OFFSET 2013!

This year I finally made the effort to attend offset in Dublin. If you don't already know what Offset is, it's a huge graphic design festival that happens once a year, where some of the best designers/ animators/ photographers from around the world come to give a talk to a mixed crowd of student graphic designers, industry professionals, tutors and recent graduates. Each of the 24+ speakers talk about their careers, how they are making something of themselves within the design world, their influences and what they are working on. It was a fantastic insight for me and I now wish I had went to the event when I heard about it a couple of years ago during my 2nd year at university! The event spreads over a weekend, however I went for the sunday line up! That day was primarily animation/ illustration themed. And that is the field I am most interested within graphic design.

-Craig&Karl

 Some stand out speakers for me on the day were designers Craig and Karl. This Australian duo met as young adults and started off small at the beginning. Now each of them are working from two different platforms of the world- Craig set up studio in New York, where Karl is set up in native Australia. It was really interesting to hear how they both communicate through Skype and how they contact each other from both ends of the day to discuss ideas and concepts. Their work is mainly vector illustration based with bold colour schemes with a hint of celebrity culture added into their mix. One piece of work Craig is working on recently is his blog about a fictional animated character known as Darcel. Each week/ day there would be a blog post with a simple illustration of Darcel completing common human problems/ celebrations/ heartbreak/ emotion etc. All played out on a one eyed cyclone/ alien character! I took a few Photographs of the graphic design duo during their humourously entertaining talk. 

-Oliver Jeffers

One person I was so excited to hear from was Northern Irish based Oliver Jeffers! Jeffers has become a huge success within the children's Book illustration field. He actually graduated in 2001 from the same course I study- Design for Visual Communication @the University of Ulster in Belfast. His name has always become a topic of conversation throughout my years at university and I thought it was awesome to finally get the opportunity to listen to him talk about his work in person. Oliver was not on the original line up for my day at offset so it was by pure luck that he got slotted into becoming the second speaker on Sunday, right after Craig and Karl! Jeffers has a great belief in his work and I find him to be an inspiration. He set up studio in New York and travels from one country to the next promoting his amazing work! Some examples of Jeffers work include, 'Lost and Found', 'How to catch a star" and 'The incredible book eating boy'. He presented some tips about how presentation is key when applying for jobs in order to stand out from the 'slush pile' of other applicants. 

-London based Illustrator
London based Kate Moross is a very young designer who has presented work for Cadbury, magazine covers and Jessie wares music video. In my opinion, She came across as a breath of fresh air! Very rebellious throughout her thought processing and reiterated that we can never experiment enough in our life and careers. I particularly loved when she actually admitted she has made mistakes in very important pieces of design work but that just shows a human element and can be a great thing to do. Moross was a very eccentric character who has a true belief in that anything is possible in design. I love that!

All in all, the atmosphere at offset was great, enthusiastic, Inspirational and gave me an awesome Insight into how other young designers work and get themselves where they want to be.