Summing Up Lisboa (II)
Very well then, this post will be all about the lectures I was able to see at the OFFF conference. I'll try to keep it short and not bore you too much. There are some images and on the very bottom a short video to give an idea of what these speeches 'looked' like – and also if you just wanna skip through all this reading crap :D
Thursday started with Neville Brody who opened up the entire event with a mixture of theoretical design talk and a look back at his broad spectrum of work. Sometimes confusing where he was actually going with his thesis but that might have been in part due to our crappy seats and the bad acoustics. The latter of which we would have to deal with at all times. Because the schedule was also constantly tossed around, with lectures being delayed, pulled up or canceled altogether last minute, I only got to see 15 minutes of Xtrabold in the small conference hall (Brody started late and stretched his time a bit). Very talented and at 19 also very young illustrator from Brazil who unfortunately seemd to already be losing grip on reality and tried to teach meaningful design lessons. Maybe in 20 years kid! Next up was Director Kobayashi who was a bit of a letdown. First off, he wasn't Japanese but Italian. Second off the one video I had seen of him was by far his best. And third off he was quite full of himself, constantly yapping about the short periods of time he used to produce his stuff, which in big parts were just rip-offs of other designers anyways. Photographer Eva Vermandel I only saw for a couple of minutes – due to her very boring style of presenting. Jason Bruges Studio was a pleasant surprise, showing a lot of very unique interactive light installations. Against the impressive work of United Visual Artists however it was a mere warm up. Jesus f***ing Christ, these guys are amazing! Complex motion graphics, 3D animations and tangible, interactive installations – they do it all, and they do it more than well. Plus, they are a very sympathetic, down-to-earth bunch, it seems. Then some weird but very cool flash stuff from the guys of Presstube before a very long day came to an end with music video guru Chris Milk, who was kinda cute in the way that he was so nervous from the big crowd, he needed one of the organizers up on stage with him to hold the lecture in form of an interview. He just couldn't handle talking to that many people directly. But his videos were smoking!
Some pictures to break it up: Dave Ferner from U.V.A., Chris Milk, Si Scott, Joshua Davis, PES and Sagmeister.
On Friday most of us took their time and made the Bleed lecture at 3 our first one of the day. Dag was shitting his pants but pulled it off nicely in the end :) Then a quick peek to Champagne Valentine who do some very beautiful, yet creepy flash animation and illustration things but pissed me off with their overly hipster appearance and arrogant attitude so much that I could only bear it for a while. Robert L. Peters started off quite interesting and funny with his extremely theoretical approach to design but soon succumbed to dulling palaver. Motion graphic designers Onesize made up for it by showing an interesting making-of of their superb opening credits, which I'll post some other time soon. It was almost as funny as the hilarious stop motion videos by PES. That guy is a comical genius with great ideas – you should definitely go check out his work. Paula Scher from Pentagram, who, if you haven't heard of her before, will at least know from the 'Helvetica' movie, must've held an interesting lecture. Unfortunately I came too late, didn't find a good spot and couldn't hear shit. The day finished with the highlight of the entire festival: Joshua Davis. His lecture – part inspirational pep talk, part portfolio presentation, part stand-up comedy show – was amazing. Davis, ex pro skater, high on Red Bull and who knows what, gave a hyperactive, funny as hell and still thought-provoking performance that left everyone else standing in the dust. And even though his work might not be everybody's taste (I personally think he fucks up almost all his stuff within the last two steps of the design process by using wrong colors and overdoing the design in general) everyone got up for the standing ovations.
The last day was maybe the most pleasant one – the smallest amount of attendants meant good seats, temperatures below 30° indoors and somewhat breathable air. It started with the 'Fail Gracefully' Panel, a discussion lead by Florian Schmitt from Hi-Res! with PES, Davis and a couple of others talking about the theme of the festival. Interesting stuff. After that Si Scott took over. Really mellow, shy type of guy, who, like Chris Milk, didn't seem too comfortable up on stage. He was mumbling into the mic with a strong British accent so badly that people were constantly shouting 'Louder!'. Honestly though, not his fault – why didn't the tech guys just turn up the volume? No new revelations besides his work being amazing, except maybe that all his stuff is hand-drawn(!). Grey London had to cancel their presentation due to client trouble at home son instead we got to see the results of a workshop held by motion mastermind Re:Nascent – good effort by all participants but nothing special. 'Nerdferences' Panel was indeed very nerdy but also fun with Gijs Gieskes, among others, explaining some truly bizarre instruments like the 'Acid Machine'. Even spiced it up with a short live performance. Nice! Digital Kitchen, the makers of the 'Dexter' intro presented some insight on how they produced the opening credits for the 'True Blood' TV series. Interesting but not really my cup of tea. Last but definitely not least on this immensely long list was Stefan Sagmeister who performed in a polka dot dress – why the fuck ever. Despite his condescending tone, his I've-seen-it-all attitude and him obviously being totally full of himself – and as much as I hate to say it – one has to acknowledge that he is a design god. Content wise the best and most comprehensible presentation, to the point and well structured. Plus a couple of new works here and there. In one sentence: Sagmeister knows his stuff.
Sadly I wasn't able to see any of the great (but very similar) music acts like Alva Noto, Kangding Ray, Bytetone, Signal or Fennesz, all from the label Raster Noton. Only popped my head in once or twice.
Aaaand the video showing Jason Bruges Studio, 'Fail Gracefully' Panel and 2x U.V.A. demonstrating one of the programs they developed for producing 3D graphics (I'm telling you, these guys are sick!) and their sound based stage effects for the Chemical Brothers. Sorry for the poor quality, will try to get a better one up soon.
EDIT: Better quality up. Whoopee.
Thursday started with Neville Brody who opened up the entire event with a mixture of theoretical design talk and a look back at his broad spectrum of work. Sometimes confusing where he was actually going with his thesis but that might have been in part due to our crappy seats and the bad acoustics. The latter of which we would have to deal with at all times. Because the schedule was also constantly tossed around, with lectures being delayed, pulled up or canceled altogether last minute, I only got to see 15 minutes of Xtrabold in the small conference hall (Brody started late and stretched his time a bit). Very talented and at 19 also very young illustrator from Brazil who unfortunately seemd to already be losing grip on reality and tried to teach meaningful design lessons. Maybe in 20 years kid! Next up was Director Kobayashi who was a bit of a letdown. First off, he wasn't Japanese but Italian. Second off the one video I had seen of him was by far his best. And third off he was quite full of himself, constantly yapping about the short periods of time he used to produce his stuff, which in big parts were just rip-offs of other designers anyways. Photographer Eva Vermandel I only saw for a couple of minutes – due to her very boring style of presenting. Jason Bruges Studio was a pleasant surprise, showing a lot of very unique interactive light installations. Against the impressive work of United Visual Artists however it was a mere warm up. Jesus f***ing Christ, these guys are amazing! Complex motion graphics, 3D animations and tangible, interactive installations – they do it all, and they do it more than well. Plus, they are a very sympathetic, down-to-earth bunch, it seems. Then some weird but very cool flash stuff from the guys of Presstube before a very long day came to an end with music video guru Chris Milk, who was kinda cute in the way that he was so nervous from the big crowd, he needed one of the organizers up on stage with him to hold the lecture in form of an interview. He just couldn't handle talking to that many people directly. But his videos were smoking!
Some pictures to break it up: Dave Ferner from U.V.A., Chris Milk, Si Scott, Joshua Davis, PES and Sagmeister.
On Friday most of us took their time and made the Bleed lecture at 3 our first one of the day. Dag was shitting his pants but pulled it off nicely in the end :) Then a quick peek to Champagne Valentine who do some very beautiful, yet creepy flash animation and illustration things but pissed me off with their overly hipster appearance and arrogant attitude so much that I could only bear it for a while. Robert L. Peters started off quite interesting and funny with his extremely theoretical approach to design but soon succumbed to dulling palaver. Motion graphic designers Onesize made up for it by showing an interesting making-of of their superb opening credits, which I'll post some other time soon. It was almost as funny as the hilarious stop motion videos by PES. That guy is a comical genius with great ideas – you should definitely go check out his work. Paula Scher from Pentagram, who, if you haven't heard of her before, will at least know from the 'Helvetica' movie, must've held an interesting lecture. Unfortunately I came too late, didn't find a good spot and couldn't hear shit. The day finished with the highlight of the entire festival: Joshua Davis. His lecture – part inspirational pep talk, part portfolio presentation, part stand-up comedy show – was amazing. Davis, ex pro skater, high on Red Bull and who knows what, gave a hyperactive, funny as hell and still thought-provoking performance that left everyone else standing in the dust. And even though his work might not be everybody's taste (I personally think he fucks up almost all his stuff within the last two steps of the design process by using wrong colors and overdoing the design in general) everyone got up for the standing ovations.
The last day was maybe the most pleasant one – the smallest amount of attendants meant good seats, temperatures below 30° indoors and somewhat breathable air. It started with the 'Fail Gracefully' Panel, a discussion lead by Florian Schmitt from Hi-Res! with PES, Davis and a couple of others talking about the theme of the festival. Interesting stuff. After that Si Scott took over. Really mellow, shy type of guy, who, like Chris Milk, didn't seem too comfortable up on stage. He was mumbling into the mic with a strong British accent so badly that people were constantly shouting 'Louder!'. Honestly though, not his fault – why didn't the tech guys just turn up the volume? No new revelations besides his work being amazing, except maybe that all his stuff is hand-drawn(!). Grey London had to cancel their presentation due to client trouble at home son instead we got to see the results of a workshop held by motion mastermind Re:Nascent – good effort by all participants but nothing special. 'Nerdferences' Panel was indeed very nerdy but also fun with Gijs Gieskes, among others, explaining some truly bizarre instruments like the 'Acid Machine'. Even spiced it up with a short live performance. Nice! Digital Kitchen, the makers of the 'Dexter' intro presented some insight on how they produced the opening credits for the 'True Blood' TV series. Interesting but not really my cup of tea. Last but definitely not least on this immensely long list was Stefan Sagmeister who performed in a polka dot dress – why the fuck ever. Despite his condescending tone, his I've-seen-it-all attitude and him obviously being totally full of himself – and as much as I hate to say it – one has to acknowledge that he is a design god. Content wise the best and most comprehensible presentation, to the point and well structured. Plus a couple of new works here and there. In one sentence: Sagmeister knows his stuff.
Sadly I wasn't able to see any of the great (but very similar) music acts like Alva Noto, Kangding Ray, Bytetone, Signal or Fennesz, all from the label Raster Noton. Only popped my head in once or twice.
Aaaand the video showing Jason Bruges Studio, 'Fail Gracefully' Panel and 2x U.V.A. demonstrating one of the programs they developed for producing 3D graphics (I'm telling you, these guys are sick!) and their sound based stage effects for the Chemical Brothers. Sorry for the poor quality, will try to get a better one up soon.
EDIT: Better quality up. Whoopee.
ccseabass - 2009-05-13 18:01
