WMC’s in Cleveland" >Jeff Finley has exposed WMC’s in Cleveland

Wow is the first word that comes to mind when I look back at this passed week­end and try to stamp a title or a descrip­tion to it.  As you may or may not know, float:left designs is sta­tioned right here in north­east Ohio.  With that being said, as soon as I heard about WMC Fest I knew there was no way I was pass­ing it up…and that choice was made before I knew any­thing about the con­fer­ence.  Then the speaker list was announced, as well as the bands and show­cas­ing artists.…enough cre­ativ­ity to make any mem­ber of soci­ety want to attend.  I have per­son­ally met a few of the artists and/or bands that were going to be there, but the peo­ple that I look up to as a designer were going to be there speaking!

Day 1…

The very first guy that I was able to see was Jeff Finley…there was no way I was miss­ing the open­ing talk, i’ve never been to WMC Fest, so I needed to know what I was in for.  Jeff and the cre­atives over at GoMe­dia can really put on a lit­tle show, let me tell you that.

Next up, Jacob Edwards of Jakprints.  If you have ever printed any­thing, you have prob­a­bly heard of Jakprints.  I have worked with Jakprints on sev­eral occa­sions lately and have been very impressed with their speedy ser­vice and qual­ity of work.  But Jacob took us to a whole dif­fer­ent side of think­ing when he was talk­ing, it wasn’t about “hey this fab­ric is great, you should try it” or “did you see our new paper stock for busi­ness cards?”.  It was about how inven­tory can fuck with your over­all price, and how some­times choos­ing 5 dif­fer­ent types of shirts isn’t the best way to go, you have to take a step back and remem­ber who is going to be wear­ing your shirts.

In that short inter­mis­sion Pat Routa and myself stepped out­side to just kind of look around at all that was hap­pen­ing in CLE.  We had the party in Gor­don Square, we had WMC Fest, down­town had a big Music Fes­ti­val going on, and most of all…the sun!  I have to pref­ace this next group of speak­ers by say­ing that I “googled” them to see who they were and what they were about.

Quite Strong was the name of the next speak­ing group.  This is a group of ladies from Chicago that are mak­ing a very large impres­sion in the cre­ative indus­try.  Their speech was great, it was a good blend of sci­en­tific (ergh, desi­en­tific?) fact, and humor…the first group to bring a con­sis­tent level of humor to the stage, and def­i­nitely not the last.  They talked about how us cre­atives, we just need to do!  We always talk the talk, but most of us don’t walk the walk…the best piece of advice that they gave to us.…start small-ish.  The –ish is key there, don’t take on so much work that you turn into a her­mit and never leave your com­puter, but take on enough so that it will build your port­fo­lio, and so that you can have a steady income.  These ladies were fan­tas­tic, and am look­ing for­ward to build­ing a pro­fes­sional rela­tion­ship with them since I will be headed up to Chicago in August for the 24 Hour Web­site Challenge!

After they were fin­ished, we were fam­ished and headed down to the Happy Dog for a dog and a brew!  We knew that we would be watch­ing the next few speak­ers so we wanted to make sure our appetites were in check before-hand.

Ken Hej­duk of Lit­tle Jacket was the next speaker, and this guy really blew peo­ple away with his insight into why com­mu­ni­ties look like crap, and what we cre­ative folk can do to change it!  Top quote that I took away from him “Give a Damn & Raise the Stan­dards”.  Which just means quit putting out shit, even on the small projects, work hard and make an impact with your designs.  This is where my inspi­ra­tion went from a 10 to an 11 (yes, that’s a Spinal Tap reference).

The next speaker needs no intro­duc­tion, Mig Reyes from thread­less, hum­blepied and so much more.  This was the first speaker that packed the place…it turned out to be stand­ing room only by the time he started.  Mig talked about how going out­side of the box can ben­e­fit you more than you may know.  He showed us a motion graph­ics mas­ter­piece that he did in no-time, with his first ever expe­ri­ence with motion…turns out he won an award from it too!  Doing things out of your nor­mal com­fort zone, and not tak­ing your­self too seri­ously were the big things that I took away from Mig.

I will not lie, after Mig was done we roamed the gallery for a few and wound up leav­ing for the night, my apolo­gies to any of the other design­ers who spoke for not attend­ing.  I went home, with all of this new infor­ma­tion in my head, and wound up re-designing the float:left designs site.  I really love the new look and feel, and it gives me an oppor­tu­nity to show­case my work and be able to blog.

Day 2…

Day 2 was a slow start for us, we got there early and had great seats, but then we found out that the first speaker was can­celed.  So we packed up our mes­sen­ger bags and headed over to the gallery.  After we got there, we just hung out down­stairs to just relax before a day that was packed full of speak­ers that we wanted to see got started!

First up for us on day two…Dan Christof­fer­son of Big Car­tel.  This guy was awe­some, and he blew everybody’s mind with a paint­ing that he did at the very gallery that we just came from! Awe­some.  But he was very inspir­ing to lis­ten to, with his story behind Big Car­tel and what their objec­tive was as a company.

Next up…there was a panel w/ Oliver Bar­rett, Aaron “okpants” Sechrist.  These guys were cool, down to earth, art lov­ing C.I.A Grads just chat­ting about their expe­ri­ence, and how they have come to grow as peo­ple and artists!  Get out from behind that mon­i­tor and talk with people…huge les­son learned there!

Arguably the trendi­est cou­ple on the face of this Earth, our next speak­ers were Jenn & Ken Visocky O’Grady of Enspace Design.  They are not only of Enspace Design, but they also teach at CSU and KSU.  So here I am sit­ting next to a few Kent grads as they watch their pro­fes­sor deliver a knock­out speech about…well, how not to fail as design­ers!  It was amaz­ing to me, that after semes­ters of lis­ten­ing to them talk, my buds from Kent were still so drawn in by them…this design duo sure was inspir­ing to lis­ten to.

We had a few friends play­ing over at the Happy Dog, so we laced up the Chuck’s and headed down there for a few hours.  We did miss some great speeches but we got to lis­ten to some awe­some local tal­ent!  Pat and I were both musi­cians in high school, and that just got the itch back in both of us!

Next up for us, the one and only Mikey Bur­ton.  This guy engaged the crowd before he even offi­cially took the stage, pass­ing out his famous “Will work for work” stick­ers.  It’s so refresh­ing to see such incred­i­ble tal­ent come from our back yard!  His idea behind re-creating old shit was so new to me.  He took old, clas­sic book cov­ers and turned them into awe­some pieces of art!  Bravo to Mikey, this guy has it together!

Last but cer­tainly not least, ladies and gen­tle­men Aaron Draplin.  Bear hugs, and Ohio flags, along with Ohio Prints and shirts…you would think this guy is from Ohio?  Prob­a­bly one of the nicest peo­ple I have ever talked to, and as we learned from Jenn & Ken he’s from the Mid­west so of course he is friendly!  He stole the show, packed the house and had a standing-O at the end of it.  Just to hear his story of how he never wanted to set­tle for crap work, and that even if you are in a cor­po­rate envi­ron­ment and you feel like just a cog in the machine, put out the best pos­si­ble work and you will reap the rewards later!  This guys claim to fame was fuck­ing field notes!!!  He said he was tired of see­ing ter­ri­ble ones at his estate sales that he would go to, with their shitty type face, and ugly color palette.  So inspir­ing to think that you and I could eas­ily make some­thing that could take off and be the next best thing since sliced bread.  Major thing that I learned from Draplin…futura bold can take a beat­ing, dust itself off and still look just as sexy as it did 50 years ago.

That is my recap, with so much inspi­ra­tion that I have in my head right now, I had to share this story, so whether you read this or just skipped to the pic­tures, I thank you.  Whether you are a future-client, or a friend, I thank you for keep­ing me inspired!