Moral Collective is an idea originally conceived by Nicholas Firan during the upper years of his time at the Ontario College of Art and Design. The intimate art school campus, with it’s many open studios, and an individual who couldn’t stay focused on his school work for very long, quickly lead to many days of wondering the campus instead of finishing work.

It was this curiosity that lead Nick to not only appreciate the various available creative outlets, but to develop some lasting friendships. It was soon obvious to Nick that he was surrounded by very talented but unrecognized individuals. As things started to change for his friends, and Nick attended their various exhibitions and openings he met even more talented individuals from around the city of Toronto. Here he was again overwhelmed by the quality of work being produced by young artists and designers.

Being a graphic design student carried with it it’s own unique opportunity: the possibility to collaborate. Graphic design is a field of which the majority of the work is developing, interpreting and presenting other peoples ideas. Sometimes this allows for the chance to bring on board artists, illustrators, photographers–whoever–to help with the visuals. Nick had tried on several occasions to do just this with some of his school work. Unfortunately these opportunities fell through because it was difficult to work with students from other streams who were tackling their own school and work schedules.

Then during his upper years at OCAD, Nick was faced with an interesting project: design a 50 page magazine based around the theme of ‘people’. Nick used this as an excuse to interview some of his friends, local artists, and he also reached out to individuals across the continent. It was much easier to get people to answer a few questions and submit images of work rather then work towards creating new work. But that didn’t matter, the success of that (stressful) project re-ignited the spark that became Moral Collective.

Moral Collective was originally conceived as Moral Citizen. The idea behind that name was that as artists, designers, or whatever, we are all members (or citizens) of the creative community, and to further our community we need to work together. Moral Collective attempts to bring together individuals from different disciplines, to create new relationships and exciting work. We also aim to promote and support people who we consider to be creating new and exciting work, no matter what their medium of choice!

While our roots are firmly planted in Toronto, we are by no means limited to just this one city. Yes this is where Nick grew up and where he can’t round a corner without bumping into someone he knows, but in the same way that he doesn’t judge peoples disciplines of choice he also doesn’t judge people based on their location. When he travels he always pays attention to the smallest details: what are the things that define the character of a city? How do they differ from home? These are all things Nick constantly thinks about and he realizes these things effect the people who live there. For these reasons Moral Collective looks to expand outside Toronto; again collaborating with and supporting individuals from all over.

Have something to say? We want to hear it! If you’re interested in contributing we want to know! Or maybe you’d like to suggest someone we should feature! We want to know what you have to say, good or bad, just hit us up!

Holler: nick@moralcollective.com