Last year, amid the colorful confines and visionary incubator that is the Go Media office in Cleveland, 28-year-old designer Jeff Finley envisioned a festival that united inspired, innovative voices – the lifeline of a creative renaissance that's made Northeast Ohio a fertile community for young entrepreneurs. With a dedicated group of colleagues and volunteers, Finley's vision came to fruition as the Weapons of Mass Creation Festival, which brought together a leading-edge lineup of artists, musicians, filmmakers and more. On June 11 and 12, Weapons of Mass Creation Fest returns, and Finley promises that the second-time around reflects lessons learned from the inaugural year while remaining true to his original vision.
"We wanted to make an awesome fest for people like us, people who live to create," says Finley. "We want to inspire and educate our peers in the creative community. We want to give young creative professionals the opportunity to gain exposure on a national level."
This year, films are out, as screenings "proved to be more difficult and cumbersome" than Finley anticipated, "so, we aren’t doing that this year, and and we’re focusing on art, design and music." Despite the cut, the lineup for this year's fest is more diverse than last year, with three popular, easily accessible locations and more than 60 bands, speakers and designers on the bill. It's also among the cheapest tickets in town: a $15 all-access pass gets you in to everything. "Last year, there were times when people were standing around not really knowing what to do," says Finley (pictured below) of the event held at Parish Hall Cleveland. "This year there’s too much to do, but that’s usually a good thing."
Featured designers' works will be displayed during two days of art and design shows at Wall Eye Gallery. The list of participants includes a showcase of forward-thinking artists, including illustrator and designer Dan Christofferson who has helped develop the successful Big Cartel platform; David Gensler, founder and CEO of the Keystone Design Union, the country's largest private design collective; the five females of Chicago-based creative group Quite Strong; Go Media president Bill Beachy; Cleveland-native, mixed media and graphic illustration expert Jeff Hulligan; and Cleveland designer Aaron Sechrist, whose work as a graphic designer, illustrator, and branding guru for apparel, print, web and broadcast industries has made him – and his OK Pants working moniker – very in-demand. "There's a lot of excitement for me to be a part of this: WMC is growing so rapidly, and I'm very proud to say I've been a part of that since its inception," says Sechrist. "The other element of it is getting to hang out with a creative community growing right along with WMC, and also with designers and artists of different backgrounds." That sense of in-person camaraderie among designers is especially important.
"Speaking very generally, the Internet has tried its damnedest to make us – designers specifically – a legion of hermits," says Sechrist. "WMC fills a need for us to get out and actually interact like human beings and artists should; also to understand there's a much larger basin of context and experience beyond Google to draw from in our day to day lives. It also gives us a presence in the world beyond a URL. It kind of declares to people outside of the creative community that we're people and characters that don't live in an Internet browser."
