This weekend I had the immense pleasure of attending Montreal Meets Two. It’s a design conference planned and organized by the amazing François Hoang (Aoiro Studio), featuring five extremely talented graphic designers and artists from around the world. Now I’m sure that there will be articles and posts outlining the event speaker by speaker. So instead, I will outline the event from experience to experience.
1. Picked up at the airport by none other than Stephen Didonato, the force behind the ‘Beyond Earth’ poster series.
2. Discovered that my hotel was not only a music venue, but is decorated with all sorts of letterpressed gig posters from shows in the past. Some really amazing pieces all over.
3. Hung out at an Irish Bar (very Nova Scotian) with some great people, including James White, Rik OostenBroek and newfound friend Nick Hess. Design related madness and bedlam ensued.
4. Met a ton of Twitter friends in real life, including hilariously awkward introductions with Paul Morel and Steve Schiavello.
5.Fabio Sasso opened up the conference, shared all about Abduzeedo, his beginnings in design and some of his experiences at Google.
6. The next speaker was Radim Malinic (Brand Nu) sharing his work and some of his design philosophies. I had a chance to talk to him the next day, and he truly is a fantastic person who does compelling work. If you haven’t seen it, take a look.
7. Q & A session with all five speakers. Many one word responses from James.
8. Went to a after-party with the MMTWO speakers and some attendees. Met even more great people from all over the world. Met more design superstars (Marcell Naumann and Marie-Michelle Daigle). Overheard something about weiner guns.
9. James was next premiering his Design Renegade talk. Brace yourselves Toronto and Cleveland. As Doc Brown once said, ‘You’re gonna see some serious shit.’
10. Shelby White (the man behind Designspiration) was next. I was really excited for his talk, because I absolutely love his work on the Wanken blog and Designspiration. The elegance in his designs are something I really aspire to achieve.
11. The final speaker was Rik Oostenbroek, a Dutch whizkid of a designer. I really appreciated that there was a speaker close to my age (he’s 22). It was his first talk, and he did great. An awesome mix of design work and humour.
12. Probably the nuttiest after-party of them all at a place called Steak and Frites. Wanken/Signalnoise collaborations on the table, an insane amount of pants jokes at the expense of Paul Pants, and some really messed up karaoke ( I didn’t go to karaoke, I have my limits.)
13. Driving around with the legendary Paul Pants of Swivelarms. A super nice guy, and lover of all things 80s. After meeting him in person, it’s obvious why he contributes to the Signalnoise blog. Making fun of Scott Gomez and giving +Klout in rubber manufacturing ensued.
After all is said and done, Montreal Meets made for a phenomenal weekend. Meeting Twitter friends in person, meeting new people from all over the world, and just being in the presence of so many people that share a love for design. To call it inspiring would be a vast understatement, and it’s something that I would go to again in a heartbeat.