There’s no trick to getting 1,000 views

Last month, the designers at Automattic were given the following challenge: Pick a colleague’s post, and explain why you chose that one. Outline a plan for the post to get 1,000+ views. Imagine that you have a US $20 budget to work with. As a member of our Editorial team, I'm in a privileged place …

On Finding Joy in the Unexpected and Making the Decision to Be Busy

Earlier this month, I attended the inaugural Dribbble Hangtime conference in Boston, MA. I had a lot of fun, and thought I’d share a couple of the ideas I took away from the event. Kelli Anderson showed some of the most inspiring work of the day. She's been exploring paper as a medium lately, and …

I will never stop learning

Last week, everyone at Automattic got together for our "Grand Meetup." This is the only occasion each year that all 600+ of us are together in one place. With such a large group, there are many different things going on: meetings, projects, bonding activities, support rotations, and savoring amazing pastries. While there, we also have the …

Typographic Tweaks for Longreads

During the 7 years I've been involved with Longreads, we've gone from sharing links on Twitter to publishing our own in-depth, investigative stories. While we've grown substantially in scope and focus, the brand has largely stayed consistent. The core of the Longreads brand has always been simple, traditional typography, paired with a healthy amount of whitespace. I've made small …

Hundreds of Tiny Arrows

I recently hand-drew hundreds of tiny arrows for a Longreads illustration. It took about four hours, with a few breaks to check Slack and refill my chai. I knew I could have drawn a few arrows and duplicated them in Photoshop. I would've added some brush strokes to differentiate them from each other, and it …