At OFFF Barcelona 2014, we also found some interesting stuff beyond the stages, take for instance The Folio Club, the Barcelona-based platform aimed at promoting and producing independent editorial projects. They also provide offset-digital printing services. We talked with Ana about the print-related projects they promote, she also told us that The Folio Club helped to produce The Poool, the delightful OFFF printed magazine.
At “El Mercadillo”, a place full of exhibition stands with interesting products and services, we talked with Eddie from Camaloon, they make custom stickers and pin badges for personal or promotional use. They featured the Camaloon Be Noticed Corner where attendants to the Festival could draw and write anything they wanted.
Kate Moross is a young Londoner designer and illustrator. She’s also head of Studio Moross. With an encouraging DYI attitude and focusing on the business side of her work, she told us her story. From her first clients achieved shamelessly promoting herself on the early social network MySpace, to her current works for the likes of Adidas or Vogue. In the process, she has not lost any of her freshness, independency and visual impact. Moross has also been behind some of the most important artwork in British music in recent years. For instance, the ones for the British singer Jessie Ware.
Kate Moross on stage at OFFF Barcelona 2014
After Kate Moross, the lunch break came. People started to look tired after several nights of “juerga” and little sleep. But enjoying of the sun warmth and the beautiful views was revitalizing enough.
Disseny Hub and Torre Agbar
Noted german type designer Erik Spiekermann made one of the most memorable speeches of the Festival, full of caustic and clever remarks about Design, Typography and other related stuff. He has designed many typefaces of extended use and been part of the team that made the Helvetica Neue typeface. Spiekermann also appeared on documentary Helvetica.
Through the years, he got involved on Web Design. Talking about the never-ending task of making websites, one of his more retweeted phrases last Saturday was “Websites are always in Beta”. After a long and successful trajectory and near to retirement, he has started a new project, the gallery and letterpress workshop P98A , mixing tools and techniques from wood types to laser cut plates. Having spent a good amount of his career in front of screens, this is his way of going from bits to atoms.
“Forget Control”, Erik Spiekermann at OFFF Barcelona 2014
An hyper crowded Open Room Stage opened with the finish creative agency Kokoro & Moi. They showed us their imaginative approach to give their clients ad-hoc design solutions, regardless of being digital or print. They also proposed some challenging equations like “Openness + Randomness =3” or “People + People =3”, meaning the importance of working collaboratively and with no preconceptions.
The Bangkok-based designer and illustrator Pomme Chan presented her work, inspired by everyday life and obsessed with details. A good sample of that are her hand lettering illustrations made light for the Absolut Artelier.
After that, it was time for a break, while eating our “bocata” under the sun, the relaxed surroundings of Disseny Hub looked like this …
OFFF Festival 2014 started with all the features one may expect from a Barcelona’s Festival: relax, sun and creativity. The hippest design fest in the city begun with high expectations not only about their speakers, all of them internationally renowned professionals, but also about the cool audience and the fun that everyone expected to have.
The first achieved mark was The Poool magazine, a beautiful present we received before the doors opened. It was as good as anticipated. Risky and delicate, no ads inside, it is a delightful visual experience. During the fair we talked with The Folio Club, the company in charge of this work, and they were very proud about it: we’ll talk about that in a separate post.
Loren Ipsum, the latest generation of Atelier, is a multidisciplinary design studio based in Barcelona. They are a numerous young multinational team of designers. On stage, they shared their fun of working together, surprising us with freshness, vibrant energy, and bold proposals.
Postdigital Node 