Local design. A room full of creatives. Temporary tattoos.
This was “Beyond the Mark,” organized by Ottawa Design Club (ODC) and held at Club SAW. Highlighting three local artists and designers, the late-February event allowed us to learn how to integrate community into our work beyond our craft, as demonstrated by the event speakers.
Welcomed with cupcake and cake pop treats by SweetCheeks Kitchen, we also grazed on savoury wraps while flipping through ODC zines and playing with free stickers provided by event printing support partner Gilmore Reproductions. Then we moved on to the first part of the evening, individual presentations by each artist, beginning with Mariah Landers, an Ottawa tattoo artist and owner of Obscura Tattoo. It was fascinating to hear Landers speak about her 20 years in the tattoo industry, which tends to be male-dominated and closed-off to newcomers. Carving out a space for herself with an apprenticeship in the U.S., Landers has achieved great success, now running a brick-and-mortar tattoo shop in the Glebe.
Always considering community, she often organizes local art markets and flash tattoo days to raise funds for local animal rescues and other charities. One thing that really stood out to me was Landers’ story of learning how to cover up scars with tattoos: one client’s story (shared with permission) deeply resonated with Obscura’s community, and its members wanted to help pay for the artwork. The overwhelming support inspired Landers to launch a new initiative to support future projects like this one.
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Dom Laporte is an international muralist and illustrator. You may have seen his large-scale (and I mean giant) nature-inspired murals all over the city. Laporte’s talk began by showing the audience the drawings he made in his childhood, acknowledging his mother, present in the audience. Then, he shared how to take control of your creative business, from applying for grants to seeking funding to homing in on your own personal style. Different from a traditional storytelling speech, Dom’s straightforward advice felt more like a lecture from a cool professor at a university. But it’s this exact money aspect that’s a mystery to so many artists wanting to scale their business, so it was refreshing to hear actionable advice.
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Dom Richichi is a brand designer and owner of Local Weirdo Studio. Fascinated by all things weird from a young age, Richichi has always been artistic and creative and learned quickly that the theory-based Art History program he was studying at university was not fuelling his passion.
Inspired by the designs he saw at Canadian streetwear brand Raised By Wolves (RBW), he studied graphic design at Algonquin before landing a job at his dream company and creating new RBW designs himself, bringing the story full circle. Then came a job at Shopify, his own studio, and beautiful brand projects for many local businesses we know and love, like Farinella Pizza.
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After the three spotlights, the speakers came back to the stage for a fireside panel chat, answering questions from the audience. For the shy folks in the crowd, I appreciated the option of DMing a question to ODC.
One of my favourite parts of the event, besides the temporary tattoos, was the “Leave Your Mark” whiteboard to which I, of course, took the liberty of adding a creepy drawing.
Photos by @_finn on Instagram.
Looking forward, Ottawa Design Club has a lot of things in the works.
“Ariane Bédard and I are invited to speak at the Capitol Letter event on March 15, talking about the launch and conceptualization of our zine, ” organizer Izzy Poirier shared with me. The next ODC event will be held on May 11 and there may be workshops before then to hold the design community over. ODC will also explore attending art markets while continuing its collaboration with the New York Design Club, which the Ottawa chapter helped launch last year.
Follow ODC on Instagram to stay tuned for updates. Club SAW is a wheelchair-accessible space with a ramp at the entry, bathrooms on the ground floor, and accessible doors.
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