Tag Archives: wmc

WMC Fest Design Podcast with our Emcee, Lenny Terenzi

We are beyond thrilled to announce that Lenny Terenzi, designer, illustrator, screen printer and founder, owner of Hey! Monkey Design Studio, is this year’s Weapons of Mass Creation Fest emcee. Read More ›

In today’s Weapons of Mass Creation talk, Co-Founder, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Go Media, Wilson Revehl is up to bat.

After leading Cleveland’s Go Media through its best worst year ever, Wilson Revehl packed up and took his talents to some beach in Florida. There he learned sand ruins laptops and sunburns smack of the apocalypse. This WMC, Wilson returns from South Florida to Cleveland. Unlike LeBron, he’s not rich, famous, tall or good at sports (or sports metaphors). But he has realized how to win in design and wants to share what it takes.

Wilson Revehl is the Co-Founder, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Go Media. He is a veteran Graphic Designer and Web Developer with an early career dating back to the .com bubble of the late nineties. He has been involved in hundreds of website and web application launches of all scales. Wilson’s expertise is in front-end and back-end development with a specialty in PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS and eCommerce. He is a WordPress enthusiast with countless plugins and customizations in the portfolio. Mr. Revehl manages our Amazon Cloud infrastructure, PCI Compliance and SaaS platforms. When not “sitting in front of the glowing box”, you can often find Wilson floating in the pool or on the water with his lovely wife and two kids. We think he was probably a manatee in a former life, or aspires to be one someday.

Enjoy Go Media’s Best Worst Year Ever:

A WMC Talk by Jillian Adel

Today, we’re proud to release another talk from our design conference, Weapons of Mass Creation Festival 7, which happened this past August 2016, in sunny Cleveland, Ohio. This talk features Jillian Adel. Jillian is an Art Director, Designer and Typographic Illustrator who specializes in brand & communication design, key art, and typography. After years in NYC agency life. she made her way to Los Angeles to pursue her career independently. Clients include The New York Times, Pepsi, Intercom, HBO and Taco Bell, and most recently, has been spending time helping to build out Uber’s new brand system. Apart from design, she spends her time training at pole & exotic dance, contortion & aerial arts. She sometimes writes and talks about vulnerability and the inseparable connection between personal & professional life, educates about experimental typography, and operates on a platform of intuitive & empathetic solutions.

Jillian’s talk is a candid look into her career – struggles, successes and everything in between.

Listen in on: The Upside Down of Frustration

For more Jillian: Official Site | Twitter | Instagram | Medium | Behance

Cotton Bureau talks “Founding an Accidental T-Shirt Empire”

Today’s Weapons of Mass Creation Fest 6 talk comes to us from Jay Fanelli and Nathan Peretic, founders of Cotton Bureau. Read More ›

Weapons of Mass Creation Fest Podcast

In this new audio series by Go Media, we sit down and talk with the contributors, sponsors, and attendees of our design conference, Weapons of Mass Creation Fest, to find out more about them and why they are Weapons of Mass Creation. Read More ›

Weapons of Mass Creation Fest Podcast

In this new audio series by Go Media, we sit down and talk with the contributors, sponsors, and attendees of our design conference, Weapons of Mass Creation Fest, to find out more about them and why they are Weapons of Mass Creation. Read More ›

In this new audio series by Go Media, we sit down and talk with the contributors, sponsors, and attendees of our design conference, Weapons of Mass Creation Fest, to find out more about them and why they are Weapons of Mass Creation.

This week, we sit down with Jordan Schiller from Real Thread.

WMC is a massively popular three-day event created and hosted in Cleveland, OH. Attendees mostly include professional designers, artists, students and small business owners who flock from around the country, including popular creative hubs like New York, Los Angeles, Austin, San Francisco and Chicago. Attendees have access to speakers, workshops, panels, art events, podcasts, design tours, vendors and more. Alumni include Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, Debbie Millman, Tad Carpenter, Aaron Draplin, Austin Kleon, Brandon Rike, Chuck Anderson, Dan Christofferson, James White, Johnny Cupcakes, Mark Brickey and the Adventures in Design Podcast, and Jon Contino and National Poster Retrospecticus. WMC Fest attendance has ballooned every year since its 2010 debut, with over 1,200 packing event venues in 2016. Stay tuned to more information about next year’s event at wmcfest.com.

We Are Weapons 003 – Jordan Schiller from Real Thread

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Want to talk to us about why you’re a Weapon of Mass Creation?


In this new audio series by Go Media, we sit down and talk with the contributors, sponsors, and attendees of our design conference, Weapons of Mass Creation Fest, to find out more about them and why they are Weapons of Mass Creation.

This week, we sit down with JakPrints owner Dameon Guess.

WMC is a massively popular three-day event created and hosted in Cleveland, OH. Attendees mostly include professional designers, artists, students and small business owners who flock from around the country, including popular creative hubs like New York, Los Angeles, Austin, San Francisco and Chicago. Attendees have access to speakers, workshops, panels, art events, podcasts, design tours, vendors and more. Alumni include Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, Debbie Millman, Tad Carpenter, Aaron Draplin, Austin Kleon, Brandon Rike, Chuck Anderson, Dan Christofferson, James White, Johnny Cupcakes, Mark Brickey and the Adventures in Design Podcast, and Jon Contino and National Poster Retrospecticus. WMC Fest attendance has ballooned every year since its 2010 debut, with over 1,200 packing event venues in 2016. Stay tuned to more information about next year’s event at wmcfest.com.

We Are Weapons 002 – Dameon Guess from JakPrints

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Want to talk to us about why you’re a Weapon of Mass Creation?


In this new audio series by Go Media, we sit down and talk with the contributors, sponsors, and attendees of our design conference, Weapons of Mass Creation Fest, to find out more about them and why they are Weapons of Mass Creation.

This week, we sit down with Nova Scotia Illustrator and WMC Attendee Liz Mac to find out why the conference moved her to make some major changes in her life and career.

WMC is a massively popular three-day event created and hosted in Cleveland, OH. Attendees mostly include professional designers, artists, students and small business owners who flock from around the country, including popular creative hubs like New York, Los Angeles, Austin, San Francisco and Chicago. Attendees have access to speakers, workshops, panels, art events, podcasts, design tours, vendors and more. Alumni include Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, Debbie Millman, Tad Carpenter, Aaron Draplin, Austin Kleon, Brandon Rike, Chuck Anderson, Dan Christofferson, James White, Johnny Cupcakes, Mark Brickey and the Adventures in Design Podcast, and Jon Contino and National Poster Retrospecticus. WMC Fest attendance has ballooned every year since its 2010 debut, with over 1,200 packing event venues in 2016. Stay tuned to more information about next year’s event at wmcfest.com.

Now, onto our interview with Liz!

We Are Weapons 001 – Illustrator Liz Mac

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More from Liz Mac:

Want to talk to us about why you’re a Weapon of Mass Creation?


We were absolutely honored to have design legend Debbie Millman as a speaker at our design conference, Weapons of Mass Creation Fest 6.

Debbie is a writer, educator, artist, brand consultant, and host of the radio show Design Matters.

Treat yourself to her talk, “On Rejection.” On Rejection is a funny and heartbreaking tale of making it (or not) in New York. The presentation begins in early 2003 when a good friend sent Debbie Millman an email with a subject line that read: Begin drinking heavily before opening. The email contained a link that took her to a “blog,” the first-ever online forum about graphic design and branding. Suddenly she found herself reading an article that disparaged her entire career to date. This experience—in tandem with a number of historical rejections and setbacks—sent Millman into deep despair, and she seriously considered leaving the design profession altogether. In a series of poignant, revealing and sometimes hysterical anecdotes, Debbie will share her journey out of despair and offer insight on how the worst moments in your life can actually become the most profound and life affirming.

Debbie will be returning to this year’s Weapons of Mass Creation Fest! She’ll be bringing her podcast, Design Matters, to our vendor village on Saturday, August 6 from 1 to 3 pm.

WMC Tickets and Info

More about Debbie:

Found on Official Site | Twitter | FacebookFlickr | Google+ | LinkedIn

For the past twenty years, Debbie has been President of Sterling Brands, where she has worked on the redesign of over 200 global brands, including projects with P&G, Colgate, Nestle, Kraft and Pepsi. In 2014, she was named President, Chief Marketing Officer of the firm. In 2013, Debbie was named one of the most influential designers working today by GDUSA. Debbie is the founder and host of Design Matters, the world’s first podcast about design, which has garnered millions of downloads and a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. In the 10 years since its inception, Millman has interviewed more than 250 design luminaries and cultural commentators, including Massimo Vignelli, Milton Glaser, Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink, Barbara Kruger, Seth Godin and more.

Debbie is the author of six books, including two collections of interviews that have extended the ethos and editorial vision of Design Matters to the printed page: How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer and Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits. Both books have been published in over 10 languages. In 2009 Debbie co-founded with Steven Heller the world’s first graduate program in branding at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Now in its fifth year, the program has achieved international acclaim. The inaugural class wrote and designed the Rockport book Brand Bible: The Complete Guide to Building, Designing and Sustaining Brands and in 2013 the students created branding for the Museum of Modern Art’s retail program, Destination: New York.

Debbie’s written and visual essays have appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Print Magazine, Design Observer, Fast Company, and more, and she is the author of two books
of illustrated essays. Her work has been exhibited at the Chicago Design Museum, Anderson University, School of Visual Arts, Long Island University and The Wolfsonion Museum. She has been artist-in-residence at Cranbrook University, Old Dominion University and Notre Dame University, and has conducted visual storytelling workshops at Academy of Art University in San Francisco, the University of Utah, Hartford University and the High School of Art and Design in New York. She has designed wrapping paper and beach towels for One Kings Lane, greeting cards for Mohawk and Card-To-Art, playing cards for DeckStarter and sketchbooks for Shutterstock.

Debbie is President Emeritus of AIGA, one of four women to hold the position in the organization’s 100-year history. She is also a past board member and treasurer of the New York Chapter. She is a frequent speaker on design and branding and has moderated Design Yatra in India, presented keynote lectures at Rotman School of Management, Princeton University, Michigan Modern, the Melbourne Writers Festival in Australia, Design Thinkers in Toronto, the Festival of Art and Design in Barcelona, and many more.

Project Runway All Stars Season 5 & Yellowcake Shop’s Valerie Mayen

We sat down with Project Runway All Stars Season 5’s Valerie Mayen to talk about the rebrand of her clothing line, Yellowcake Shop. Read More ›

A WMC Fest Talk by Jude Goergen

While examining a journey of risk and questionable decisions, self-taught designer and entrepreneur Jude Goergen scrutinizes his ongoing quest to do everything while being “qualified” for nothing. Read More ›

Inspirational Photographers:

The WMC Fest Creators. Doers. Makers. Series highlights Michael Cavotta

Our new video series highlights remarkable makers and designers that inspire and motivate us to create greatness. Episode Three puts the spotlight on Michael Cavotta, a featured speaker and workshop leader at the best creative conference of the summer, Go Media’s Weapons of Mass Creation Fest (2015).

Weapons of Mass Creation Fest is presented by Cleveland web design, logo design and graphic design studio Go Media.

The Creators. Doers. Makers. Series, directed by Aaron Freeder, will be back with more videos highlighting your favorite Weapons of Mass Creation Fest artists. Continue checking back here on our blog or over at wmcfest.com for more great features.

About Michael:

Michael Cavotta is a Cleveland-based personal branding coach, award-winning photographer, and ass-kicking agent of authenticity who thrives on bringing people face-to-face with their exceptional selves.

Prior to a career reboot in 2009, Michael had been a serial entrepreneur and venture consultant with over 10 years of experience helping launch a long list of exceptional start-ups, including iPod® accessory maker, Mophie. Along the way, he picked up a camera and taught himself how to use it. He started shooting food and interiors for Cleveland Magazine in 2006, but over the next four years, his focus would shift—and not just in terms of his photography.

In 2010, Michael traded the mercenary work of branding opportunity for the missionary work of branding people. Six months later, he was an Associate to renowned NY headshot photographer, Peter Hurley. By 2013, the distinction between Michael’s on-camera craft and off-camera coaching had all but disappeared, prompting his certification as a Reach® Personal Brand Strategist under William Arruda. In the years that followed, Michael’s original thoughts on image and authenticity—what he likes to call the You Quotient™—have been published around the world.

While he’s not busy boosting his clients’ YQ, Michael lives with his wife and two kids in a renovated schoolhouse loft guarded by a lovable 30lb pit bull named Kitty.

The WMC Fest Creators. Doers. Makers. Series highlights Cleveland design legend Michael Bierut

Our new video series highlights remarkable makers and designers that inspire and motivate us to create greatness. Episode Two puts the spotlight on Michael Bierut, a featured speaker at the best creative conference of the summer, Go Media’s Weapons of Mass Creation Fest (2015). Michael needs little introduction. You’ll recognize him for his work with New York design studio Pentagram, where he is partner.

Weapons of Mass Creation Fest is presented by Cleveland web design, logo design and graphic design studio Go Media.

The Creators. Doers. Makers. Series, directed by Aaron Freeder, will be back with more videos highlighting your favorite Weapons of Mass Creation Fest artists. Continue checking back here on our blog or over at wmcfest.com for more great features.

Watch the Video Now:

quote---michael-bierut

About Michael Bierut:
Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, graduating summa cum laude in 1980. Prior to joining Pentagram in 1990 as a partner in the firm’s New York office, he worked for ten years at Vignelli Associates, ultimately as vice president of graphic design.

His clients at Pentagram have included The New York Times, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Harley-Davidson, The Museum of Arts and Design, United Airlines, The William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, Mohawk Paper Mills, New World Symphony, Princeton University, the New York Jets, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Morgan Library and Museum.

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He has won hundreds of design awards and his work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Montreal. He served as president of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 1988 to 1990 and is president emeritus of AIGA National. He also serves on the boards of the Architectural League of New York and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Michael was elected to the Alliance Graphique Internationale in 1989, to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 2003, and was awarded the profession’s highest honor, the AIGA Medal, in 2006. In 2008, he was named winner in the Design Mind category of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards.

Michael is a senior critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art. He writes frequently about design and is the co-editor of the five-volume series Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design published by Allworth Press. In 2002, Michael Bierut co-founded Design Observer, a blog of design and cultural criticism: today, the site is the largest design publication in the world with over a million site visits a month. Michael’s book 79 Short Essays on Design was published in 2007 by Princeton Architectural Press. A monograph on his work, How to use graphic design to sell things, explain things, make things look better, make people laugh, make people cry and (every once in a while) change the world will be published this fall by Harper Collins.