How to meet your design heroes:
Last week I was nestled in the mountains of Utah’s Wasatch Range at an amazing design event called Epicurrence. Epicurrence is a week-long, invite-only gathering of the industry’s best designers.
It’s a “non-conference.” There are no table-filled meeting rooms with laptops abuzz. There are no podiums. There are no slide decks. There are, however, actual fireside chats. There are entire-day-long outings and dinners and long evenings where you communicate face to face, like normal people, with the best in the industry.
The people at Epicurrence talk about real things. Things that usually don’t get posted on Medium or on Twitter. Things like how much they bill (with real dollar amounts), how you negotiate with clients, bosses and PMs with actual stories and examples. Things like how decisions get made at agencies, product companies and via freelance in breathtaking honesty. It is at minimum, a massive eye-opener. For most, it is the sheet of music they’ll play from for months and years to come.
There are few places where you can hear the full story of how Mackey Saturday designed Instagram’s logo, and then ask questions that all get answered. There are few places where you can hear about the real deal future of virtual reality from those that are creating it. There are few places where you can befriend the entirety of your design-crush, twitter-followed, wish-I-knew-that-person list. Epicurrence is that place.
So, how do you get to go to an event like this? You don’t...
This event was invite only and you didn’t get one. Boo!/Lame!/Etc.
So, how then, do you get to meet your design heroes? Go where you can go and where you know they’ll be. The curator and creator of Epicurrence, Dann Petty, has decided to create another event where more amazing people can experience the depth, details and the connectedness of the design community like I explained above. Epicurrence — Montues is this event. If you are interested in digging into the design community in a deep and meaningful way, go to this event. You will not be disappointed.
Look at this lineup of incredible people & where they’re influencing design:
The reason I gush about this is because it’s special. Until recently, it was really really really hard to get into an event of this caliber. Maybe impossible. When I first heard about it, it reminded me of the ultra-exclusive VC conference called “The Lobby,” which is held in Hawaii every year (take a look at the invitees). Epicurrence is like The Lobby for the design industry. It’s a off-record, real talk event with everyone who’s connected in design today. It’s career changing, eye-opening and revealing. I hope you get to make connections that change the direction of your career like I did and I hope you get to make some great friendships too. I’m thankful for both. Take advantage of the availability now because it might not be as open or available in years to come. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to change the path of your design career.
