I arrived in Barcelona on the second day of the OFFF Festival in time to see Pete Hellicar & Joel Gethin Lewis take to the stage.

Hellicar and Lewis got together in 2008 and the focus of their work is in “creating groundbreaking experiences that use art, technology and design to take people into the moment and impart lasting memories.”

Essentially, things like this, this and this.

They are interested in making one off interactive pieces and talked about a project called Coke 24Hr Music in which a band could interact with their fans’ tweets.

Much more interesting though was the fact that the code from this large commercial project was then adapted for use in a suite of interactive therapy tools for autistic children.

They told a captivated audience how their Somantics software was helping over- and under-stimulated autistic children to temporarily escape the prison of their condition through touch, gesture and camera input.

It was really nice to see a large commercial piece of work used to go onto enable great stuff like this and to see design being put to good use to help others, encouraging stuff. You can read more about the project and watch some videos here.

In closing they explained that they believe all software should be free and that their code is available for download from Github.

A great, thought-provoking talk.

We were lucky enough to be invited to attend this year’s OFFF creative festival which just wrapped in Barcelona.

With a fantastic line up and an all new, spacious venue at the Disseny Hub, Barcelona, OFFF played host to a wonderful selection of talks, presentations, workshops and more.

Due to busy schedules, only one of our team, Guy Moorhouse could make it for a portion of the event, but in a short series of posts we’re going to cover our highlights from the festival, so stay tuned for more soon.

We’ll also have a little giveaway competition later this week for an exclusive new comic that debuted at OFFF from crazy, happy illustrators, Brosmind.

For those considering going to OFFF next year, it was confirmed at the end of the event that it will be at the same time and place in 2013, so hopefully we’ll see you there too.

More soon.

We’ve got an exciting series of articles planned for you that will document what it means to launch a new gallery & studio in collaboration with The International Picture House. Over the next month fellow FFF contributor Chris Gray will keep us updated on his latest project, which should be a great insight for anyone thinking of setting up their own studio or gallery.

Their goal is to source, commission or construct everything required from independent traders & craftsman. With updates every couple of days we’ll follow Chris and his colleagues towards the launch of a new creative space.

There are also a couple of workplaces available if you’re on the lookout for one!

We visited the Mingarro brothers, also known as Brosmind, in their Barcelona Studio to have a chat with them about what influences them and what’s like working together with your brother.

Founded by Juan and Alejandro Mingarro in 2006 Brosmind’s style is fresh and optimistic, combining fantasy and humour in their award winning illustrations. With clients ranging from Nike, Microsoft & Virgin to Gillette, Honda & Volkswagen their work is in high-demand, but they do try do balance this out with personally motivated projects such as their Brosmind Army or the Brosmind City.

Juan & Alejandro were a creative team from an early age spending their time drawing comics, building vehicles and making home movies with their parents domestic camcorder (almost an early Be Kind Rewind). Though both brothers began their studies in completely different fields (Juan graduated in Pharmacy and Alejandro in Industrial Design) they then both continued to study at art school. After graduating they briefly separately worked at advertising agency Villarrosas and FABRICA, the Benetton Research and Communication Center in Italy before they got together to found Brosmind Studio.

As our first studio visit interview we couldn’t have asked for better subjects & hosts than Brosmind. Approachable, friendly & funny a lot like their work! The brothers went through our questions finishing each others sentences and are incredibly interesting to watch and listen to.

We hope you enjoy the interview as much as we enjoyed filming it!

In our last interview from OFFF 2011 in Barcelona we chat with type designer Erik Spiekermann about snot rags, brain surgery and remembering jokes.

For those of you who don’t know about Mr. Spiekermann… and I doubt there are many of you that don’t… here’s a quick biography.

Erik Spiekermann, born 1947, studied History of Art and English in Berlin. Some of the typefaces he designed include FF Meta, FF MetaSerif, ITC Officina and many corporate typefaces.

He was founder (1979) of MetaDesign, Germany’s largest design firm with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco. Projects included corporate design programmes for Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen, Lexus, Heidelberg Printing and way­finding projects like Berlin Transit, Düsseldorf Airport and many others.

In 1988 he started FontShop, a company for production and distribution of electronic fonts. In 2001 he left MetaDesign and is now a partner in Edenspiekermann with offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, London and San Francisco. (Source: FontFont)

In the 6th episode of our interview series from OFFF 2011 we chat with James Warfield, graphic designer at Dare in London. He told us about motivation, collecting stories and secret agents. He also kindly designed this weeks masthead image.

James is currently working on a new portfolio site and we should have some exclusive footage for you very soon!

In the 5th episode of our interview series from OFFF 2011 we chat with young illustrator Magomed Dovjenko, also know as Mago. Having already worked for a ever growing number of high profile clients at such a young age it was interesting to hear about his work with clients and becoming part of the Keystone Design Union core team.

This week we present to you our interview with Jean-Marc Joseph, Creative Director of Base Motion, the audio-visual department at Base Design.

A design agency with offices in Barcelona, Brussels, Madrid, New York & Santiago, Base “specializes in not specializing” which is certainly evident in their broad range of work in graphic design, art direction, audiovisuals, copywriting, and typeface design (an example of which is Baseville featured in this weeks header graphic).

Jean-Marc answered a few of our questions during the OFFF in Barcelona. He tells us about the working process at base and how the different offices and departments collaborate, but also about his love for the Brompton Bike… which I apologise for not knowing about ;)

In the third episode of our interview series from OFFF 2011 we chat with artist, designer, illustrator and all-round dude – Matt W. Moore.

We caught up with him when he was close to finishing at Mural at the OFFF Festival in Barcelona. For more information about his work check out this previous post.

Matt was also kind enough to create our masthead this week.

We continue our interview series from OFFF 2011 with Rick Banks, who some of you might know better as Face37. We cought up with Rick just before he was about to give a talk about his work at the festival. In this short interview he tells a little more about his favourite design books, being a knee surgeon and following Stefan Sagmeister around Barcelona.

Rick has also designed our masthead this week. The typeface featured is a future release called Bella. More info about the typeface on FFF soon.

As you may have read, a few of us FFFers visited the OFFFest in Barcelona this year. Armed with a list of questions, a mic & two Canon 550D’s we set up meetings with some talented people to have a relaxed chat with us on camera.

We kick off our series of interviews from the lovely city of Barcelona with one of Spain’s greatest creative talents Alex Trochut.

To keep things more FFF we made the questions short and snappy and let the conversation develop when it did. We hope you enjoy the first in this series of 8.

Let us know what you think. Is this kind of thing something you’d like to see more of on FormFiftyFive?

To celebrate the release of director/designer Mike Mills’ new film Beginners, in cinemas July 22nd, we’re are offering two lucky winners the chance to win a pair of tickets each to an exclusive preview screening of the film plus Q&A with Mike Mills on Monday 11th July.

From writer/director Mike Mills comes Beginners, a comedy/drama about how deeply funny and transformative life can be, even at its most serious moments. Beginners imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Golden Globe Award nominee Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Mélanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds) only months after his father Hal Fields (Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer) has passed away.

Director Mike Mills is also an established graphic designer/illustrator who has worked with some of the world’s largest brands on their advertising campaigns, as well creating album covers and music videos for music artists such as Moby, Beastie Boys, Beck Sonic Youth and Yoko Ono.

To be in with the chance of winning a pair of tickets to this exclusive screening + Q&A, simply tell us what Arthur (the dog) is thinking in this still from the film. The two wittiest answers will win!

Answer by email to submissions[at]formfiftyfive.com, making the subject BEGINNERS.

Terms and Conditions • Competition open to UK residents only • No cash alternative is available • Screening + Q&A will be taking place in London on 11th July, winners must be available to attend on that day

A Universal Picture © 2011 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved

Part of the FormFiftyFive Team flew to Barcelona to visit the OFFF 2011. We listened to some rather talented people talk about their work, met a few of them personally and asked them a few questions for you and filmed the whole thing!

We’ll release one interview a week over the next couple of months. So keep an eye on FFF and keep up to date with us on Twitter @formfiftyfive.

If you’ve got a decent connection watch the video in HD on Full Screen!

— Filmed by Alex Nelson, Jack Daly & Glenn Garriock on Canon’s 550D with Music Starslinger (You can buy ‘Mornin’ here)

More photos of the event and Barcelona can be found on the OFFF Flickr Group. Add your own!

All this week we’ll be reporting straight from this years OFFFest! 8 of us FFFers are heading out to Barcelona to take in some of the sites but mainly to watch, listen and learn from some of the worlds best designers, artists and digital creatives.

We’ll do our best to interview some of those talented folks and will publish our findings on our return home. Keen an eye on the FFF Twitter Feed for up to date information.

If your in Barcelona or at the OFFF come and say hi!

FFF have teamed up with Uberminimall to giveaway 25 Piolo stands and Trickle apps. For you’re chance to win, just visit our Twitter and retweet the giveaway tweet.