OFFF2018-Let'sFeedTheFutureand/orOurPatienceinQueues
For us at Demodern, it has always been important to offer our creatives and geeks the best possible opportunities for further education, which is why attending various conferences and congresses is part of our work culture. This includes the OFFF in Barcelona. In 2018, 11 of us set off for Spain to get inspired and enjoy the Mediterranean atmosphere of the city. And the best way to enjoy it is on the rooftop of a hotel with a pool and the best view of the Sagrada Familia and the Torre Glòries - the giant phallic symbol that shapes Barcelona's skyline...
Enduring queues, we can do that now...
Now let's get to the reason for our trip: The OFFF Festival 2018! In summary, we could say that we spent at least half of the time enduring queues. You could also call it practicing patience. Starting with picking up the wristband, to the queue in front of the Open Room (also called tent) and the Main Stage (Roots), to the queues in front of the food trucks or toilets - unfortunately, things were pretty messed up organizationally.
Now, of course, one could say: The Germans, always complaining, but missing one or the other talk due to too many people in queues wasn't exactly super cool. A small consolation: there was a live broadcast of the Roots Stage in front of the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona. At least you could eat and drink there, which was unfortunately not allowed in the conference rooms. If you were hungry, you had to go out and could only hope not to have to wait in line again due to an entry stop... So much for the negative sides of the conference, but now let's move on to the positive: The talks!
Let’s Talk with Oily Furry Fingers…
Under the name “Oily Furry Fingers Festival” (O.F.F.F.), you could watch the talks on the Roots Stage this year - in the Open Room, it ran under the name “Optimistic Freckled Friends Festival” (O.F.F.F.). But we would have generally called it "Only For Forbearing Friends" (O.F.F.F.)...
The Speakers - LET’S TALK ABOUT DESIGN
The OFFF 2018 could boast names of really good speakers. Besides the usual sales events from Adobe (quite obviously the main sponsor of the conference), Facebook, or Dropbox, renowned designers, illustrators, motion designers, creative directors, animation geniuses, etc., took the stage.
Tom Muller, Digital Designer and Creative Director at helloMuller, addressed the topic “Designing Fiction” in his keynote and gave us some insights into the creation of the covers for the Suicide Squad comics.
Jeff Boddy, Head of Design and Creative Director at The Mill Chicago, gave us some insights into the daily business of the agency with mega projects and focused in his keynote on how to produce good work despite little money and time. It was less about showing the agency's top projects, more about how important it is to have a team of generalists and specialists to achieve this goal. For example, they brought the commercial "Family Greatly" for KRAFT to the screens of Super Bowl viewers within a day.
Although the approach from Boddy was already known with long-standing agency experience, it was still nice to hear something like that from an experienced creative from a top agency. Ultimately, we're all in the same boat.
Chris Bjerre - the multi-talent from San Francisco wanted to draw only robots as a child and wowed us with his work for “Ghost In The Shell” and *Bladerunner. By the way, Chris will create the Main Title for OFFF 2019.
*Editor's note: Unfortunately, none of his sequences actually made it into the film (which is a shame)
In the tent, we then watched the guys from Animade. After a video tour through their office in London, they entertained us with funny animation films for various brands.
Good stamina and two hours of patience were needed for the 2-hour talk by Gavin Strange and James White, better known as Signal Noise. Unfortunately, both keynotes (combined into one at the OFFF) had already been seen, and the length didn't necessarily make them better. But James came by the next day for an autograph session to sign a Wall-E poster.
Pokras Lampas from Russia impressed with his work, but unfortunately, the talk was quite unemotional. So it was hard to follow him. By the way, he was spotted at the entrance during the After Show Party (so they say...)
PressTube delighted us with a sweet commercial for Mr. Sub, the editorial designer and artist Malika Favre from London (originally French) impressed us with her beautifully illustrated covers for The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, and Giantstep showed how the Main Title for OFFF 2018 was created. Nice!
When Der (Sag)Meister speaks
And then HE came! The one everyone had probably been waiting for (the hall was at least super full and the queue of those waiting outside was excessively long): Stefan Sagmeister from Sagmeister & Walsh in New York! The Austrian with the quirky accent was great (at least we think so). He gave us tips on becoming happier and shared insights into the making of his film “The Happy Film”.
And he did it in such a self-ironic, funny, but also very emotional way that you could actually feel a bit with him: His grief when one of his best friends died during the making of the film actually brought tears to my eyes. When he fell madly in love under the influence of psychotropic drugs and wanted to marry the girl after 2 days, one was both amazed and almost had to look away in embarrassment.
From being on top of the world to being down in the dumps - he has perfected the play with emotions. And to make all the OFFF visitors, plagued by demanding clients (and possibly by too much alcohol), a little “happier” at the end, there was a sing-along! To Beethoven's “Ode to Joy”, there was the song, by now probably a world hit, “All My Clients Drive Me Crazy Never Show No Guts At All”... Thank you, Stefan Sagmeister - that was great!
And therefore: Despite all the waiting, the missed talks: we would go again to see David Carson's talk and Chris Bjerre’s Main Title in Barcelona next year and spend a little quality time with colleagues on site - because that must also be part of all the further education.
