OFFF 2017 - My favourite speakers
I was back at OFFF again in sunny Barcelona, held a little earlier than normal, but the quality seems to always stay on point. The Cervezas were flowing, we were eating amazing tapas, and people were flying in from all over the world to join together for this wonderful three day event. This was my third year in a row and I was really looking forward to some cool talks from a whole bunch of new artists and studios I have come across over the past year.
Adam J. Kurtz
I have been following Adam for a while now, and love his simple hand drawn artwork, coupled with his sense of humour is a winning formula for me. He took us through a range of work, showcasing the humble beginnings of many projects, and how a lot of the stuff he sells today, he actually made because he was broke and had to give people presents. So he did what he could only do, which was make art.
You can see more of his work here: Website
Foreal
Next on the list was german duo Foreal. These guys have been killing it on instagram with their hilarious and somewhat uncensored 3d illustrations. They took us on a journey of how they had to do a lot of crappy client work, and the realisation of how the personal projects they did, of which they put lots of time and effort into, kept coming back to them in reincarnated client work. Always pushing the boundaries of their work, these guys are one to keep an eye on.
You can see more of their work here: Website
Imaginary Forces
These guys needed no introduction. I was pretty surprised to find out although that Imaginary Forces had been running for 20 years?! The title titans showed us some of their biggest work, and obviously the highly popular Stranger Things intro. We were also given the amazing chance to even see some of the title designs that didn’t make the final cut.
You can see more of their work here: Website
Velvet Spectrum
My favourite speaker had to be Luke Choice, AKA Velvet Spectrum. His wonderful approach to colour and play in his work is something I have been trying to play with myself. Luke showcased some of his super early work in photoshop, and the gradual evolution to using Cinema4D. I liked how he spoke of just playing with his work, and how this play turned into exploration which then leads to a library of work that he has at his disposal whenever a client would approach him.
You can see more of his work here: Website
GMUNK
Gmunk wowed the stage once again with his laser, mirror, psychedelic work! He took us through some of his recent projects, and just like Foreal, how clients would ask him to replicate previous jobs he had done. The take away for me from Gmunk was that the work he was being asked to recreate, was work he loved and spent the most time over. It all stemmed from passion projects which lead to client work. One beautiful project he showcased was the TrueCar L.E.D piece, which was a giant L.E.D sculpture that reacted to audio and movement as it sat on the Santa Monica Pier.
You can see more of his work here: Website
Good Fucking Design Advice
I absolutely love the stuff coming out of GFDA, especially the chrome add on they have, which changes your chrome home screen to a new piece of advice everyday. Do have to be a little careful when in an agency, have had some risky stuff pop up when sitting next to a client! The guys spoke of their humble beginnings, and spoke about how they pretty much learnt how to do everything along the way. Their determination to succeed has them growing so fast as a company and now talking all over the world on a cool road trip.
You can see more of their work here: Website
Mr Kat
I went into Mr Kat’s talk not knowing much about him, but his work seemed to be super playful and fun. Just as well, his character was too, especially in this industry where you do get a lot of, shall I say, boring crappy people.. He has built his joyful character based fun world with his work and it showed so much in his talk. I also loved how he took some of the work from the digital world to the physical, by using different methods of laser cutting and injection moulding to transform the characters to real life toys. Its something I would love to be able to do with some of my 3D work one day.
You can see more of his work here: Website
Anthony Burrill
I didn’t know much about Anthony Burrill either, but for sure had seen his work. The posters he creates are often scattered around tons of creative studios and agencies that I have worked at. Anthony was a little different than most of the speakers on my list for he used screen printing as his medium to create all his work. Anthony’s gentle approach and love for print can be seen in the work, often showing simple yet striking type and colour. He spoke about ‘Designing for good’ which really resonated with me, for thats something most of us forget about when you are working and slaving away in advertising.
You can see more of his work here: Website
Vallée Duhamel - OFFF 2017 Main Titles
Finally! I have been waiting for these titles since the last OFFF when Hector told everyone who would be creating them. The High Quality, Low-Fi partnership from Julien Vallée and Eve Duhamel offers some of the most incredible set design you will see, especially when you find out how much of their final project is all done in camera. The titles were a perfect balance of beautiful set design, choreography and music to give the audience a wonderful ending to OFFF 2017 this year. Not to forget they also thought of the brilliant idea to take the paper aeroplanes from the titles and give everyone in the audience a chance to participate in a grand finale swarm of planes as over a thousand people through their own onto the main stage.
You can see more of their work here: Website
I learnt many things from this OFFF, but the main thing has to be to play more. Pretty much every studio/artist said that you should make the portfolio you want to be hired for. This means spending lots of time crafting away at the work you love, in your own time. You will only be as good as your last job, so make sure the work that represents you on your portfolio, really represents your personality and work you want to be known for.
Lastly, the guys at Ballpit Mag did a little article on my work and processes, why not go give it a read. https://ballpitmag.com/portfolio/hashmukh
As always thats it for now, make sure you head over to my portfolio here. And pop over to my social networks too to see what I am posting on Twitter, and Instagram.
