Damn, that place looks fancy! Best of luck w/ it!

-SD

Aaron brought some great Swag! Heard Aaron at many different places and looking forward to hearing him speak… Again. Field notes for the win. Mosaic filter win!

It was really nice meeting you today been a big follower of this site for a while. both talks where great you did where great and you spoke the truth about how this business works in the real world.

James,
Heard you speak at Columbia College-Chicago last week. I laughed a LOT. It was good to come down from the black ivory tower and just be ‘folks’ for an hour. Some of the kids might have been a little bit young to get your historical context — or maybe they’re going to be future art directors.

I loved your dialogue about doing what you love. I’m a painter now, not a designer— but there are many fond memories of the design business. I just can’t remember what they are!

Talk was great: interesting, fun and inspiring. Nice job :)

I’m POSITIVE you were fantastic and they all loved you! ‘Tres’ bummed I wasn’t in Toronto to see you!!

Warning: Wall of Text Ahead

During a session at Design Thinkers a couple days back, I was live tweeting. I was a little bored. The content of the session I was at didn’t feel at all inspiring, and… (as an in-houser who feels like I’ve hit a wall as the most mediocre designer ever…) man am I ever at a place where I feel like I need inspiration.

It was at this point that the conference hashtag started lighting up with other live tweets. One of the concurrent sessions that I was missing (yours) was blowing peoples’ minds. That… was like torture. As a good Canadian, I know it would have been the height of rudeness to stand up and walk out on someone’s talk, even if I was rocking the extreme FOMO. So I stayed.

I missed your talk, but headed straight to the typography panel. Which mostly just served to make matters worse, because your responses and interactions with other speakers and attendees at the panel pretty much just reaffirmed that your down-to-earth, humorous and passionate interest in design was exactly what resonated with me, and exactly what I needed to hear. And I had missed it.

I was also too much of a pussy to go say hi when you were being mobbed by the Marketplace. (“What the hell do I have to say to such a cool dude?”)

But thank fuck for the internet, because I got home and found your TED talk and watched a couple of your presentations, and for the first time in a while… felt inspired by someone who wasn’t rhapsodizing about their involvement with AIGA or RGD, publishing books, collaborating with other world-famous designers… it was refreshing as hell to hear from someone who was just doing their thing, loving it, and paying the bills. And of course is just extremely talented and articulate to boot.

So, I guess with my wall of text, I’m mostly just trying to say thanks. For every talk you do, there’s gotta be at least one designer in the crowd who feels at a breaking point, drowning in their own inferiority complex, and completely in need of someone to remind them that we got into design because it’s fun, and we love it.

Thanks.

Hey it was a really big honour to meet you in Toronto I’m pretty sure you stole the show the second you started talking. You kicked me in the ass and I’m starting to think differently about my work and how to go about doing it.

You had nothing to worry about - you were awesome! Everyone loved you!

Aaron - you were OUTSTANDING in Toronto. You presentation was a lot of fun … and your work and creative spirit so impressive.

I really wanted one of your TORONTO posters. LMK if there are any left. I did order 2 from your website. One will have a special spot in my classroom.

Thanks so much.

Irv Osterer
Ottawa, Canada