GAME-CHANGING MOMENTS
L
ast April I had the
opportunity to speak on
stage at OFFF Festival
in Barcelona, which was a bit of a
career dream for me. I remember
being on the flight out to Barcelona
when imposter syndrome kicked in
big time. I was looking at the final
line-up of speakers and realised that
all these people are headliners in
the creative industry. They all had
bags of experience, had worked on
big and incredible projects and
I’m nowhere near that level... who
the hell is going to come and listen
to me!
Fortunately, I managed to fight
the imposter syndrome quite
quickly and just thought, “Fuck it,
just be yourself and enjoy every
moment of it.” I was speaking on
the first day at the event and shortly
before I was due to go on stage, one
of the OFFF volunteers came and
got me and took me to behind the
stage to get mic’d up and ready to
go. At this moment, I hadn’t seen
any of the crowd and the stage
organiser turned round to me and
said, “You must be good at what you
do, have you seen the crowd?” To
my bemusement, she let me peek
through the curtain to see a full
house and opened a back door to
show a queue of people waiting to
get in the venue. Within seconds,
panic set in automatically and
I started to question myself. Before
you know it, I’m on stage at OFFF
speaking to over 1,500 people.
All I remember from that talk
was the warm welcome from the
audience, moments of joy on
people’s face and connecting with
them on an emotional level. I felt
that my talk resonated with a lot
of people and this enabled me to
connect with them on a whole
new level.
As part of being a speaker at
OFFF, I collaborated with OFFF
and Moritz (the Barcelona-based
beer brand) with a brand-activation
project by creating a live lettering
installation, customising the iconic
SEAT 600 car model showcasingMoritz’s values and modern senses
mixed with OFFF’s endless creative
vibes. This was an incredible project
to work on. It opened up more
dialogue and engagement with the
audience while they came to see me
bring this lettering installation on
the car to life. It received such wide
engagement across social media
that the car became a landmark for
tourists in Barcelona to get pictures
and selfies next to it, which was just
amazing to be a part of.
My experience at OFFF Festival
made me realise that my story can
help inspire others on their own
journey. From that talk, I spent
the latter half of 2019 travelling
across the globe from New York to
Sydney, sharing my story with new
audiences. The most special thing
that came from the festival was that
it made me realise the importance
of bringing people together and the
impact that can have.Left: Lettering installation in progress at OFFF Barcelona festival. Above: Customised SEAT 600 car on public display in central Barcelona.“It made me realise the importance of bringing
people together and the impact that can have”
CraigBlackisanindependentdesigner﹐letteringartistandtypographerbasedinGourock﹐Scotland﹒Knownforhis
bespokeandinnovativelettering﹐visualidentities﹐packaging﹐murals﹐installationsandeverythinginbetween﹐hismain
strengthliesinhisabilitytocrossdisciplineswithouttherestrictionofafixedpersonalstyle﹒
craigblackdesign﹒com- 47 -