mistake before I empty my Trash, I know the file is safe.

No More Safety Net

This all changes with the iPad. The iPad (and, perhaps, the iPhone before it) completely changes how we think about computing.

The iPad hides the filesystem from the user, meaning the user no longer has to search through “Folders” to find their “.docs”, “.jpgs”, or “.mp3s”. Want to find a letter I wrote the other day? Open up Pages. Want to see the picture I took of my dog the other day? Pop open Photos. Need a song to play while waiting for the bus to arrive? Click on “iPod.”²

However, what if I delete that letter and want to find it again? Or what if your child gets ahold of your iPad and deletes your favourite photographs? Where do you turn to recover that lost data? If you have synced your iPad to your Mac or PC since creating those files, then hopefully they have been backed up and can be retrieved again. Some people, however, are suggesting this could be the only computer they need. Where will these people back up their files?

Apple does have one possible solution: iWork.com. There is the potential that Apple will allow you to sync your iWork for iPad documents to iWork.com, effectively backing them up every time you save a file. However, what if the file is deleted from the iPad? Does that change sync to iWork, causing the file to be irretrievable? Or would it work like Dropbox, where revisions are saved on the server even if a file is removed from the device?

That still leaves photos and music. There’s a chance photos would be backed up through MobileMe, and perhaps iTunes will end up in the cloud. Less than two weeks from early adopters receiving their iPads, we have not heard word on any of these fronts from Apple.

I worry that this is one area where hiding the filesystem on the iPad could have detrimental effects on a user’s experience. If I am an average user, my experience has taught me that deleting a file from a folder doesn’t really mean the file is deleted; it’s in file-purgatory. If I bring this mentality to the iPad, though, it could result in devastating losses of data.

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My friends Jeremy Oegema of The Rocking Chair, Zach Havens of To Tell, and Francois Gouldreault of Hello Kelly played a show last week at Gateway Church in London. I came along and took some shots for each of them. Here are a few of my favourites.

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This is being posted for archiving purposes. Unfortunately, Ian is having to take down his site for personal reasons. He has agreed to allow me to post the interview he did with me here so it isn’t lost. - Pat

Pat Dryburgh is, in the most simple of terms, a 24-year old creative professional from London, Ontario, Canada (eh?). But, to be honest, that really undersells him. Pat’s a musician, one of the graphic designers behind those phenomenal Fusion Ads we all love so much, an exceptional blogger, and a really swell guy.

On top of all the great stuff he’s already doing, Pat’s also gearing up to launch his own design business.

I had the chance to interview Pat via email for the last few weeks; it was a blast. Here’s the transcript.

The Interview

Ian P. Hines: First of all, thanks for agreeing to be interviewed. I think this is going to be a lot of fun.

Let’s start at the beginning: How long have you kept a weblog, and what made you get started in the first place?

Patrick Dryburgh: Thank you for inviting me to be a part of this!

I started blogging back in 2004, when I was first entering college. Back then, it was a Xanga blog, and a large number of my college mates were a part of the blogging community. I wrote mostly regarding personal situations and feelings, shared songs I was writing and participated in the community our school had created.

A couple years later I started blogging at PatDryburgh.net under the title “Journeys of a Rookie Worship Pastor.” I wrote primarily to share what I was doing with those I had left back home, but also to connect with the community of worship pastors that had really just begun developing on the web. I wrote some controversial pieces that sparked quite a bit of debate in ensuing comments, however the main purpose was just to share what I was learning.

After I left the church my blog’s focus moved to design, a topic I had been learning about on the side for a short while and which I had made the decision to pursue as a career.

For the last couple of years, I’ve kept a fairly open approach to blogging, writing primarily about what interests me, rather than trying to focus on just one topic alone.

Ian: Interesting that you initially got into blogging to participate in an online dialog with people you knew offline. Do you find that that’s still the case–that the people you connect with through your blog are people you know in the offline world–or did a shift occur somewhere along the line?

Pat: There was definitely a shift that happened somewhere along the way.

The platform my “offline friends” and I were using online was so simple to use, and by design facilitated community. We also had the benefit of physically living in close quarters, so our blogs were just a natural extension of conversations we were having in the real world. There were also the normal social aspects to it, such as popularity contests, fighting, backstabbing, etc. But, there was also a lot of good that came from it, like supporting someone when they were down.

When I left college, I moved my blog to a WordPress installation. While it still facilitated community, the community that formed was centred around my blog, rather than around the school I was attending. Like I said earlier, part of the reason for starting my next blog was to enter into a new community, which wasn’t a community I knew personally offline. Because of this, and because I was no longer on a community-centric platform, the shift of my blog changed from friends I knew offline to friends I was making online.

Today, Facebook is how I remain connected to those I know offline. I only allow people I know personally to be a Facebook friend, and use it to plan hang outs, coffee meet ups, concerts, and share stories and photos from each of these. I don’t pipe my blog or Twitter feed into it, because I don’t want to use it to broadcast myself to those who already know me. If they want to follow me on my other online sites, that’s up to them, but I let it be their choice.

I have to be honest, I really have little idea of who specifically is reading my blog. I don’t have a comments section, so if people want to respond to something it has to be through Twitter or email. I do know some people who are reading, yourself included, and I appreciate it so much when they make the effort to reach out and introduce themselves. I’ve made some really great online friends, a few of which I have had the pleasure of meeting in person as well. I think this is an experience that is shared by many in the blogging community, as our world is becoming increasingly smaller each day.

Ian: I can definitely connect with the idea of starting a new blog in order to connect with a new community; I’m glad you mentioned that, because it’s something I want to come back to.

You mentioned that you use Facebook to keep in touch with your “real world” friends, so it’s clear that you’ve given some thought to how to you use different forms of social media for different purposes. I am curious: do you think of yourself as having a ’social media strategy?’

Pat: I wouldn’t say I’ve developed a social media strategy, as much as I simply use different tools for different needs. I really try to minimize the amount of noise I allow into my online life (I only follow 150 people on Twitter, and subscribe to about 100 blogs via RSS). Facebook is one of those places where there there’s a lot of noise, so while I don’t mind it from people I know personally, I wouldn’t want a whole lot of it from people I’m following on Twitter as well.

Twitter, Facebook, and blogging all serve different purposes in my life. Twitter is sort of my brain’s feed; I don’t filter a lot of what goes on there. I just let out what comes to mind, and sometimes it’s great and sometimes it’s not. Blogging is about two things for me: collecting and sharing great stuff, and writing quality content about things I care about. Facebook is about finding out what friends are doing on a Saturday night, and then hearing all about it from Monday to Thursday.

I also want to quickly touch on this: I am hesitant to use terms like “real” or “real world” friends when speaking about friends I know offline. I have had real, heart to heart conversations with some great people that I count as good friends even though I’ve never met them in person. To me, that is just as real as someone I’ve shaken hands with. I grew up in a time when I didn’t even know what the internet was; I believe I was 14 or 15 when I first logged on. Kids who have grown up with the internet and Myspace and Facebook and all of these things their whole lives will look back and wonder what the heck we meant by “real world” friends, or “social media strategies.” They will see these things as no different than the notes we passed back and forth in class or those first phone calls from your girlfriend that you had to take in your parents’ kitchen because you didn’t have a phone in your bedroom.

Ian: Wow. See… I don’t think I could have put that sentiment better than myself. I use Facebook a bit differently than you do (essentially like a giant rolodex), but otherwise the general theme is the same. I’m particularly glad that you made a point that you can have just as strong of friendships with people who you know almost exclusively online; I, too, have made some excellent friends online and I would never consider them second class citizens compared to the people I know locally.

You say that blogging, for you, is about sharing interesting content and writing about things you care about; do you try to stick to any specific topic areas, or do you just keep it open to whatever is on your mind? I’ve been reading your blog for several months and it seems to me like you fall closer to the latter.

Pat: Of any part of my online presence, I have put the most thought into my blog. There has been a lot of discussion over the years as more and more people get into blogging about what people should be writing about. One particular thought is that a blogger should pick a niche and write solely about it. While I see the merit in having a narrow focus in business or as a writer for a particular publication (whether online or in print), for a personal blog I believe there is only one viable topic: you. That isn’t to say you have to write about what you do every day or share your deepest darkest secrets, but rather that who you are should ooze from every pixel on your personal site.

I look at some of the writers I admire most. John Gruber, Chris Bowler, Shawn Blanc; while these writers are well known for their articles on design and technology, they also touch on other aspects of life that they are passionate about. For myself, while I am passionate about design, I am equally passionate about music. I also am interested in business, culture, leadership, and a lot more. So those are the things I am going to write about; some of the writing is to share what I know, some of it is to simply help process random thoughts I have in my head.

Someone who has taken a decidedly different approach that I admire is Patrick Rhone. Rather than have a number of different topics fill up his personal blog, Patrick has chosen to spread his topics out to their own individual domains: Minimal Mac, Practical Opacity, The Random Post.

I think whatever someone’s strategy, it needs to be something they can manage, and something they can be proud of. For a while, I wasn’t proud of my blog because I was trying to cater to pageviews and ad clicks. Now, I choose to write about what I’m passionate about and if someone else likes it, then we would probably be good friends.

Ian: I feel the same way about my own blog; I always tell my wife that my target audience is that guy out there who is exactly like me. If I found my blog, I’d love it, and that’s how I know it’s done right.

Shifting gears a bit, you recently moved from Wordpress to Tumblr–a decision that I gather you did not make lightly. Can you explain a bit about what you look for in a CMS, why you made the move, and whether–now that you have some perspective–you think it was the right choice?

Pat: I was just wondering the same thing the other day :).

Quite frankly, I don’t know whether there is a “right” choice in terms of blogging software. There are so many options out there, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. WordPress, for instance, is insanely powerful; there is almost nothing you can’t create with it. Tumblr is a lot more narrow-focused, with a lot less access for customization. However, what you lose in ability to customize you gain in ease of use; once the design was finalized, it took just a few hours to get it working with Tumblr. The same thing would have taken days with WordPress.

The reason I ended up choosing Tumblr of WordPress for my personal blog was that I didn’t want to have to fuss over all of the technical details. I wanted some of the harder decisions to be made for me, simply because I didn’t have time to work through it all. If I was given a lot more time to work at it, WordPress, Chyrp, Textpattern or Expression Engine were all viable options I had to look at.

One thing I do regret from leaving my WordPress site was the archives I left behind. They are still online, but I do wish the old content was connected to the newer content in some manner.

Ian: I’ve gone through similar debates with myself. Ultimately I decided to move to Tumblr for a lot of the same reasons you did: it’s more simple, straightforward, and it’s so easy to get content into it (MarsEdit, the Bookmarklet, the beautiful Dashboard, etc.). In fact, one of the biggest motivators for making the switch was the fact that you, Chris Bowler, and Jorge Quinteros had decided to use it for your blogs (I’m a big believer in taking the advice of trusted sources).

One frustration I have, however, is that despite Tumblr’s excellent backup feature it’s essentially impossible to export your data in any standardized format. Even if I wanted to move back to a Wordpress or ExpressionEngine install, I would be unable to export my content. I guess, in a nutshell, it’s not that I’m unhappy with Tumblr so much as that I feel trapped. I wonder if that’s not the same feeling that prompted you to wonder about moving back?

Pat: Actually, the reason I started thinking about moving back was while I was perusing Khoi Vinh’s archives. They are so well organized, and presented in such an attractive manner. “The Tumblr default archive page http://patdryburgh.com/archive/ is not very attractive and, unfortunately, not editable.” If I was able to determine how this page looked in order to bring it inline with my site’s design, I wouldn’t even be thinking about leaving Tumblr.

That said, you have made an excellent point about data portability. The Tumblr Backup Utility is amazing; the best blog backup utility I’ve seen. However, it is currently

1. only available for Macs, and
2. only good for getting HTML output of your posts

So, the case of wanting to move from Tumblr to WordPress does create a concern. There are tools available to help, but nothing official from either Tumblr or Automattic. Until then, where you choose to publish is a serious decision if you have any intention of moving at some point.

Ian: Right. It’s funny that you mention Khoi Vinh’s archives, because my jaw just about hit the floor when I saw Basic Maths, a Wordpress template made by Khoi and Allan Cole. It’s modeled after Khoi’s site, and has just about everything I’m looking for in a template. But is it enough for me to move back to Wordpress? I’m still on the fence.

But back to you… I’m curious if you have a favorite article that you’ve written? It could be anything: short, long, whatever. Just something that you look back and say “I’m really proud of that.”

Pat: I have a few favourite posts. One is “My Greatest Accomplishment Ever,” which was about paying off the last of my $12,000 debt. Not only was I happy with how the writing turned out, but this post got a ton of positive feedback. Dave Ramsey, a popular financial coach and radio show host actually read the post on his radio show! That post has probably received the most positive feedback out of anything I’ve written before or since.

“Ninety-Eight Degrees” was another fun article to write back when I was using WordPress. It was about the newly released Fever app from Shaun Inman. Probably the best review article I’ve ever written.

Last but not least, “Tie Those Laces, Son” was another piece from my WordPress days, about the importance for discipline in life.

Ian: I can actually remember when I read each of those posts (particularly the one about debt), and going back to look at them now I find them even better than I remember. Great choices.

What about other people’s posts. What are a few you’ve read and just thought, “Wow, I wish I could write that well…”?

Pat: There are probably hundreds of articles I’ve read where I’ve thought “Wow, I wish I could write that well.” Heck, there are probably stories written by 3 year olds that greatly surpass my abilities. That said, here are a few off the top of my head:

1. “The Myth of Talent” – Michael Mistretta. In spite of how young he is, Michael is ten times wiser than most people my age. His attitude towards business, photography, design and life challenge my thoughts. This article blew away any idea I had that I could just pick up a camera and shoot masterpieces, or that I could open a word processor and beautiful, elegant words would just flow. It takes effort — as Malcolm Gladwell claims, 10,000 hours of effort — to become great at something.
2. “Two Things” – Shawn Blanc. This post was huge, and I mean that both figuratively and literally. Seriously, go there and see how small that scroll bar becomes. Then realize that there aren’t comments on that page, just straight-up content from the brilliant mind of Mr. Blanc. I basically pull my wallet out whenever I see a review post from Shawn, not because he sells the product, but because he makes it clear how my life will be better with that product, and he’s always right.
3. “Getting Real With Your Lists” – Patrick Rhone. Patrick is one of the most straight up front guys on the net. He calls it as it is, and doesn’t stand down to those who disagree. I read this article a while back and realized I’d been doing my whole GTD thing wrong. I still do it wrong, and need to fix it again, but Patrick’s straight forward “shut up and do it” approach inspires me when I need that extra encouragement.

There are literally dozens more I know I’m missing. My Instapaper archive is full of articles I could include. I think what sets these three writers apart is that they don’t just write; these guys live what they share on their sites, and that inspires me to aspire to the same.

Ian: Alright… now I know why I enjoy following your blog so much: I haven’t read Patrick’s article, but the other two had a really profound affect on me when I read them, as well. You have good taste, sir.

Alright, I think we should probably wrap this up while it’s still at a moderately readable length. Last question: Would you mind sharing a little bit about your music? You’ve shared a little about it on your blog, but it’s generally a bit of a mystery.

Pat: Yeah, that’s mostly because I haven’t had a chance to record, and therefore don’t have much to share!

I currently play in a reggae/ska/rock band called Boss Rebel. They have been a band for a couple years now, and I just joined a few months back. We mostly play the bar scene in the Southwestern Ontario area. We are actually going to the studio in the next month, so I should have something to share soon!

I also write a lot of acoustic stuff on my own. I sometimes record and post them to YouTube, but hope to one day record an EP of songs from that as well. Perhaps by the summer I should have a few songs done that I can post to my blog.

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At what point have you checked your email, your Facebook, your Twitter feed, your RSS subscriptions, browsed YouTube, Vimeo, Digg, Reddit, checked your email, checked your iPhone for text messages, scanned through your todo list, refreshed your Twitter feed, reblogged that ironic photo, checked your email, read pages and pages of Daring Fireball, complained that the iPad isn’t everything you dreamed of, read your RSS feed for other people complaining about the same thing, scanned your todo list again, and checked your email enough times before you actually decide to do something productive?

I’m almost there.

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I like to think that, in at least a few cases, I add value to peoples’ lives. Through a helping hand, a word of encouragement, or simply by simply being present, I hope that I have had an impact on someone’s life at some point.

Over the past few weeks I’ve had a number of experiences where people have had a really positive impact on my life, and I wanted to take a minute to offer my thanks to those people publicly.

Richard Dew - Aside from all of the amazing work he is doing in Haiti, Richard has really challenged me as a friend and a professional over the past week. We get out for lunch often, and during this time we talk about life, work, and everything in between. Richard has been very encouraging as I make some big decisions over the next while, and I definitely value counting him as a friend.

Chris Bowler - Chris is simply an amazing guy. Besides the work that Chris sends my way through Fusion (as well as offering me a spot on the publishers list), Chris has been there to offer words of encouragement through some trying times in my life recently.

Darren Hoyt - Darren is a designer I admire and respect deeply. Just today, Darren passed on some incredibly kind words, as well as some possible exciting work! His support in real, tangible ways has not gone unnoticed, and I am full of gratitude for it.

Jonathan Christopher - Jonathan Christopher has been my go-to guy for learning a new WordPress plugin, Pods. Having learned what I’ve learned over the past week from Jonathan, I can definitely see Pods revolutionizing how I build websites with WordPress, saving me countless hours and headaches. Through his blog series on Pods, to Twitter and chat, Jonathan has offered advice and tips for working with this incredible setup, and has really helped me out.

Kyle Baxter - Again, another guy who has simply offered kind words of encouragement when I needed it, and with whom I am devising a pretty awesome project.

Phil Coffman - I am working on a new site at the moment (separate from this blog, I promise), and sent the preview site to a few friends whose opinion I respect. A lot of them offered some great tips and thoughts, but Phil went above and beyond and really critiqued each design decision I made. His input was both helpful and respectful.

Just a few of the people who have had a really positive impact on my life lately. Maybe you’ll share some of yours?

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My band, Boss Rebel, had the honour of opening for Toronto’s illScarlett last night at Norma Jean’s in London. The show was sold out, and it was a party from start to finish.

Here are some shots I took of my friends and the other bands. Check out the rest at Flickr.

This is the first concert I’ve shot with my new D90 and I learned a lot from the experience. Definitely tough to find a balance between nice, artistic lighting, capturing the action, and getting angles that don’t seem as though I’m standing in the same spot the whole show.

The 50mm prime lens was a little limiting, as the lead guitarist was way on the other side of the stage, while the bass player was right in front of me. I’d love to know what lens those with more experience would recommend. If you have some thoughts, feel free to email me or hit me up on Twitter.

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