Insights from OFFF 2019 – Barcelona: Still boiling!

“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

OFFF festival began in 2001 under the name Online-Flash-Film-Festival, in Barcelona, and it has now featured in several cities all over the world, including New York, Tel Aviv, Moscow, Lisbon and Paris. It’s a three-day event, including conferences, workshops, performances and a lot of activity with international artists coming together to exchange ideas, share trends and projects in the areas of graphic design, visual communication, digital arts and motion graphics. It’s an extraordinary place to exchange ideas, geek out about illustration and design, gear up on motivation, vent a bit about tough clients and, especially, learn.

A bunch of guests, some major gurus and…. “feck purfection”!

We already knew that the number of speakers was colossal and that a well-organised schedule was vital for us not to miss the mastermind talks we really, really wanted to see! Plus, there were projections happening in the venue and the talks took place in 3 different spaces (2 of them with a limited number of seats). What should we do?! Should we spend the day running around from room to room to catch at least a bit of the maximum number of talks possible?  Or should we choose one room and stick with its schedule and feel terrible to miss out on the speakers presenting in other rooms? Or should we take the relaxed approach (my favourite!), plunge in the mood, meet people, exchange portfolios and discuss ideas, while catching the speakers whose works we really valued?

Oh well… Let’s face it, we were all yearning for knowledge, so we decided to choose the speakers closest to our hearts, and that could fit a very tight schedule we set up.

Let’s start with Handsome Frank Illustration Agency, a base team of 4 illustrators, representing other 35 spread across 5 continents, that has shown a genial way of working with artists from around the world. They stressed the fundamental need to find the ideal connection between the right artist and the right work, even if they sometimes are on opposite sides of the world. This, in fact, can open up an exciting spectrum of working possibilities. They also stressed the importance of direct communication between the artist and the client, without getting lost behind the account figure, which tends to erase the voice of the artists.

Four speakers boosted the motivation levels of an audience that constantly struggles with disinterest, ego clashes, boredom… You know, artist issues: Boldtron, creative director of PZZZA and CGI/3D/VR artist; Mariano Pascual, illustrator, visual artist and designer; James Victore, author of Feck Purfection, artist and designer;  and Amber Vittoria, illustrator. Their message was that “it’s never too late to start”, “if conviction” and “awareness where you spend your time” are always present. Basically, what they wanted to say was that if you pull yourself to surpass your limits and you never give up, you will reap the rewards of your work. Ben Johnston, a multidisciplinary artist and designer, took a similar path in his presentation, showing that the “going big”, doing some collab work and constant experimentation can be good pillars to come up with creative work. And always, always, the motto “Comfort is a slow death” – this one goes directly at you… Yes, you!

“Let’s be digital artisans” was the motto for this OFFF edition chosen by Bienal Comunicación, the Spanish creative branding and strategic communication studio. They presented OFFF’s communication design process and showed how a whole new world for the design concept is revealing itself to grow a new definition. The rules of design were made to be broken, and there is an evident thirst for what breaks out with the academic order. Classical rules are continually tucked into the public’s throat, and it creates an illusion of what is right, what should be done, and how it should be experienced. This motto was printed into our creative little hearts and made our designer tooshes shiver with anticipation to get our hands on a project that allows us to explore originality and uniqueness.

Also, they came up with these super cool tribal masks to represent each speaker and even a “totem book” (click here to check it) – which was given to each of the participants, by the way… That got us like, “Say whaaaat?… Hell yeah!”

We also have to mention Adobe Inc. – because they had a prominent presence in the meeting, taking advantage of OFFF as a launching base to present some very spectacular Illustrator ad Sensei new features. As a result, the use of AI in Design and the mixed feelings around its usage were brought up…

Alongside with portfolio display, there was another side associated with this festival, and it was immensely satisfying! A very considerable number of speakers talked about the designer’s social responsibility and the power we may have in (re)shaping minds and influencing the planet’s future. Naresh Ramchandani, communications and advertising partner at Pentagram,  was one of those speakers who took advantage of his talk to stir up the audience and raise awareness to its innate responsibility. The “Do the Green Thing” project is a clear example of how creativity has power over the climate change issue – the designer can, theoretically and practically, refuse to do things he does not agree with, he can shape decisions and be environmentally conscious without having to neglect the quality of the project.

Setting feelings aside, the discourse returned to a motivational tone this time based on images: Chris Bjerre, a multidisciplinary artist with over a decade of experience in motion graphics, was asked to do the main titles of OFFF 2019 Barcelona (click here to check them) and he envisioned, in a vibrant metaphor, the struggles and discomfort that creatives have to endure in order to grow.

The talks ended with the iconic David Carson, the graphic designer guru of gurus, who through a sarcastic presentation of his work, managed to show the irony of a design project when the client keeps making requests after requests… And how we already consider it part of the job! (And should we?!) He even gave the example of having to make an endless number of logo proposals in response to a customer’s request of “Please make more than one proposal” – I’m quoting here. This is easily a situation that perfectly depicts the daily work of the designer.

But that’s not all, folks!

Despite being super tired of all the hustle and bustle, we were also super inspired and eager to get our hands dirty! So, we managed to still make time to attend a couple of workshops … and learn some more about meditation!

Cachetejack, a Spanish freelance illustration duo, taught us how to Riso print. This is a type of duplication-printing technique and printer developed in Japan in the mid-1980s by the Riso Kagaku Corporation. Not a new technique for sure but still a quite interesting one.

Dropbox, sent their Editorial Director, Tiffani Jones Brown, to show us how to “love freely” at work ( …watch your thoughts, you filthy minds!), how to get along with the most difficult of clients, or a problematic coworker… through meditation!

Let’s not forget that our paper ninja Sónia also had the chance to meet her hero, Lobulo, art director and scalpel Jedi (as he calls himself!) at Lobulo Studio. That was a very special personal thrill!

Kobu ended these three amazing days bringing home an awesome prize – always trying to make our mamas proud! Sónia and Vanda said a big yes to the paper mask challenge put up by Bienal: they reached out for their creativity, scrimshawed an awesome paper mask and won props by Bienal Comunicación. Really cool!

Those were some pretty intense days in Barcelona! And what have we learned? Oh, boy, a lot! And even if we didn’t learn anything, just moving out of our comfort zone is always a win. A win for creativity and a win for who we are as professionals in this area. Don’t forget to push yourselves out of the shell too!

As for us… Will we do it again? Hell yes! OFFF 2020, here we go!

And, guys, meanwhile… “No excuses”! (James Victore dixit!).