IP Alumni in Barcelona

We sent two IP Alumni to Spain with the Twitter team to attend Barcelona’s 18th annual gathering for creatives, the OFFF Conference. Meet Olivia and Saaleha…

“OFFF is a community inviting all those who are eager to learn to participate and get inspired in a three-day journey of conferences, workshops, activities and performances. What is it about exactly? It’s a combination of Offline/Online designers, Motion Designers, Thinkers, Sound Designers, Graphic Designers, Theorists, Developers, Professionals, Students… Putting the titles aside, OFFF is made for the curious.”

Adobe was one of the sponsors at the conference and offered the opportunity for us to design using Photoshop & Illustrator.

Was there anything challenging about the trip?

O: One thing that was challenging for me was that there was very specific shop talk going on among the team of Twitter designers (that we went with), that was happening a lot of the time we were together. It felt a little over my head and during the short amount of time there I found it hard to find a way to interject, so that was a bit alienating.

S: I think the biggest challenge for me was not knowing anyone. I am a pretty chill person but I like knowing what’s going on and just being on top of things — it boiled down to traveling to Europe to a non-English speaking country with an itinerary I didn’t plan myself, with professionals and people I had met on one occasion so I was somewhat anxious, but excited for the adventure.

And by the end of the trip I was wanting to travel to Italy and regretting getting a direct flight back home. But my mom may have had a heart attack.

Being comfortable with being uncomfortable, to put it shortly.

O: For some reason I felt the exact opposite, like I was ready for someone else to take the wheel and didn’t feel anxious at all. I felt similarly upon arrival about catching a travel bug and wanting to go somewhere else. Because I had finally gotten over the initial anxiety of leaving the country and realized “hey that was not bad at all.” It wasn’t as disorienting as I thought it would be.

We had the opportunity to travel with six members of the Twitter design team. A talented group of designers, we joined them on company shadowing & tours of the Barcelona community.

interviewer / editor : Taylor Bird