Brian Shaler

Jumping around in the Phoenix Tech Community

Flower

MyMotivatr – A 24 Hour Project

I recently launched a small web site called MyMotivatr, which allows users to quickly and easily create really slick motivational (or de-motivational) posters.

There are several online motivational poster-making tools, but they are usually very poor quality. For example, Despair, Inc has amazing, professionally-designed posters and a “DIY” user submission tool. If you compare the two, the DIY version uses high-compression/low-quality images, uses the wrong typeface (Times), does not drop caps or underline the title, and the description is not in small caps.

Using Flash, I created a tool that generates posters on the client, then submits the pixel data to the server, generating a permanent file. I paid close attention to detail, to make sure the result is as close to professionally-designed posters as possible.

MyMotivatr went live within 24 hours of conception, the maximum amount of time I was willing to dedicate to this particular for-fun project. During the site’s first 24 hours of operation, it received about 9,800 unique visitors, 22,500 page views, and 275 user-submitted posters.

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6 Responses to “MyMotivatr – A 24 Hour Project”

  1. June 19th, 2008 at 11:49 pm

    Anyone says:

    I like your tool- it’s pretty nifty. I like Dispair’s too… They let you choose from lots of type faces. i dont think one version is “wrong” or “right” though. there are so many different typse of variations of motivational posters– lines, underlines, caps, lowercase, font variations etc… what I want to know is where is your training video? ! The dispair one cracked me up!!!

  2. June 20th, 2008 at 9:08 am

    funride says:

    I had been looking for this kind of tool for ages. Thanks, I´m going to share this link ;)
    Have fun!

  3. June 20th, 2008 at 10:38 am

    Cj says:

    Brian,

    This is fun. I’ve made these before at other sites as well. Very cool that you set this up.

    Cj

  4. June 20th, 2008 at 10:37 pm

    Adam Nollmeyer - AcmePhoto says:

    I could agree that the fonts are great and all that. But I think what Brian is really trying to say is….

    If you procrastinate, all you need is between 12-24 “meals” of coffee, and you too can create your own project in just under 24 hrs.

  5. June 27th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

    Dan says:

    Love the site. Is there anyway to paste a picture without a URL?

  6. July 5th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

    R, Fortin says:

    I have problems with the sizing of the photo.
    Tried to do it several different sizes and they all turned out the same.
    Is there a specific size we should be using.

    The one I tried to make is BearNaked

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