Northern Ireland’s designer twits
Increasingly mentioned in the media, Twitter has replaced Delicious as my bookmarking tool of choice. I’m always interested in what local designers are up to, so here’s a “Top of the Twitter Design Charts” for Northern Ireland (be great to get a coffee / pint one weekend soon).
Designer twits in Northern Ireland (listed by # of followers)
- 6,489 — @gracesmith — Grace Smith (Postscript5)
- 4,516 — @webcreative — Leeanne Lowe (Web Creative)
- 4,376 — @davidairey — David Airey (Logo Design Love)
- 3,020 — @problogdesign — Michael Martin (Pro Blog Design)
- 2,712 — @leemunroe — Lee Munroe (Lee Munroe)
- 838 — @webireland — Paul Anthony (Web Distortion)
- 554 — @acejet170 — Richard Weston (Ace Jet 170)
- 548 — @davymac — David Macdonald (davymac)
- 487 — @vectorfunk — Eamonn Murphy (Vectorfunk)
- 460 — @darrylxxx — Darryl Collins (Banjax Web Design)
Doesn’t seem a lot, does it? Surely there are more.
Find designers on Twitter
Twellow is a searchable Twitter directory that can help you find graphic designers nearby (I’m listed even though I’ve never entered details, so I guess it’s comprehensive).
Twitterholic is another that gives more stats than Twellow. Here’s a top 100 list for Northern Ireland, but I see some users aren’t indexed.
Remember though, Twitter’s not a competition.
I’ve thought about adding an extra field to my comment form, where if you enter your Twitter username it’ll automatically add a link to your profile, kind of like how Darren does it on TwiTip. Can anyone help with that?
——
Update: 15 June 2009
I’ve installed the Twitip ID plugin, so you should now see an extra field in the comment form. Thanks for the tip, Rarst.
Lee also let me know about his new side-project, Tweet NI, which looks like a great way to find twits in Norn Irn.
——
In summary, can’t touch this.
Illustration by Matt Hamm
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22 appreciated comments on “Northern Ireland’s designer twits”
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You are probably thinking about this plugin:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-twitip-id/
haha, MC Hammer – awesome
Im from Limerick.
http://twitter.com/miralize
And hello from down South!
Can I be bold enough to add my twitter name as another Irish designer – http://www.twitter.com/Laughing_lion
Hi, David, love the blog. I took the liberty to throw your list into a new Floxee group so you can get a searchable tweetstream, stats, and more. @ me if you’d like to add to it or customize the design. We’re in private beta, opening soon.
http://airey.floxee.com/
@pengwynn
I’ve been wanting to add a Twitter field to mine, too. Just another thing for my massive to-do list, lol. Twitter is definitely taking over the social realm, although it’s going to have to evolve into something “better”, eventually.
This is a comment not so much on this post but about this blog. I like your clean, straight-cut design, David, as well as the images that go with each post, especially photos you’ve taken for books that you reviewed.
The logos that you’ve designed also carry the same zen-like simplicity. Simple but powerful. Keep it up.
Thanks Rarst for providing the link about the Twitip ID plugin, and thanks David for bringing this up in a blog post in the first place. I’ve been thinking about adding the same form field myself.
I’m familiar with most of the list of eight N/Ireland designers you’ve mentioned, so the list may be small but to me it looks like quality!
Thanks for that, Rarst. I’ve installed the plugin, so hopefully this comment will pull a link to my Twitter profile.
Sean, Jennifer, extending this to all-Ireland would’ve been better, given the limited resources up here.
Wynn, good luck with the “Floxee” testing.
Andrew, I hear you with the “to do”. Here’s to overcoming it.
Tracey, give the plugin a shot. I tried with a little Twitter icon (rather than text) but thought it was too much.
consciouslife, very kind of you to say. Cheers.
Actually, the plugin doesn’t show IDs for blog authors, only visitors. You see enough of me already though, so that’s okay.
Appreciate the mention David. Only one I wasn’t following was @acejet170 and it looks like he does some great work so now following :)
As it happens, I’ve been working on a small side project that is a Twitter directory for Northern Ireland http://tweetni.com – hopefully it will be useful for finding more local tweeters.
“Yes, but don’t call me Shirley” – lol I’m definitely due a night in with Airplane
@David Airey
It was no problem. :) I skim through more plugins than I can (or want) to use all the time.
I think the Twitter plugin is a good idea, will see if it works on my blog. Thanks for the tip Rarst.
and David of course.
My pleasure, Lee. I’ve been subscribed to Richard’s Ace Jet 170 blog for a few years now, and he’s an excellent designer.
Good luck with Tweet NI — I’ll keep an eye on it. Was glad to see the Airplane! reference didn’t get lost.
Good idea collecting them together and getting more people to share theirs here David! I have a Tweetdeck column for Northern Irelanders, but I hadn’t found too many so far!
Thanks for including me in there :)
Thanks for the WP plugin update! Didn’t knew that one!
I agree I get a lot of the most interesting links these days via twitter (even though I never used delicious). What baffles me is that a slight majority of my “followers” are people/organisations I don’t know, yet they follow me.
Nice reference! Too bad the cockpit/control tower sequence is a bit long to quote. ;)
Hey David, great idea, should hopefully get a few more Norn Iron people onto twitter. A pint/coffee sounds good ;-)
Just saw Lee’s project today and added myself, all good things to help put Northern Ireland on the twitter map!
Michael, Grace,
I’d enjoy meeting up one Saturday for a lunchtime pint or two. Getting a few Irish designers together would make a very welcome change for me.
Tjeerd,
It’s quite a nifty plugin that. I’m not sure if I’ll stick with the vibrant blue to highlight the Twitter profile, but I like it.
One thing I don’t like about the plugin, Tjeerd, (which I just noticed) is how you can’t edit the Twitter profiles that people add. So with Michael’s broken URL, for example, it seems to be stuck that way, perhaps until he re-enters it in a new comment.
Im from Brazil!
http://twitter.com/Rebecca_Agra
Hi,
Im not sure of a better post to ask all you guys for advice. How do you manage your time, working self employed. I tend to work late into the evening, mainly because Im a great procrastinator, and can be very easily distracted. I might be a lost cause, but I heard admitting you have a problem is the first step to a cure. :-) Any advice is much appreciated.
–Mark