The amazing thing about freedom is the ability to pioneer your own path. It might be well beaten, taken a thousand times before you, or perhaps it’s truly trailblazing, but the key is that it’s your own path. And in reality each step is new territory (so long as you keep walking forward) because you’ve yet to experience it, even if someone else has.
‘What am I doing here?’ is a question I’ve been asking myself lately, constantly trying to perceive value per interaction, situation or experience. It’s a control mechanism, instigated to ensure purpose, intent and progression but as someone with high ambition and high uncertainty, trying to keep both in check has actually kept me quite static. So when the invite came down to attend Epiccurrence: The Montues (hosted by Dann Petty) I had no idea the value I would end up taking away, nor the path that I might walk.
Montues, the 4th Epiccurrence event, was held at Northstar Lake Tahoe, CA, March 6–9. Effectively, Montues is not a conference, segmented speed rounds of people taking notes and shaking hands. Montues is about making real talk, high fives, daps, laughs, shredding some amazing powder all while intimately discussing how design affects our work lives, our personal lives and the lives of the communities we design for. Dann Petty, the creator of Epiccurrence which hosts Montues, took care of facilitating the whole thing and I could not give him more props if I tried. He’s done so much as a designer, as a creative and as a guy just trying to get others to have fun with what they do.
I had no real expectations beyond what the Montues website and the Design Details podcast offered, I knew no one going in, I knew very little about the people who were going and I had absolutely no idea what the hell I was doing there.
So I booked my first ever plane ride, skipped a week of school and spent the money I’d been saving for years to travel to California to see what opportunities I could chase. I attended The Montues, an event centred on the discussion of design culture while sitting up on top of a snow capped mountain with beautiful views, fresh snow and 300+ people. I was completely overwhelmed at the energy I was surrounded by. As one of the very few attendees still in school, probably in the second youngest age bracket, I tried to keep up with all the talk of moving from company to company, tools and software I barely heard of and learning where the industry wanted to go. I felt quite ‘in-over-my-head’ most of time but the humbleness and grace showed to me by everyone helped ease the pressure.
The whole event engaged in topics surrounding diversity, youth, designing for social good vs. convenience, work/life balances, burnout and the future of design. And the only way we could talk so openly, so passionately and so personally on each subject was the fact that Epiccurence was decidedly the non-conference. No one was speaking down to you, delivering keynotes off of a crafted presentation. No one was rushing you to the next room for a panel you couldn’t miss. It was you, a mountain and 300+ people who were just as interested in creating the path as much they were walking it.
I just started talking. I asked questions incessantly, spent every waking minute listening, observing and revelling in the fact that designers whom I admired (at this point I knew more about the people who attended, thanks Slack) were talking to me on a peer to peer level, lending me insight and opening up about their own problems within design culture. (Everything that was said fell under the ‘trust tree’ a system of mutual respect for privacy and taking conversations to the grave.)
I found myself walking away with mentors, friends, people to look up to and a renewed sense of purpose in what I wanted to do. So many people were gracious with their time, advice and encouragement. I’m truly grateful for that. The value I ended up taking away is this; events like Epiccurrence are special but they aren’t unique. Everyday, real conversations and meaningful experiences can take place, so it’s up to us to create spaces and relationships based on a bit more trust, a bit less ego, and knowing that the path we walk is actually just a giant road if you back up far enough.
Big thanks to Dann and Kevin who personally made my experience at Montues as epic as possible. Stoked to come back in the future.
