OFFF was born in 2000 at the hands of Héctor Ayuso, a multifaceted professional with a long career in the field of creativity. Sharing knowledge and creative processes is the basis of this initiative, which is held annually in Barcelona and whose main attraction are the conferences given by the most outstanding professionals in the sector. The latest edition took place at the Design Museum of Barcelona and has reaffirmed its leading role as a pioneering festival in design and digital art.
"The characteristic of OFFF is that there is purity in the content. In talking about creativity. In not selling anything else. We don't talk about industry or business," explains Pep Salazar, executive director of the festival.
"We have a very broad community of 150,000 people from all over the world, and of this community, about 5,000 gather at OFFF Barcelona," he continues. It is a niche and very professional audience, 70% of whom come from foreign countries and "take advantage of the festival to enjoy a few days in the city and everything it offers," says Salazar. And what does the festival bring to the city? "Knowledge of the latest trends and those to come in design, art, and digital culture," he replies.
"OFFF is a platform that showcases how the different disciplines of design intersect." (Pep Salazar)The large concentration of top-level speakers makes this event unique and incomparable. This year, the number of speakers has exceeded last year's by 50%, reaching a total of 98 figures from the global creative and design scene. One of the most anticipated speakers was creative director and designer Patrick Clair, author of opening titles for series broadcast by HBO and Netflix such as Westworld, The CrownorTrue Detective. With OFFF, Clair has inaugurated his participation in a European festival, thus being his first performance at this festival. A room overflowing with people listened attentively to his design processes and explanations about the role symbols play in the creation of his projects.
"Creativity is the association of two previously unassociated things," Patrick Clair said in his presentation.Illustrator Jessica Hische, recognized for her collaborations for Barack Obama, Starbucks, Nike, and Apple; Luke Hayman, partner at the prestigious American studio Pentagram and author of the new image of the magazineTime; or, James Victore, one of the essential figures in the design world, have been part of the lineup of speakers.
The young designer Ben Grandgenett who, with less than 30 years old, is in charge of the associate art direction of New York Times Magazine; or the designer Stefan Sagmeister, founder of the New York firm Sagmeister & Walsh, have been other recognized professionals who were part of the vibrantly sessions of OFFF 2018.
Also the Russian designer Pokras Lampas, ambassador of the calligraffiti typographic movement, and the Catalan designer Marta Cerda Alimbau, also essential figures in the vast list of speakers of this edition. John Evans, director of product design at Facebook, or Eleanor Harding, Senior product designer at Twitter, have shared their experiences in the field of these social platforms with the public.
OFFF is a celebration of creativity from beginning to end. For this edition, Mathery Studio, the young Italian duo based in New York, has been in charge of the festival's campaign and has initiated its opening. A unique project that led them to investigate the meaning of the festival's letters and which they resolved with an original and fun approach. For its part, the international studio Mucho, has been responsible for the design of the book "The Visible and the…" material that is annually given to the attending public. A graphic gem in which photographer Pancho Tolchinsky has intervened and whose pages delve into emotions and how human beings perceive them. And, for the Main Titles of Offf 2018 –the audiovisual piece that closes the festival and in which all the protagonists who have passed through its stages appear– the work has been entrusted to Jake Ferguson and Heebok Lee, two greats who now form the Korean studio Giantstep.
Regarding trends, Salazar says it's difficult to speak of concrete ones since "OFFF is a platform that showcases how different design disciplines intersect." However, he acknowledges that attention is on "new digital tools and how they allow for innovative ways of approaching the stories being told." Even so, he reflects: "Augmented reality is one of the tools we will see most. In addition to innovation in moving images resulting from the cross of different disciplines." For the teacher and cultural manager, "there is no longer a single discipline that can survive alone." Hence, he believes, this is OFFF's mission. "To generate a relationship with professionals, speakers and artists who come from all over the world and who, together with the public, can establish a fluid relationship of generosity and sharing knowledge."
"There is no longer a single discipline that can survive alone," says Pep Salazar, executive director of the festival.With a powerful and varied program, OFFF also offers workshops and master classes by Adobe, as well as different activities and a market for young designers. The overall proposal invites attendees to experience three days of intense emotion and creative vitality. In this edition, the Design Museum space served as the setting to test "the first electronic tattoo in the context of a festival," a pilot project designed between the festival and the Elisava School of Design and Engineering.
OFFF is a consolidated project that has crossed borders. Under the umbrella "OFFF on Tour", the festival travels itinerantly to different cities around the world with a scope of action that already exceeds 40 editions. A scoop closes the curtain on this edition: for the first time, the OFFF book will become part of the Design Museum's collection. "It's great news because it's a donation from the festival to the city so it can be consulted and, perhaps one day, exhibited in the Museum itself," explains Salazar.
Photos: 1, 3: Mathery Studio campaign for OFFF 2018 2, 4: OFFF, Design Museum of Barcelona, 2018.
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