Montreal Meets 3

The time has come once again, Montreal Meets 3! For it's third year in a row, its coming back again on May 27-28, 2013 - 2 Days - 10 Speakers. Founder and Friend François Hoang is working hard to make this years events bigger and better than last years. So far François has announced 5 out of the 10 speakers presenting at the conference, which include; Dana Tanamachi, Raku Inoue, Dean Bradshaw, Radim Malinic and James White. 

Another reason this year will be extra special is because this years conference has expanded in different areas in "design". In the past two there were designers strictly in the graphic design industry. Although this year there are speakers in different areas of the arts. So far five speakers have been announced. There are still five more speakers that will be announced shortly, although so far there is a great line up. These speakers include Dana Tanamachi graphic designer and letterer from Brooklyn. Radim Malinic art director and illustrator from London UK. Raku Inoue clay artist and sculptor from Montreal, Qc. Dean Bradshaw commercial photographer and image maker from Southern California, USA and James White visual artist and designer from Halifax, NS. 

To find out more information about the event, check out the official website at www.montrealmeets.ca. Don't forget to buy your tickets quick, since the price of the tickets is gradually increasing as the speakers are being announced. 

Movember

So as many know the month of November is the month representing the issue of men's health, also known as Movember. Me being a graphic designer, makes me a very visual person.  And as quoted from the movember website: 

"On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery."

Therefore, I will use my face this year for the first time to visually represent the issue of men's health by growing a moustache. If you would like to see my moustache growing progress or wish you donate to the cause you can do so my clicking on the following link below.

Fun Media I Find Online: Post #1

We all played "Rock, Paper, Scissor" as kids. When I saw this image posted on Facebook I enjoyed it so much I had to share it. Who do you think will win?

Gum Cards by Signalnoise

Growing up we've all collected something. Whether it was pogs, comics, action figures, cards, etc. Everyone has probably collected something at one point in their life. Cards were a very popular collectable. These cards were called "Gum Cards". They were cards related to many different topics. Whether the cards were of movie characters, cartoon heroes, scary monsters, everyone had an theme that interested them. They were called gum cards simply because with each card, it included a piece of gum. What made these cards more desired was that they only had a limited quantity and once they were sold out, it would no longer be available.

James White of Signalnoise has loved collecting things while growing up and has always wanted to create something collectable. With his passion for design, he has decided to release his own limited edition set of gum cards of his favorite designers.

Here is the live broadcast that was recorded, take a look so you can learn more about gum cards:

Video streaming by Ustream

To learn more about this project check out the official website: www.gumcards.ca. You can also learn more on the official Facebook and Twitter page. Finally if you'd like to help support this project please visit the Indiegogo page.

Leap

Why use a mouse and keyboard when you can use only this product. This looks like a pretty neat product. I wonder if it will work as well as the video demonstrates.

Google: Project Glass

Google is working on this new technology that looks pretty cool. Not too sure if this is a real product that they're actually working on or if it's fake, but it looks official. It sure looks like something that would make sharing your world with the world. Let's hope it actually comes out!

Montreal Meets 2 / MMTWO - CONNECT. INSPIRE. LEARN

So this past weekend (April 7-8) was the second edition of Montreal Meets (MMTWO) by creator and my good friend Francois Hoang.  I can honestly say that this event was a huge success. I apologize in advance for the horrible quality  in photos (they were taken with my iPhone camera).

This year the conference was held in a much bigger venue: Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal

All of the presentations from the speakers were very informative and inspiring. On Saturday, April 7, 2012, the first day of the conference there were 2 presentations; Fabio Sasso - Abduzeedo (Porto Alegre, Brazil) and Radim Malinic - Brand Nu (London, UK). On Sunday, April 8, 2012, the second day of the conference there were the final three presentations by James White - Signalnoise (Halifax, Canada), Shelby White - Wanken (Portand, USA) and Rik Oostenbroek - SecretShowcase (Netherlands, North Holland).

There was even a very nice waiting section outside of the conference area. There were tables set up where there was Montreal Meets merchandise as well as merchandise from all of the speakers.

 

The conference managed to practically have a full house both days. People traveled from all parts of the world to attend MMTWO, which made all the hard work Francois put into it worth it.

Day 1

Now to talk about the presentations and the information that I came out with. I found the first day very interesting with Fabio and Radim presentations. Fabio spoke about his blog Abduzeedo as well as his career at Google as Senior Graphic Designer. He spoke about how his blog which was a self initiated project is what ended up getting him his present career at Google. Two very important parts of his speech included hard work and giving back to the community. Radim showed us his work and spoke to us about his process. His talk focused on having a good concept for your work is very important. And that it is very important to get out of your comfort zone.

Day 2

On day two of Montreal Meets we started off with the presentation of James White: Design Renegade.

James is a big believer in self initiated projects and doing what you love. He brought up a lot of very important points such as:

 "You don't need clients in order to do work."

       - James White    

- "Build your own reality."

       - James White     

It's thinking like this that got James the jobs that he's been getting. It's self initiated projects that got him jobs like the "Drive" poster. As well as working with Kevin Smith:

The next presentation this day was by Shelby White. His biggest project is his blog Designinspiration. He's put in a lot of time into this project. During his speech he gave a lot of very simple points, but very important points. Some of these points include:

- "Your excuse for not having a portfolio is bullshit."

           - Shelby White  
He's basically saying that there are so many free tools available online that there is no reason to not have a place online to showcase your work.

- "Learning is best done through the act of doing."

           - Shelby White   
 Here he's saying that you can't just learn something like that. Learning is done best through doing the particular task.

- "Pass the knowledge."

           - Shelby White   
It's very important to share what you know. No knowledge is new, we're no longer re-creating the wheel. Therefore it is very important that we learn from each other. 

The final presentation of the event was done by Rik Oostenbroek. He's a very young designer who's accomplished a lot at a very early stage in his career. Here is some examples of his work.

You can check out the websites of each designer on the side of my blog under "Blogs You Should Follow."