OFFF 2025 Thoughts & Takeaways
The Coachella for branding & design nerds like us.
OFFF has always been more than a festival.
As well as time to catch up and connect with designers from around the world and spend time together as a creative team, OFFF is a check in on the creative industry, what’s driving it forward, what’s shifting beneath the surface and what we need to pay attention to next. Needless to say, we came away inspired and energised with a lot of takeaways.
A central theme emerged at this year’s festival around the enduring power of brand storytelling and how emotional connection and authenticity facilitates great design and guest experience. As a studio that always seeks to lead with strategy and create work that is strategic and meaningful as well as beautiful, this resonated greatly.
Let’s dive deeper into what we heard and our takeaways.
Designing for emotion, not just attention.
Some of the most powerful sessions weren’t about design execution. They were about how creative work makes people feel.
From Anna Ginsburg’s emotionally resonant animations to Pentagram’s Marina Willer reminding us that design is never just about aesthetics, it’s about clarity, narrative and emotion. Her reflections on brand DNA pushed us to think less about polish and more about impact. Marina’s Brasil Brasil project was a standout design rooted in the cultural texture of Brazil, bold and emotional without losing clarity or intent. Her reminder to us all, reinvention should never come at the cost of authenticity.
Lucas Hesse’s talk reinforced this further. He redefined motion as emotion, showing how typography, sound and movement can build resonance and meaning. His project The Space of Unknowing blurred the lines between motion and print, a thoughtful push toward experiences that feel both physical and digital, intuitive and intentional.
Across these talks, one thing became clear to us, emotion is the thread that ties it all together. It’s what turns design into narrative and narrative into meaning. The challenge we’ve set ourselves. Are we designing for a feeling at every stage?
Storytelling is still everything.
Above all, in an increasingly fragmented media landscape, the power of story hasn’t diminished, it’s just had to evolve. Lauren Hartstone, ECD at Sibling Rivalry, spoke to this beautifully in her session on the evolution of sports branding. She asked ‘What if leagues acted more like lifestyle brands? And what if motion wasn’t used for information but for emotion?
It’s a shift we’re already seeing. Sport, fashion and culture, all blurring, all underpinned by narrative. Audiences are no longer letting this slide. They’re emotionally invested and what they respond to isn’t content, it’s a story and a feeling.
Her words validated something we’ve been exploring more deeply in our own work, how storytelling isn’t a layer we just add in at the end. It’s strategically thought through from day one. It informs tone, identity and the space. Without it, the work might look good but it won’t move anyone. These moments reaffirmed something we believe deeply in our studio, that brands today need more than a visual identity, they need a voice, a perspective and a story worth telling.
While much of the work on display confirmed the essential role motion design plays in storytelling, and the life and emotion of a brand, on the flip side we observed a renewed love for the hand drawn and the imperfect. An appreciation of beauty in analog processes, and perhaps a reminder that creativity doesn’t always need to be polished.
Storytelling is still evolving and has us thinking about how brand narrative plays out in hospitality and how we can use story to create deeper emotional connections, not just visual ones. And a sharp reminder that creativity is always about people, our teams, clients and those we design for.
AI: A creative catalyst or a creative crutch?
It feels like you can’t escape the discussion around AI at the moment and indeed discussion surrounding AI was everywhere at OFFF, though refreshingly the conversations had matured. Instead of worries about AI coming for our jobs, conversations were instead framed around opportunity. Speakers like Ines Alpha, Boldtron and Paul Trillo showcased work that uses AI not as replacement, but as a creative amplifier, unlocking new forms, aesthetics and perspectives.
NiceAunties framed it best, the next wave of creative work won’t come from rejecting AI but from learning how to collaborate with it. How to integrate it into the creative process, while holding onto the real, strategic and emotional core of what we do. The best stories still come from a place of feeling and real connection. Al can assist in the background, but it’s our job to make people care.
People first. Work follows.
One of the standout moments for us? The closing talk by Alex Center. Honest, hilarious and packed with the kind of insight that hits deep. His phrase “People first. People second. Work third” stuck with us. A simple reminder that strong creative cultures aren’t built on hustle or hype, but on clarity, care and connection.
That thread ran through other talks too. Lauren from DixonBaxi spoke about building cultures where risk, trust and shared vision aren’t just buzzwords, they’re the foundations. And NiceAunties reminded us that humour and joy aren’t soft, they’re radical. They allow us to show up not just as passive audiences but as collaborators.
That idea of collaboration, openness and cultural exchange echoed in the streets. For the first time, OFFF broke out of the Disseny Hub and turned the city into a canvas with OFFF a la Ciutat. From indie makers at La Plaça Design Market (LĀU Clothing, Brutto, OMG BCN) to The Screen, a stunning projection collab with Frameboy, creativity became public, playful and impossible to ignore.
And for brand storytelling? That’s the takeaway. The best, most meaningful work doesn’t happen behind closed doors. It happens when you make space for people, for emotion and for connection. OFFF reminded us that a brand isn’t something you present. It’s something people can feel on the street, in a moment or through a beautifully human idea.
Where we go from here
As a studio, we left OFFF not just inspired but excited and more confident than ever in the role we play within the global creative conversation. Surrounded by our peers from some of the most exciting studios working today, we felt part of something bigger and inspired by how we can shape better design and experience through smart strategy, thoughtful storytelling and a willingness to embrace new tools.
