Forward Festival is always a super innovative and exciting space for creatives from all corners of the industry. At this year’s Berlin iteration, we heard talks from sustainable fashion artist Nicole McLaughlin, Art Director Yani Gabriel, photographer Daniel De Koekk and so many more across a packed day and evening programme, set in the historic Babylon cinema. Joining them on the Main stage was our Creative Director, Clayton Welham.

We’ve been working with Forward Festival for over two years now. Facing the drama of unprecedented situations during that time, our collaboration resulted in a series of title sequence films. Each iteration of our work with Forward Festival informed the next – it was great to finally share the journey of our partnership on stage, and see it play out on multiple digital platforms during the event.

Aligning to what we refer to as our studio edges, a design-led, innovative approach and celebration of our team, we also shared a behind-the-scenes glimpse into some of our most recent projects. Looking at R&D and concepting, we broke down our LogoArchive and Burberry Olympia projects, offering an insight into the studio’s key processes and ambitions for the future.

A particularly inspirational talk came from Art Director, Yani Gabriel. Yani spoke about combining personal experience with her advertising skills to create a multi award-winning film about climate change. Her piece was inspired by witnessing the effects of global warming in her hometown in the Philippines during a devastating flood. Working with copywriter Shlomo Genchin, she created a campaign warning sports venues of their impact on the environment, using visual effects to raise goalposts, tennis courts, and basketball nets to the height that they’ll be by 2050 if sea levels continue to rise. Her commercial use of bright colours, music and bold fonts was an original way to tackle the climate consumption of the sports industry, and her talk was standout.

Alongside great Art Directors and Graphic Designers, the festival also featured two heavyweight photographers; New York street art heroine, Martha Cooper, and fashion’s go-to Berliner, Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek.

Whilst Martha was stuck in the US due to travel restrictions, she presented a virtual lecture on her 50-year career as the first documentary photographer to focus on street art. Her exhibition at Urban Nation showcased her impressive range of work from across the globe, but the intimate portraits she took of some of New York’s best-known artists in the 80s are what stuck with the team most. It was fascinating to hear the behind-the-scenes of her approach, moving from analogue to digital with the advent of the technology in the early 2000s, and shifting from night to day as the art form slowly became more recognised throughout the decades.

Outside of the talks themselves, we had the pleasure of chatting with a number of influential thinkers and artists from across the world.

First up was New York fashion artist Nicole McLaughlin. After Nicole’s packed-out talk, we had the opportunity to chat with her about all things material and sustainability. Her practice and approach are inspirational and her insights have already proved incredibly useful to the team, as we step into a number of exciting projects around circularity and the life cycles of product and material.

Alongside Nicole, we had the pleasure of chatting with the talented team from Koto at the launch of Forward’s latest magazine release. Leading a workshop on ‘Decentralised Branding’ at the festival, we discussed the importance of community engagement and ownership in the design process.

Lastly in the final hours of the festival we got to witness Dorian Concept, Austrian producer and keyboard artist, perform a live AV set – unlike anything we’d seen before, it sparked endless debate amongst us all. Enjoying a taxi ride to the airport together the following morning, we spoke with Dorian about performance energy, experimentation and the need to draw on eclectic influences – it was a fascinating end to an inspirational weekend.

We’ve come back from Berlin feeling super energised for a new season of projects. Thanks to all who attended our talk on the Main Stage and a huge thank you to Othmar, Caro and the rest of the Forward Festival team for having us – we’ll see you next in Vienna!

Photo credits
Forward Festival / Found

Check out the official festival recap here.