Supporting MAX100 and WMC Fest

Being an advocate of creating and realizing personal projects, I’m always in support of those who are taking matters into their own hands to reach their personal creative goals. So today I’d like to champion a couple of my pals who are doing just that, and need our support.

First we have Matt Stevens (Twitter) and his book, MAX100. A while back Matt decided to create a bunch of unique designs depicting Nike’s AirMax1 sneaker through a number of different concepts and styles. I’ve been following the project for quite some time now (and posted about him before) and was thrilled to see Matt is looking to offer these designs through an independent publication. And it looks damn nice, too. In the man’s own words:

“I want to invite you to back me as I create 40 more illustrated entries to reach 100 and create a very unique book. The book itself will be a celebration of creativity, ideas and what I consider the greatest sneaker ever made. It will contain some behind the scenes information, including process, inspiration and sketches, but mostly it will just be the creations themselves. If you’ve seen them all, the book will contain almost half completely new entries and other content.”

I, for one, would really like to have this book on my shelf. Swing over to the MAX100 Kickstarter page to see how you can help Matt out, and get more information on the project.

And now we have WMC Fest (Twitter), a grassroots design and music event being organized by Jeff Finley down in Cleveland, Ohio. I’ve done a few talks at big conferences but it wasn’t until I spoke at Montreal Meets this past January that I saw the potential of these small start-up creative events. A lot of people don’t have the resources to travel to Toronto, or Barcelona, or San Francisco to see visit their peers and get inspired by industry pros, which is where these smaller events chime in.

WMC Fest will take place on June 11 – 12 and will be host to an array of different musical acts and creative speakers. I was asked by Jeff early on to be a speaker but it unfortunately collided with my trip to OFFF in Barcelona. Bummer because I really wanted to go to see the sights. Here’s why, straight from Jeff himself:

“WMC Fest is a grassroots event put on by creatives for creatives. We’re working to become a premier art, design, and music festival in the Midwest. Our goal from day one has been to bring you awesome bands, inspiring speakers, and one memorable weekend for a really low ticket price. That’s unheard of in our industry. To achieve that we rely on sponsors and active community members like yourself.”

This one is urgent. The boys are really close to reaching their funding goal but they only have 4 days left. Act now, support good people doing good things. Swing over to the WMC Fest Kickstarter page to get more information and how you can help the guys out.

I think it’s awesome when people take it upon themselves to see projects through, like Matt and Jeff. We all work in a turbulent industry and a lot of times we struggle far more to reach personal goals than we do “finding work”. Guess that’s what makes us stronger, but we should always find ways to help each other out along the way. We’re all in this together, y’know?