Russell Brown’s Rock & Roll Reunion

It was a privilege and an honour to be invited to speak at Russell Brown’s Rock & Roll Reunion last week in Monterey, California. This is the latest iteration of Russell’s Art Director's Event, and it was amazing fun.

My performance, as it was dubbed, was all about the concept I’m living my life - once in a lifetime as often as you can. It was a curveball for all the attendees who were learning about the creative process and Adobe apps from the likes of Ina Saltz, Mark Heaps, Julianne Kost, Chris Converse, Von Glitschka, Jesus Ramirez, Chris Georgenes and Lisa Carney.

meow

I also had the special task of creating a video to wrap up the event, together with Rocky Montez-Carr. If you’d like to take a look, here it is: -

It was great to spend time with Russell and Rocky before the conference whilst I was adjusting to the time difference. Russell showed me around the Big Sur coast and we had plenty of opportunities to fly our drones.

Back to the conference, though. Over the four days there was constant craziness interspersed amongst the inspirational classes and amazing projects. There was a huge printer from Canon that was printing posters with fluorescent ink, a laser cutter that was cutting and engraving wooden record stands, and another printer that was printing vinyl record discs.

Here’s my project in the middle, with Kimberly Richardson’s on the left and Mark Heaps’ on the right.

I had an amazing time and fought through tiredness and sore legs to enjoy every moment. The difference between this conference and others is that the whole vibe is more like you’re at a family member’s wedding, in that there’s absolutely no limits, nothing you can do will feel embarrassing, and everyone loves everyone else. It’s a truly safe space for creatives, art directors, and designers to learn from each other and soak up the inspiration.

I walked away from the event with a bunch of new friends and a ton of inspiration.

Much love
Dave

Rocky Montez-Carr

Me and Kimberly Richardson

Immediately after my class (in double denim)

Mark Heaps

Getting ‘whipped’

…and what actually happened!