What we heard at Offset 2014

Sunday evening saw over 2,000 inspired creatives spilling out under Martha Schwartz’s red lit sculpture on Grand Canal Dock. Conversations buzzed as people recounted what they’d learned over a weekend at OFFSET.

This was the fifth installation of the creative design festival and one where themes of fun and failure seemed to prevail through talks. Jessica Walsh of Sagmeister & Walsh won over the crowd on Friday morning with her insistence on the importance of play at work. Richard Mosse’s charmingly dishevelled presentation on Saturday highlighted the intense beauty and rawness of his recent project The Enclave which used infra-red photography in capturing the tragic war-struck lives of people in East Congo. Jon Burgerman shared his love of fun and talked about not being afraid to make mistakes in your work as an artist, designer or creative.

Richard Mosse wasn’t the only homegrown hero to grace the main stage at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre this weekend, with Brown Bag Films, Aisling Farinella, Maser and Chris Judge all sharing their creative journeys with the audience. The two side stages hosted panels and talks throughout the three day event, with highlights including Irish illustrators Steve McCarthy, Mick Minogue, Kathi Burke (who worked with M.CO on the Hike It Bike It Like It logo development) and Fuchsia MacAree and a food branding panel that included former M.CO team member Aoife McElwain talking about her video project forkful

We’ll be keeping an eye on www.iloveoffset.com over the coming weeks as they share their archive of speakers at 2014’s festival. We look forward to being reminded and being able to share some of the inspirational nuggets we consumed over the weekend. 

A huge congratulations and thank you to the team at OFFSET for giving the creative community a platform to come together to share ideas and knowledge. Can’t wait for next year.