Offset is 'Dublin's Creative Festival', a three day event held every year where creatives (graphic designers, animators, artists, illustrators, photographers, etc) from all over the world are invited to come and speak about what they do, and how and why they do it. This year was my second year to go and I loved it even more this time. I find it so inspiring and just so darn interesting. I usually haven't heard of the speakers before I go (I'm not very good at keeping up with the Who's Who of the design world) but most of them are all really worthwhile and provide plenty of tips and advice that anyone working in a creative space can appreciate. Here are ten (only ten!) really amazing things I discovered at Offset this year:
1. Richard Mosse's crimson photos from the Congo
Richard Mosse is a photographer who used old infrared film to shoot photos of the ongoing human conflict in the Congo in a way that has attracted this somewhat overlooked war some worldwide attention. The infrared film turns everything that would normally be green to crimson/pink and he used this as a photo journalism tool to highlight that often the most horrifying part of the Congo conflict is the unseen. You can see some of these photos on his website here.
2. Jessica Walsh's 40 Days of Dating 'passion project'
Not nearly as profound as Mosse's work, but interesting none the less, is Graphic Designer Jessica Walsh's 'passion project' (that's a project 'on the side' or hobby project, and nothing to do with her job) that she did with her friend Timothy Goodman. Friends that were forever unlucky in love in their relationships, they decided to date each other for forty days to see if they could help each other out in the relationship department and find out why they were forever screwing things up. They set some rules and blogged, separately, about the whole experience, day by day. The website went viral, the whole world had a look and then Time Warner bought the rights to their story for a movie. Visit the blog here.
3. The international success story of Irish animation company, Brown Bag Films
It was inspiring to listen to the guys from Brown Bag Films on how they have taken their animation company from a two man team to a global powerhouse with two Oscar nominations employing over 160 people in Dublin. Some of their tips were to sell trust to your clients first, then projects - once they trust you, they will let you do anything - and about the importance of writing down your goals. Doc McStuffins, Octonauts, Henry Hugglemonster and Peter Rabbit are all from Brown Bag Films.
4. The beautiful food/recipe videos from forkful.tv
forkful #12 from forkful on Vimeo.
Just wow. I mean, do I need to say anything else here? And there are 11 more!
5. Graphic Designer Marina Willer of Pentagram on her out of control chaos
1. Richard Mosse's crimson photos from the Congo
Richard Mosse is a photographer who used old infrared film to shoot photos of the ongoing human conflict in the Congo in a way that has attracted this somewhat overlooked war some worldwide attention. The infrared film turns everything that would normally be green to crimson/pink and he used this as a photo journalism tool to highlight that often the most horrifying part of the Congo conflict is the unseen. You can see some of these photos on his website here.
2. Jessica Walsh's 40 Days of Dating 'passion project'
Not nearly as profound as Mosse's work, but interesting none the less, is Graphic Designer Jessica Walsh's 'passion project' (that's a project 'on the side' or hobby project, and nothing to do with her job) that she did with her friend Timothy Goodman. Friends that were forever unlucky in love in their relationships, they decided to date each other for forty days to see if they could help each other out in the relationship department and find out why they were forever screwing things up. They set some rules and blogged, separately, about the whole experience, day by day. The website went viral, the whole world had a look and then Time Warner bought the rights to their story for a movie. Visit the blog here.
3. The international success story of Irish animation company, Brown Bag Films
It was inspiring to listen to the guys from Brown Bag Films on how they have taken their animation company from a two man team to a global powerhouse with two Oscar nominations employing over 160 people in Dublin. Some of their tips were to sell trust to your clients first, then projects - once they trust you, they will let you do anything - and about the importance of writing down your goals. Doc McStuffins, Octonauts, Henry Hugglemonster and Peter Rabbit are all from Brown Bag Films.
4. The beautiful food/recipe videos from forkful.tv
forkful #12 from forkful on Vimeo.
Just wow. I mean, do I need to say anything else here? And there are 11 more!
5. Graphic Designer Marina Willer of Pentagram on her out of control chaos
I enjoyed hearing that Marina Willer's life was 'out of control' chaos and that she does crazy things like driving to work and getting the tube home (because she forgot she drove in the first place). She's my kind of woman. Her main message was about the importance of play in our work. That as children we play and have naturally playful minds, but as we grow up it is almost trained out of us. That really beautiful design comes from having time to play, time to have fun with what we are doing.
6. Dublin sambo delivery service Killer Sandwich
6. Dublin sambo delivery service Killer Sandwich
So every Wednesday Killer Sandwich tweets the menu of the week (the sandwich) to their followers. You let them know your order and they let you know the pick-up location (which is different every week). And apparently they're awesome sandwiches. Even I (and I'm not so good with Twitter) have followed them now, just because I'm so curious about this edible experiment/treasure hunt. Has anyone had a Killer Sandwich? Please let me know in the comments. Oh and you can follow them @akillersandwich
7. Miroslav Tichy and his homemade cameras and penchant to break all the rules
So this guy liked to take photos of women with cameras he made out of toilet roll holders (and not a lot else) and using just about whatever he found for film and developing the pictures. He liked to break every rule for developing photos and his work became famous (or infamous, as he liked to say).
8. Neville Brody's interesting facts
Did you know 1 in 7 people on the planet use Google every day? Or that the top 85 wealthiest people in the world own the same amount of wealth as the bottom 50% of the entire world's population? Now that was food for thought.
9. That it's ok to make mistakes. Lots of them.
So many of the speakers talked about making mistakes. And about learning from them, and being better or doing better.
10. Finally. While I was at Offset I discovered that Munchies do an amazing sandwich called the Italian Scallion. How funny is that?! I am still giggling about it now (I know, I know, not that funny, but it really tickled me).
So there you have it, ten amazing things I discovered at Offset this year. There was so much more too, but these were the things that made a lasting impression... The rest are in my pages and pages of notes and scribbles. I hope this might encourage you to go yourself next year. It really is such a worthwhile event and I'm already looking forward to it again. You can find out more about Offset and also watch previous year's' speakers on their website, here.
7. Miroslav Tichy and his homemade cameras and penchant to break all the rules
So this guy liked to take photos of women with cameras he made out of toilet roll holders (and not a lot else) and using just about whatever he found for film and developing the pictures. He liked to break every rule for developing photos and his work became famous (or infamous, as he liked to say).
8. Neville Brody's interesting facts
Did you know 1 in 7 people on the planet use Google every day? Or that the top 85 wealthiest people in the world own the same amount of wealth as the bottom 50% of the entire world's population? Now that was food for thought.
9. That it's ok to make mistakes. Lots of them.
So many of the speakers talked about making mistakes. And about learning from them, and being better or doing better.
10. Finally. While I was at Offset I discovered that Munchies do an amazing sandwich called the Italian Scallion. How funny is that?! I am still giggling about it now (I know, I know, not that funny, but it really tickled me).
So there you have it, ten amazing things I discovered at Offset this year. There was so much more too, but these were the things that made a lasting impression... The rest are in my pages and pages of notes and scribbles. I hope this might encourage you to go yourself next year. It really is such a worthwhile event and I'm already looking forward to it again. You can find out more about Offset and also watch previous year's' speakers on their website, here.
Wow, that sounds like such an awesome event! I wish there were something like that where I live, the stuff you learned is really interesting. :)
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