Since 2009, Offset has attracted international stars and placed them alongside local talent in a true celebration of creativity. Offset’s motion graphics, shown to introduce speakers, have set the tone for this celebration. In recent years Bren Byrne and Lisa Haran of Offset have worked with a variety of creatives to produce these distinctive and memorable treatments. In 2015, Offset ran two events working with Golden Wolf (for their Dublin event) and Aran Quinn (for the London event) respectively.
“We like to keep our brief as open as possible,” says Byrne, “because Offset represents a lot of different things to a lot of different people; and because our speakers come from such a wide range of disciplines.” In each case, [they’ve] been a speaker or attendee at Offset, so there was a clear sense for the context of the work. “It was a balance between who we think would do it, and people whose work we like,” says Byrne.
With Golden Wolf [the process] was really smooth. They delivered everything on time. Because they’re professionals, we got everything in the right format, and they were able to produce teasers from it for promotional use.”
Working with Quinn, an Irish animator based in New York, the process was different. Quinn has a full-time role at Mill+, so the work was done in his spare time. In spite of these differences, “it was smooth again”, according to Byrne. “Because of the time difference, we would talk to him 3.30pm here and we’d have a half hour with him before work. We had enough lead time on the project for him to work on it at weekends. He got in some friends and colleagues who worked around the clock at the weekends to do a stop-motion piece.”
“We rely on people’s good will to push it beyond the assigned budget because it’s Offset, and it will be in front of an audience of their peers. In the past that has been frightening for some people – an audience of 2,500 creative professionals, all savvy about what they’re doing. It’s a challenge and we try to set it up in a way that’s fun and as enjoyable as possible.”
Words: David Wall
