Worldwide artistic competition OFFF will launch its first-ever Montréal version this September, bringing a worldwide line-up of designers, artists and technologists to town’s Société des arts technologiques (SAT) for 2 days of talks, workshops and studio visits.
Based in Barcelona in 2001, OFFF has turn out to be a worldwide fixture for creatives working throughout design, digital tradition, and storytelling. Its mission is to supply an area for collaboration, exploration, and change by connecting curious minds and championing what’s subsequent. Montréal marks the most recent cease on its worldwide tour, following occasions in cities like Vienna, Tel Aviv, and Mexico Metropolis.
What’s most attention-grabbing is that OFFF Montréal is not only a carbon copy of the Barcelona unique. As a substitute, it is a reflection of town itself – multidisciplinary, community-driven, and unafraid to combine issues up. The 2-day competition will carry collectively worldwide heavyweights and native expertise by way of a programme of talks, workshops, studio visits, and experimental experiences.
International roots, native spirit
OFFF founder Pep Salazar is evident on why Montréal was subsequent on the checklist. “Montréal has all the time been on our radar,” he says. “It is an actual hub for creatives, studios, factories, freelancers… and likewise for its dynamic scene on tradition, digital creativity and festivals.”
It is not solely new territory both, because the workforce beforehand held OFFF Québec simply exterior town, and Pep describes Montréal as “an outdated good friend”. This re-creation builds on that relationship however with a refreshed, extra centralised presence downtown and a broader, extra inclusive programme.
OFFF Montréal additionally overlaps with FORUM (5–7 September), town’s annual design meeting based by native studio Caserne, which can be the artistic power behind OFFF Montréal’s visible identification. Their involvement goes past graphics, although.
“Caserne spoke at OFFF Barcelona in Might and later approached us with the concept of a collaboration,” Pep explains. “It was simple and pure to work collectively on a co-imagined marketing campaign.”
This partnership has sparked a brand new hybrid idea: OFFForum. A fusion of world vitality and native perception, it is a theme that runs by way of the whole competition.
Who’s talking?
OFFF is thought for its rigorously curated speaker line-ups, and the Montréal version isn’t any exception. Highlights embrace Montreal-based animation studio Tendril, Spanish model identification legends Lo Siento, London’s movement design innovators Discovered, and visible storytelling specialists Territory Studio. There’s additionally Volvox Labs (NYC), Studio Roses (Barcelona), Vallée Duhamel (Montréal), and the multidisciplinary artist Will MacNeil, who will create the competition’s Fundamental Titles piece.
In true OFFF vogue, the speaker checklist does not cease at design. Canadian winemaker and regenerative agriculture advocate Véronique Lemieux can be on the invoice. “With this line-up, I need to introduce inspiring new voices, new profiles, new focus… not simply what we already know,” says Pep. “Winemaking is just not simple, and has a whole lot of innovation and design behind it.”
The competition’s construction, as ever, is designed for fluidity, with talks and workshops interwoven with immersive experiences. Anticipate 12 keynote classes masking every thing from AI-assisted storytelling and interactive installations to model identification and movement design.
A uncommon look inside Second Manufacturing facility
Some of the anticipated components of the Montréal version is an unique studio go to to Second Manufacturing facility, the multimedia studio liable for reworking every thing from airport terminals to immersive stay reveals. Attendees will get hands-on entry to interactive installations and behind-the-scenes insights into the studio’s artistic course of.
“It is an awesome alternative to go to this excellent studio and perceive how area is necessary for creativity,” says Pep. “Attendees will check installations in beta and be a part of two workshops to know how Second Manufacturing facility works from the within.”
This is not the one second of intimacy within the programme. Workshops led by Volvox Labs provide an opportunity to get tactile with tech, whereas the encircling FORUM occasions present additional alternatives to satisfy, study, and experiment.
Reimagining the way forward for visible tradition
At its coronary heart, OFFF has all the time been about sparking chance, however it’s not all in favour of predictable traits or shiny outcomes. As a substitute, it is a area for concepts in progress. And that ethos is evident in the best way the Montréal version fuses disciplines: from visible results to viticulture, conventional branding to AI-generated imagery.
“We all the time mix totally different visions, disciplines and work dynamics,” Pep says. “From the magicians of Movement and Houdini to the kings of visible interactivity, and essentially the most superior storytelling utilizing AI instruments – it is all a part of how we form the way forward for visible communication.”
This willingness to evolve is what’s helped OFFF keep related for practically 25 years, however what retains it grounded is the best way every version leans into its host metropolis. OFFF Montréal is not simply dropping – it is embedding itself within the metropolis’s artistic ecosystem.
“OFFF is an ecosystem inside different ecosystems,” Pep provides. “By working regionally as a lot as we will – with Caserne, FORUM, SAT, Phi Middle, and extra – we guarantee every metropolis brings one thing distinctive.”
Tickets, particulars, and subsequent stops
OFFF Montréal takes place on the SAT on 8–9 September. Tickets at the moment are accessible by way of the SAT web site, with the complete speaker line-up and programme updates accessible at offfmontreal.com.
The Montréal version is only one of a number of OFFF festivals occurring this yr, with upcoming occasions in Mexico (28–29 August) and Seville (27–29 November). If the Montréal launch is something to go by, this is not simply one other cease on the tour – it is a artistic collision designed to go away an enduring impression.
