Five highlights from OFFF Barcelona 2019.
From 25–27 April 2019, the 19th edition of OFFF festival took place in Barcelona. I was one of lucky few there to witness and experience it. OFFF is a festival renowned for a broad line-up of creatives: from hand letterers to international agencies. In short, 3 days packed with inspiration, new people, and perspectives from other creatives & big names in the design field.
I’d like to share my top five picks from the 65 speakers of this year’s edition in this article.
Handsome Frank
First day, opening talk: Handsome Frank — an illustration agency representing some of the finest contemporary artists on the planet. You might know them from 3d vehicle & cityscapes for Lyft together with Guillaume Kurkdjian, putting Saudi women in the driver seat for Arab News together with Malika Favre.
The agency dedicated their keynote to highlight essential aspects in a HF creative brief:
- Don’t be vague — interpretation can lead to differences in delivered work and expectations, clarity about expectations is essential.
- Question everything — Be open to challenge the conventional or the brief: they once produced an illustration of “a bed in space”, it turned out the client wanted “a bed in a space”.
- Do whatever feels right — trust your gut and make the best thing you can.
- Encourage ideas — Thinking freely will encourage new directions and work: having an open mind and offering an alternative perspective.
Apart from the stream of nice projects, HF co-founder’s, Tom & Jon’s perspective on the creative brief rang very true to me. A good brief is essential in making fitting, unique & applied work.
David Mikula
Friends’ chief creative officer David Mikula, who has done a variety of work from building the twitter connected piano Stanley, to exploring what sports might look like if they were to be played in space or helping a healthcare system build a hybrid clinic/research lab, used his time at the festival to highlight his personal view on and definition of design.
David’s view can be summarised in one quote: “Design is the ability to think about what we want to make before we make it.” He describes design as planning, therefore good designers should be good planners.
To conclude, if you have all the answers there is no creativity or design. Apart from this functional description, he encourages the crowd to be problem makers: “Because if we have all the solutions, there is no design or creativity.” And make ourselves uncomfortable while doing so to find the most unique solutions.
I had never heard the comparison between design and planning in this manner before, but for me as a UX designer, it makes a lot of sense. In my daily work I’m constantly relating different insights, requirements & goals to one another. My creative power lies in doing so: finding the answers to complex questions.
Rams by Gary Hustwit
One of the films in the OFFF 2019 screenings-programme was Rams by Gary Hustwit. The documentary maker also well known for two other documentaries: “Helvetica” & “Objectified”. Hustwit interviewed Rams for “Objectified”, but only a small part of Rams’ story could be shared in that film. With Rams being a very private person, it took some time and convincing before he granted Gary access to create the first feature-length documentary about his life and his “Ten Principles for Good Design”.
The thing that stuck with me most, is the approachable & human portrait of Dieter Rams. The legendary designer is given credit for his work and portrayed as a person, instead of a legacy. E.g. when he’s reviewing furniture design icons in the Vitra Design museum.
Ueno
Founder & San Franscico Design director at Ueno, Haraldur Thorleifsson spoke about how events in his life shaped the core values of the agency. The agency where he creates relationships between clients and their customers:
- We’re all in this together — Giving back to the communities around them, and always work with instead of for clients.
- Be raw, be honest and tell your truth — Say what you need to say what you feel like it!
- Figure it out. — Deal with the situation on hand with the means you have available, even though the outcome might be different.
- Bring the chocolate. — Go above and beyond, if someone asks for a coffee bring him/her a chocolate as well.
- Life is short, enjoy it. — Do what you really want to do, because this results in the most interesting projects.
Ueno implements these values when working for large clients like Slack, Google, & AirBnB.
Thorleifsson’s talk how personal values shaped the Ueno way of working, got me thinking about how I could further embed my personal values in my work.
David Carson
Last day, last talk: David Carson, American graphic designer, arts director and surfer. He is best known for experimental design & typography work at Transworld Skateboarding magazine, and later, Ray Gun magazine, & a series of high profile clients like Nike, Audi, & Quicksilver.
Carson’s message, through a seemingly never-ending supply of work examples, was very clear: “Everybody can buy the same software, but no one has your eye. Nobody can pull from your uniqueness”.
He advises the crowd to not let software and functionalities like “guides”,”align”, or “snap to grid” dictate what his work looks like.
Even though I’m not a huge fan of his work, his message is very relatable. Gut and instinct are undeniable elements in a creative process. Unique ideas are on the horizon when embracing them.
So from being a Rams-fanboy to considering how personal values might shine through in a way of working, OFFF was a very inspiring trip.
Worthwhile enough to consider also joining its next edition in 2020. With it coincidentally being its 20th anniversary, we’re all in for a treat.
