22/05/2025
OFFF Barcelona 2025: a journey through creativity, emotion, and bold perspectives
This year, our Visual Agency team had the opportunity to attend OFFF Barcelona 2025, an international festival dedicated to creativity, design, and digital culture. A landmark event for the creative industry, OFFF gathers some of the world’s most inspiring artists, designers, and thinkers to share their processes, philosophies, and passions.
The festival was not just about beautiful visuals or cutting-edge techniques, it was about authentic storytelling, emotional resonance, and courageous creative choices. Here's a glimpse into what moved and inspired our team the most.
(Ilenia Gabrielli's video, one of our motion designer, was selected among those that were screened on the big screen at the Disseny Hub in Barcelona.)
Anna Ginsburg: empathy through animation
For Noemi, our motion designer, one of the standout voices at OFFF 2025 was Anna Ginsburg, whose talk blended emotional depth with sharp social critique. Ginsburg’s work fearlessly addresses uncomfortable topics like the social expectations placed on women after 30, and the rigid, often harmful standards of beauty. Her animations, often done in hand-drawn 2D, stop-motion, and live action, reject idealized forms in favor of real, imperfect, beautiful bodies.
Projects like Just the Two of Us, an animation inspired by a woman quietly singing on a bus, showed Ginsburg’s ability to turn fleeting, intimate moments into poetic visuals. Other highlights included Private Parts, a candid and humorous exploration of sex, menstruation, and body image, and What is Beauty?, created with poet Sabrina Mahfouz, which confronts shifting beauty standards across history with a bold yet accessible tone. For Noemi, Ginsburg’s work was a powerful reminder of how animation can humanize invisible truths.
Yuko Shimizu: the art of inner strength
Valerio, from our motion graphics team, was particularly moved by the talk from Yuko Shimizu, the renowned Japanese illustrator known for her bold style and work with The New Yorker and The New York Times. What stood out most was her vulnerability and authenticity.
She encouraged artists to trust their inner voice—"Your style is already inside you—you just need to let it out." Shimizu emphasized the importance of resisting trends, taking small creative risks, and finding joy in the physical act of making, even in a digital age.
Her words offered a powerful reminder that true growth comes from honesty, ambition, and staying connected to what you love.
Musketon: chaos meets precision
Xully, visual designer, couldn’t help but be captivated by Musketon, the wild, fast-talking illustrator who presented an astonishing 883 slides in his talk. Known for his bright, punchy visuals and satirical undertones, Musketon brought humor, unpredictability, and technical brilliance to the stage.
Though his style appears 2D at first glance, many of his works are built on 3D structures using Blender, over which he draws to create complex, layered illustrations. His irreverence is matched by a deep understanding of visual impact, and his chaotic energy was a refreshing contrast to more polished presentations. For Xully, Musketon was a reminder that there’s power in imperfection and spontaneity and that creative messiness can still deliver sharp, meaningful results.
Domestic Data Streamers: data with a human touch
Eugenia, digital designer, was most inspired by Pau Aleikum Garcia from Domestic Data Streamers, a studio that explores the social dimension of data visualization. Their talk tackled the role of AI in creativity, urging artists to see it not as a threat, but as a new territory of responsibility and opportunity.
One particularly powerful project, Synthetic Memories, uses AI to recreate lost or undocumented personal memories through a collaborative process with users. As participants recall details of a forgotten photo or moment, the AI helps them generate visual reconstructions, resulting in both a personal archive and a collective exhibition. For Euge, the project was moving because it shifted AI from a tool of efficiency to one of emotional care, showing that technology can serve memory, healing, and storytelling.
Reflections: creativity that matters
Our time at OFFF 2025 wasn’t just professionally enriching, it was deeply personal. Across every talk and installation, a common thread emerged: creativity as a vehicle for truth, emotion, and social reflection. All artists invited us to create work that matters, work that speaks, provokes, heals, and ultimately, connects.