Metis Fest 2026

The graphic of the wood buffalo on this banner is life size and that is my beautiful girlfriend standing in front of it.

In June of 2026 I was contracted by Wood Buffalo Media to help design this years Metis Fest in Fort McMurray. The amount of assests being built for a large scale event like this was incredible and I was keen to dive in a show what I could do. I had worked with the Metis in the past in 2021 where I had teamed up with Jerry Neville of Neville Productions to create a video history of videos with local elders. I learned a lot about the history of the Metis people and the ways they share their information from that multiday video shoot.

This was a bit different as this Metis Fest project was all Graphic Design, I created some of the largest scale designs I have ever made with one banner spanning 160 feet long by 8 feet tall. There were plenty of print media assests as well to go along with the digital assests, like a map of the festivities, a tri-fold pamphlet, A tracker sheet for a kids game, thank you cards and banerrs for different attractions.

The banner that was displayed in MacDonald Island park to advertise the event.

The look i went for with this event was very down to earth and water focused as you can see from the event banner above I created. I considered the light blue of the bottom the water as the event was being helt next to the river, with the dark part above it representing the sky. With a bunch of small graphics that represented the metis people scattered on each assest, such as fiddles, fireweed, blueberries, the Alberta rose, cranberries and more.

I do not have an indigenous background, so to be invited to help create some of these assets for this event, that i was trusted enough to get it right felt invigorating and exciting. I am so grateful to have been on the team putting this together and hopefully I can help out next year as well.