OFFSET London

OFFSET LONDON_TOP

With over 2,500 attendees to our Dublin event each year, OFFSET has fast become one of the world’s most inspirational, educational and vocational conferences for the design and creative industries. This year we decided to stretch our wings and made our way to London to host our first international OFFSET in the historic Shoreditch Town Hall.

The two day event, taking place on the 12th and 13th of November, promised to be as inspiring as the original, and as delegates flowed in the doors in their hundreds we knew we were set for an awe inspiring two days.

Among the crowd were a few familiar faces from some of our favourite publications and outlets, as always we were excited to see everyone’s experience of the event.

With goodie filled OFFSET tote bags in tow, attendees filed into the hall to take a seat for the first day of world class speakers.

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Before our first speaker took to the stage we revealed our much-anticipated opening titles directed by the talented Aran Quinn from The Mill with the audio from the equally talented Echolab.

DAY ONE

At OFFSET, we always endeavour to showcase Irish talent alongside our international speakers and our London event was no different.

Kicking off day one was homegrown talent and ever-entertaining illustrator, Yasmeen Ismail. Yasmeen took us from her childhood years growing up in a quiet town, to running a successful animation company in London, to finally working as a full time children’s book illustrator living in Bristol.

Erik Kessels of Kesselskramer and The KK Outlet was next to take to the stage to captivate the crowd with insight and humour. Computer Arts’ Julia Sagar honed in on some of his many words of sage advice, including the stand out line, “If no one hates your work, no one loves it.”

Returning to the OFFSET stage after her inspiring talk in Dublin, Dutch photographer, Aisha Zeijpveld again blew us away with a behind the scenes look at her surrealist photography with her intricate techniques and analogue methods. Anna Mullin of DigitalArts recalls Aisha discussing her love of re-photographing the final piece of artwork with “the dust on the photographs, the shadows from the paperwork”.

Next up was Andy Stevens of Graphic Thought Facility who spoke passionately and animatedly about his work as a multi-disciplinary designer. Focusing on the work GTF did with OFFSET’s other favourite Andy, Andy Altmann of Why Not Associates, he grabbed the audience’s attention with the wayfinding and identity work for Hult International Business School. Rachael Stevens of Creative Review describes it as “a rich and beautifully executed project, with a clever use of found materials and everyday ephemera.”

Another speaker flying the Irish flag for us was graphic designer turned Nexus director Johnny Kelly. Showing us what he’s learned over the span of his career so far from the now infamous “Procrastination”, to the multi award winning Chipotle “Back to the Start” and more recent Salvation Army Christmas campaign and “Shape”, Johnny emphasized the point that sometimes “a strong idea is all you need”.

Dublin’s own homebird, street artist Maser, was next to face the crowd. Taking us through his process, experiences and inspiration, Maser discussed his beautiful and colourful installation pieces with a genuine feeling of excitement and passion for what he does throughout.

The brilliant art director and set designer Rachel Thomas led the way through her diverse body of work from working as a stylist, to creating window displays and making music videos to her work “Imaginary View” with photographer Dan Smith, polystyrene landscapes that went on to be exhibited in Somerset House.

The penultimate talk of day one was brought to us by Niall Sweeney of Pony Ltd. With a stage presence like no other Niall spoke about his pride in designing for social change and how it’s “the smaller projects – as opposed to the large commercial projects with large budgets – that can yield the greatest of creativity.” Niall also spoke in depth about his involvement in the pivotal Marriage Equality campaign along with Panti here in Ireland this year. Bringing a tear to the eyes of the Irish in the crowd, we could be nothing short of proud.

Seb Lester was one of the most anticipated speakers of day one and he definitely didn’t disappoint. Keeping the crowd captivated for the final talk of the day Seb took us on a journey from his origins as a type designer to his explosion on social media as a calligrapher and everything in between.

DAY TWO

Coming off the back of their number one ranking of UK Studios by Computer Arts and their D&AD Black Pencil award for their G . F Smith rebrand, Paul Austin of Made Thought excited and delighted the Friday morning delegates. Speaking about long running client relationships and how the simple ideas are always the best, Paul ensured we had a great start to day two.

For Creative Review’s Rachael Steven, the Head of Visual Creative at Liberty London, Liz Silvester made a big impression. Liz spoke a couple of days before the unveiling of Liberty’s infamous Christmas window displays; Liz showed us exactly how they came to fruition. Inspired by past OFFSET speaker, Annie Atkins’ work on Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel and Brighton’s Royal Pavillion the windows were sure not to amaze the gathered crowds.

Chris Gallery, Co-Head Strategist at the prestigious Mother London was next up and with a talk full of witty advice and the importance of ‘giving a shit’ all backed up with mightily impressive and awe inspiring work, Chris had us sitting on the edge of our seats.

After the incredible response to the legendary illustrator and author Tomi Ungerer at OFFSET Dublin earlier on in the year the atmosphere in the main hall was palpable as delegates eagerly awaited his on stage arrival. In conversation with editor of Elephant Magazine, Marc Valli, Tomi again brought us on a touching and equally entertaining journey through his life and work with every line out of his mouth becoming instantly quotable.

Before OFFSET London kicked off Emily Gosling from It’s Nice That sat down with Tomi and agreed with us that he is “an extraordinary man”.

Following the break, London-based, Irish award winning luxury leather accessories designer and artist Úna Burke gave us an insight into the traditional leather working techniques used in her complex and beautiful sculptural constructions.

French born illustrator, Mcbess was next to take to the stage. Discussing how he challenges himself to make his pieces harder to draw and the integral themes to his work, “music, food and girls“, Mcbess engaged the audience with his Max Fleischer inspired animations and illustrations.

Vince Frost, the multi award winning founder and Executive Creative Director of Frost* Collective returned to London from Sydney with a brand new book, Design Your Life in tow. Showcasing his incredibly impressive and multidisciplinary career to date Vince gave the students and seasoned professionals in the audience alike a plethora of invaluable insights.

As the second day began to draw to a close the enthusiasm didn’t wane as Morag Myerscough stepped out onto the stage. With a presentation absolutely bursting with colour and inspiration you couldn’t help but have a smile on your face seeing her speak passionately about her work. Morag also shed some light on the mystery of her Twitter feed revealing that the tweeted colours corresponded the emotions she was feeling throughout the day.

OFFSET London was coming to an end but not before the street art duo, The London Police, along with Chinny Bond, had us all captivated with a hilarious talk chronicling their work to a soundtrack of Barry Manilow. They brought the jam packed two days to a close with renditions of their Dog Songs and left the crowd in awe as we turned out the lights on an inspirational two days.

With Peroni in hand our pop-up café transformed into a packed room full of excited talk and discussion as creatives, student and professional alike, discussed the past two days of motivational speakers.  BLOG_London_peroni Delegates filed out of the Shoreditch Town Hall for the last time and we packed our bags to head back across the stormy Irish Sea as another remarkable and inspirational OFFSET was down in the record books. As always we sincerely hope that attendees use the knowledge they garnered as fuel to drive their work forward and maybe we’ll see some of you on the main stage in the coming years! OFFSET Dublin is back in 2016 and runs from April 8th-10th. Tickets are on sale here and we can’t wait to see you for three days of unforgettable inspiration from the world’s top creatives. See you in April. OFFSET TEAM

See ya later London it’s been real #offsetLDN   A photo posted by OFFSET (@offset_insta) on