FITC Toronto wrap-up

James White at FITC

So I’m now back in Halifax after attending FITC Toronto. I attended FlashForward way back in 2000 but have not had the opportunity to check out another conference since. I am extremely happy to have made it to Toronto for such a wicked time. I saw some exhilarating presentations by design industry leaders, met a tonne of great people and had a wonderful time at the multiple after parties.

It was announced that all of the FITC presentations were filmed and will soon be available on Vimeo, so I will be posting those once available. But for now, here is a little wrap-up of some of the hilights of the trip.

James White and Josh Davis

Top of the creative heap was seeing the mighty Joshua Davis do his presentation entitled ‘Space’. The talk was an excellent representation of his personality, work ethics, inspirations and exhibitions. On top of how inspirational his material was, he is a damn hilarious guy onstage.

Following his talk he had a wicked artshow entitled ‘Outside the Lines’ at a wonderful gallery/art shop called Function 13 where me and Chris hustled over to immediately. After following Josh’s work for 12 years, I finally got to meet the dude and jam with him for a few minutes at the show. Super solid guy, and I even bought one of his exhibition prints which Josh informed me was “the first print he created for the show.”

James White and Josh Davis

Here I am with the print I purchased.

James White and Josh Davis

Also at the show I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Alexander, otherwise known as Good Morning Stranger! Wicked guy, been a fan of Nick’s work for a while now so it kicked ass to meet him for real.

James White and Nick Alexander

Chris and I were about to enter the final after party when he spotted Shaun Hamontree of MK12 chilling outside. We had seen his presentation where he talked about his killer work on the Quantum of Solace opening credits, as well as an inspirational panel he sat on earlier that day. Chris earned his nickname of ‘Ice Breaker’ once again and sparked up a conversation with him, which led to him and I nerding out about Tron, Star Trek, etc.

I sat in on some fantastic presentations, they spared no expense in getting some of the best and brightest from the design/tech industries and I feel very fortunate to see these people present their material. The hilights were certainly Joshua Hirsch from Big Spaceship, Golan Levin and Zach Lieberman talking about their ground-breaking technology, Alex Cove discussing his beautiful algorithms, Brett Rampata from Adobe showcasing the hilarious new MTV Jackass application, and Ron Gervais from BTRY talking about his killer motion work.

And last but not least, we got to meet up with the awesome Allison McCarthy from Odopod with whom we hung out with for the duration of the trip. You rock, Allison!

James White and Alison McCarthy

So this is a super condensed wrap-up of the trip to FITC Toronto as it seemed to go by in one giant blur. Had a wonderful time and can’t wait to attend the conference again next year. Thanks for everything, Toronto!

*Also big thanks to my pal Chris Toms who took all of the photos used in this post.


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13 responses to “FITC Toronto wrap-up”

  1. Allison Avatar

    James, *you* rock.

  2. Lukes Avatar

    well some one looks overly metal ! nice work ddude

  3. Cath_T Avatar

    oh,cool! thanks for your work!

  4. Joshua Davis Avatar

    Duuuuuuuude… it was great to finally meet you as well. I had to fly out the next morning… too much shit happening. Wish I has some more time to stick around and rap more.

    but I’m heading off to Lisbon and Spain… and I need to finish up my exhibitions for those shows.

    and as I said, you snagged # 1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshuadavis/3429703245/ if you want to boast on Flickr… hit it up. The nice thing about #1 is that it took the longest… it would set the tone, pace and mood that all remaining 44 would follow… so I’d say you snagged a good one.

    when you get it your pad… send me some shots.

    see you again soon,

    word. joshua

  5. Christian Sisson Avatar

    How cool! Great job :)

  6. Miharbi Avatar
    Miharbi

    How I wish I could have been there. Well one of these days I might get the chance to travel to the other side of the Planet. By the looks of it, I am pretty sure you had a really colorful time.

  7. Colorburned Avatar

    Looks like you had a lot of fun. I need to go to a few conferences myself.

    http://twitter.com/Colorburned

  8. Daan Weijers Avatar
    Daan Weijers

    Hehe.. not a big flash fan (if used wrongly), but it seemed fun :D
    Btw.. a milestone! 1000 posts :D

  9. Dodge Avatar

    that looked like so much fun.

    also I’m glad you posted that mk12 open I missed it in theaters and have been wanting to see it. Those guys are amazing!

  10. Morgan Avatar

    Loving that “Special” tshirt you are wearing in the first pic. Something you did? Where can I find this?

    Cheers,

    Morgan

  11. Trevor Henry Avatar

    Hey man, I’ve been a long time fan but never knew what you looked like in person. I was at FITC as well and I know for a fact I saw you many times haha! (I kept mistaking you for someone else – Simon Conlin – a friend of my profs and has visited my school in the past). I was like damn, that guy looks just like Simon. Haha.

    Anyways, thought I’d leave a comment for once. You and Scott Hansen keep me going. hehe.

    Later!

  12. james Avatar

    Morgan, thanks! It’s quickly become one of my favorite shirts as I’m all about that 70s stuff. I picked it up at Wire and Twine if you want to check it.

    Trevor, that’s hilarious. Be sure to give me a shout if the paths cross at another one of these events :)

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