OFFSET 2018 — Day Three
Sunday. The work you do is the work you get.
“With over 2,500 attendees each year, Offset has fast become one of the world’s most inspirational, educational and vocational conferences for the design and creative industries”
On your phone? I made this as a Series too, in the spirit of experimentation!
Rather than give a list of notes, I’m covering the speakers’ works and themes to hopefully inspire you to find out more about them. Sunday was all about the values of the work you do, and the importance of doing the work you want to be asked to do.
Daniel Gray
ustwo Games
Daniel spoke to us about the creation of Monument Valley 2 — their beautiful and emotive narrative puzzle game, and how the pillars of motherhood, game mechanics and working practices all informed and drove the development of the game.
“their work is their passion project”
“put love into every pillar of your work”
Sonya Dyakova
Atelier Dyakova
Sonya spoke about her work in making beautiful books for galleries, restaurants and David Lynch, and how she mixes different paper types, folds and weights in books to create contrast, juxtaposition and interest.
“don’t ask — don’t get”
“constraints were a blessing”
Joan Bergin
Costume Designer
Joan left the stage littered with names dropped with abandon, after an insightful and entertaining talk about her career in film, theatre and television. She spoke about the importance of research and collaboration.
“study the social history and share it back to the people you work with”
Brian Stephens
Design Partners
Brian spoke candidly about the history of their studio and the work they do designing products that are a representation of a company’s brand. He spoke about the values of being familiar, wholesome, and unintimidating, and the importance of getting to understand your audience.
“if you act, if you do something, you can make a difference — don’t wait for a brief”
“the things you don’t see communicate a brand’s promise”
Risograph
We went to a workshop/demo about this thing over here called a Risograph, which is like a mix between a photocopier and a screen printer, that uses soy based inks to print one colour at a time. It makes really interesting, hand-made looking prints, and the people from Facebook Analog Studios/Damn Fine Print showed us some cool tricks for A3 printing, multi-colours, and metallic prints using metallic powder and heat-guns! Sorry Antar!
Nora Twomey
Cartoon Saloon
Nora spoke to us about her work directing the Oscar-nominated “The Breadwinner” and how it’s important to keep communicating values throughout the process, given how large and global her team was.
“directing is about helping finding talents and expressing them in the same direction”
“mistakes have to happen at the concept stage — in production, it’s your fault”
Joshua Davis
Designer/Technolgist/Artist
A super-energetic Joshua, three Red Bulls deep, gave an exciting, super visual and educational breakdown of his process and his work, and how experimenting and sharing what he does on Instagram and Vimeo has brought him work. Every year he picks a theme to work by, this one was on tools, pathfinding, and projects.
“failure is part of the process”
Peter Donnelly
Author & Illustrator
Peter spoke about his career and illustration work, and how every “kick in the arse” is usually followed by an opportunity, so it’s important to dust yourself off quick. He spoke about how his most recent work could have been the last thing he every made, so he made sure it was the best book it could be.
“the work you do is the work you get”
Home time!
That’s all from day three and Offset 2018 — I was trying to listen as much as take notes, so I hope you found this as a useful way to discover new people and ideas! Thanks to the Offset team for putting together such an interesting lineup and recharging and inspiring me. Find me on Twitter @irishstu for comments & feedback.
