Currently Misplaced: MAD in Spain 2011 & HelloHikimori

Saturday, June 4, 2011

MAD in Spain 2011 & HelloHikimori

Lets see... the last time I was able to assist to a Graphic/Web/Interactive Design event was way back in 2007, to the Offf Festival in New York. And EVERYTHING has changed since then! [As I tweeted yesterday] EVERYONE had either an iPhone or iPad at hand (So, 1- You knew you were amongst designers! 2- Steve Jobs would've been proud), and everyone was tweet-ready. So it's kind of funny that you are interacting "live" on Twitter with people that are obviously sitting there somewhere around you. Complementing each others' bits of information from the presentations. A few years ago you just wouldn't have that kind of conversation. So a design studio presentation is no longer just about the presentation, now it's also about everybody's take and opinions on it in real time. Talk about multitasking!! Case in point: I saw the girl sitting next to me searching for the tag #MAD2011 on Twitter on her iPad, and my tweets came up. Little did she know that those were coming from me, next seat to the left. How weird and cool is that?!

MADinSpain

Graphic Design Event = Home! ♥

Now, about the presentations: I only went yesterday afternoon to see NYC-based digital agency FirstBorn and Paris-based HelloHikimori, an independent graphics/digital/motion graphics design studio. Both were fantastic and truly inspiring, albeit in a very different way! FirstBorn focus was on communicating the studio's culture through 5 key points: 1- Be Goofy, 2- Be Self-Motivated, 3- Be Genuine, 4- Be Prepared, 6- Be positive. They did a great job at showing how self-motivated personal [passion] work can turn a seemingly boring client project into something fun to create, and that enjoying the process of creating was just as important as the final outcome. Hence, turning an imperfect project into a perfect one for both the designer and client.

HelloHikimori was less talk, more show. I mean... their showreel was amazing! And they have done a lot of promotional websites for cool shows such as The Walking Dead, Glee and True Blood via Orange Cinéma Séries. I didn't quite get what was the story behind the Fresh & Juicy animations (maybe because I was too busy tweeting and trying to record the videos all at the same time- Miss Octopus Hands!) but it doesn't matter.... these animations speak for themselves. They are soo cool, and definitely Paris cool. You know, that brand of cool that can exist in a Justice video or a Daft Punk show. And the music! I need to know what tracks/songs were those. Seriously. They brought such power to the already amazing animations. Wow, how many times have I said amazing?! I better stop.

Unluckily it dawn on me a little bit late that I could also use the real camera, instead of just Instagraming. Major duh. Which means no pics from the FirstBorn presentation, only lots of tweets. So I hope you'll enjoy what I was able to capture!

The guys from HelloHikimori