Hasta La Ideas

The schedule of the third and final day at OFFSET in Dublin was chockfull of illustrators talking about their work – and a common thread throughout the day has been collaborative filmmaking and animation projects…

First to speak this morning at 10am, Australian illustration and design duo Craig & Karl showed a host of projects that demonstrated how various self-initiated projects have led to commercial clients getting in touch. Among the colourful graphic work they showed was this animated film created to promote a silver-canned Red Bull drink:

The Wobbly Shapes of Doom from Craig & Karl on Vimeo.

Credits
Client: Red Bull
Illustrator: Craig & Karl
Director: Iain Acton

And in the following presentation, artist Oliver Jeffers showed a couple of film projects – this film directed by Mac Premo succinctly (and hilariously) sums up what he does:

And the TED 2013 conference film he worked on recently is super:

Ted 2013 Opening Video from mac premo on Vimeo.

Brooklyn-based illustrator Chris Silas Neal‘s presentation demonstrated how various childhood influences (from his Mum’s record collection to the childrens books he read) have filtered through to his work designing book covers and gig posters and more.

The last piece of work he showed was a charming recently completed animation project he worked on – a commission by US clothes brand Kate Spade for its Live Colorfully campaign.

Kate Spade, Navy from Chris Silas Neal on Vimeo.

Credits
Directed by: Chris Silas Neal

Animation: Gareth O’Brien
Music: Antfood

And then, straight after lunch, Ben Newman opened his talk like this:

Yes, by hula-hooping to a soundtrack of Jump by Van Halen, Newman hilariously made the point that no matter how hard something seems to do, you just have to get out there and do it. He then showed a host of commercial and self-initiated projects including these animated films:

BBC Radio 4 – Life & Fate TVC from devilfish on Vimeo.

Credits
Creative director: Lee Edwards
Executive Creative Director: Ed Edwards
Producer: Lucy Hunt
Designer: Ben Newman at Pocko

And also this charming promo for London publisher Nobrow’s new childrens book imprint, Flying Eye Books (which we featured on the blog back in February) is great:

My final highlight of this year’s OFFSET festival was Kate Moross‘ wonderfully energetic talk that picked up on the DIY manifesto of hacker culture (a theme running through the whole event) telling the audience that she doesn’t worry when she doesn’t know how to do something, she just gets online, watches tutorials, downloads whatever code or software she needs and works out how to get on with the job in hand. And if she can’t do it herself, then she collaborates with someone she knows has the knowledge to get the job done.

Rather than showing illustration projects, Moross focused on her music video projects, explaining that they are all low budget and highly experimental. My favourite was the moiré-inspired, wonderfully lo-fi digital video for Simian Mobile Disco’s I Waited For You film made in collaboration with Hans Lo using a 3D software package:

OFFSET festival seems to grow in strength from year to year and the buzzwords for 2013 are ‘hacking’ and – thanks to Ben Newman’s talk-opening antics – ‘hula-hooping’. For more info about OFFSET festival, visit iloveoffset.com.

The April print issue of CR presents the work of three young animators and animation teams to watch. Plus, we go in search of illustrator John Hanna, test out the claims of a new app to have uncovered the secrets of viral ad success and see how visual communications can both help keep us safe and help us recover in hospital

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