Altered Aspect – Web Design by Rob MacKay

Twitter Design Community, I salute thee!

09/04/09 :: Posted by Rob

The Twitter Design Community; words can not describe what greatness these guys bring to my day.  Working as a freelancer, from home, I would say the only thing I miss is the office chatter.  The funny things people say, the great stuff they help you out with and mostly that social side of life that can easily be lost in freelance work.

Twitter is my office chatter.  Maybe I tweet too much, maybe I use it incorrectly – I dunno… Without it my motivation would have taken a large hit.

I would therefore like to thank one man for this entire twitter adventure, it is this one persons fault that I annoy the twitterverse with my endless babble about pancakes and boob cakes.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Jay Hilgert, from Bitbox.

It was in September last year that Jay posted this article 101 Reasons to Follow Me on Twitter it was from that moment that I started the Twitter adventure.

On that note I would like to give some thanks to some awesome guys and girls.

Jay Hilgert @bittbox
Thanks very much Jay, you were right – twitter is awesome

Cameron Olivier @cameronolivier
Cam is always there to brighten the day, even thought he enjoys living in sunny SA a little too much (and lets you know about it, especially when its cold and raining…)

Chad Engle @chadengle
I think most people would agree what an asset this guy has been to the design community.  Developing the idea for DCTH (Design Community Twitter Hours) where we web type people get together and have a chat, with some serious questions thrown in for good measure.  He has enabled the community to meet and connect to people we had not previously known about, and for the designers to get better at what they do because of it.  He also like pancakes and syrup, or is that me… mmm

Mike Conaty @mikeconaty
Another great guy, that brightens the day – normally involves Cam above. 

Andy Sowards @andysowards
I’m sure this is a guy who needs no introduction, if you don’t already follow him I would be surprised.  Andy is has a large following, if you want to know why just talk to the guy – hes awesome.  He also compiles some great link roundups from around the design community on his blog.

Misty Belardo @mistygirlph
A wonderful addition to my twitter mornings, greeting me from the east at the end of her day while I start mine.  A really good person to have a giggle with and an excellent addition to your twitter feed.  She’s also an excellent illustrator!

Jason Lengstorf @jasonatennui
Jason is one of those people that can code and design really well. You know the one who breaks the “coders can’t be creative” rule.   Always helpful, writes some excellent tutorials and is just again a all round genuine great guy.

Drew Douglass @DrewDouglass
Creator of Dev-tips, the excellent blog for geeky creative type web dudes (me then…) and author/presenter of the on going screencast series Wordpress for Designers over at ThemeForest.net.  He is a guy again of great support, always up for a quick chat and a good laugh (just check out some of his comedy screencast backgrounds).  Another valuable asset!

Team From The Couch – Marc, David & Nat Perel
I had to include these guys as a three, although I must admit I have not really communicated with Nat… but a woman scorned…   Marc and David brighten most of my days with their video blog From the Couch.  They are again extremely helpful, especially Marc… even when the burger orders go wrong, the From the couch team stick together

Marc Pettifer @L4Dorg This guy showed me Wordpress.  What more can I say!  We met through out love of gaming.  He’s recently started using twitter, so show this guy some design Community love – he’s extremely helpful and very talented.  Will be making a splash somewhere large hopefully in the next few months… you heard it here first!  

And here are some more excellent follows:

Daryl the Yorkshire Ebuyer web monkey @darylsws

Tom Glenn another Northern UK designing web monkey type.. @tomeglenn

Robert Banh coder genius type, great laugh – ganks up on me with Cam and Mike @robertbanh

John Rawsterne Relativly new to my twitter list, but a great one for a bit of chat @patternhead

Matt Lewis Another great chatting designer @MattLewisDesign

@TutShelf The guys who published my first guest post tutorial

Manoj Sachwani Always there to say good morning – another genuine guy @manojsachwani

Jason Drumright Had the pleasure of helping this guy out and offering advice, if you are ever short of BBQ Sause, he’s ya man! @drumrigj

Sasha Kovaliov I love how Sasha’s name sounds like he just stepped out of a Bond movie.  Helpful chatty and wont try and throw you off a train! bargin…  @nlupus

Cerven Cotter He fights back them gremlins off his site, but when its up a great resource @pixeldeath

Richard Darell otherwise known as the mighty “Minervity” – hes got too much twitter love, move along please @Minervity

Cecy Correa This girl is great, she works for EA you know, ask her about it… plus she has even interviewed some interestingly famous people – check her site! @cecycorrea

This really is only a brief selection of people who give me a real sense of community while sitting on my own in my office trying to work.

If you are not on Twitter, especially if you have a professional life that is a lot to do with online media, you are really missing out.

To find more people like this, every Thursday from 11pm GMT Chad hosts DCTH – a great place to chat with creatives, designers, coders like yourself!  Follow @DCTH to stay up to day and search for #DCTH on twitter.

If I left you off, I’m sorry – but I do still lub you!

I hope you have enjoyed the list!  Thanks to everyone once again!

Tags: community, design, twitter

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Personal Blog, The Thoughts of SVG. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.