Challenged by the pandemic, ADCE co-organizes this year the seventh edition of the ADCE Festival together with the local member clubs and will stream talks and events produced in different cities all over Europe. The Festival of Festivals is a collective virtual space created for the European creative community to come together, be inspired, and exchange ideas and experiences that will take place on the 6th of November. The Festival streaming will originate from Barcelona, at the ADCE headquarters, and will introduce different connections throughout the day.
Headlining the ADCE Festival will be the lecture series titled ‘Prototyping brands for a new era‘, that will showcase the people and brands who are prototyping, experimenting, and constantly iterating and trying to make the world better. “Brands are showing unprecedented leadership across all aspects of the environment and society”, says Steve Vranakis, curator of the Festival and Greek government’s Chief Creative Officer. And adds: “their role is moving quickly beyond that of just ‘selling stuff’ to making a positive impact through their brands and businesses”.
The future of conscious business
Creativity with a conscience is the main topic the keynote speakers will address on Friday, 6th of November. “We want to showcase the people who are at the forefront of this movement and ensure that our industry is both known and remembered for our ideas and positive impact on culture, society, economy, environment, and a better future for everyone” sums up Vranakis. Representing a cross-section of organizations, countries across Europe, and individuals from all walks of life, keynote speakers are:
- Alex Bec, Managing Director and Founder at Hudson Bec Group / It’s Nice That. Under the title ‘Enabling Creativity to Thrive – bringing purpose to publishing’, Bec will talk about how he and his team have structured a group of businesses around It’s Nice That to stay true to their purpose, and making a lasting impact on the creative industry.
- Rebecca Swift, Senior Director and Global Head of Creative Insights at Getty Images will look at the evolution in the commercial visualization of ourselves and our lives by examining how the meaning of “authenticity” has changed as we expect more from the pictures that we see in branded content.
- Luiz Sanches, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer at ALMAP BBDO will have a conversation with speaker Ian Grais, curator Steve Vranakis and ADCE Festival Advisor, Jamshid Alamuti, about conscious businesses.
- Ian Grais, Founder and National Creative Director at Rethink Canada, will highlight the importance of focusing on people, before focusing on product and focusing on profit to consistently create your best work. ‘Rethink the business of creativity’ is the title of the talk he proposes.
- Julia von Winterfeldt, Founder and CEO at SOULWORX will talk about how companies can unfold a purposeful mindset collectively, and manifest something that matters not only to you, individual, but also to us and ultimately to them. ‘Awakening Purposeful Possibility – Collectively’ is the title of her talk.
- Karel J. Golta, Founder and CEO at INDEED will offer a talk entitled ‘Rebels to recode innovation’. In his talk, Golta will debate why creating cool products and services is no longer good enough when the world is on fire because of climate change, increasingly divided societies, and technology undermining our humanity instead of nurturing it.
- Mathias Wikström (CEO and Founder) and Johan Pihl (Head of Innovation and Founder) at Doconomy will share their thoughts on how to rewire financial systems to save the planet by forging the power of data, technology, and collaboration. ‘Consumers to the rescue’ is the title of their talk.
Connections across Europe
There will be thirdteen slots used by local clubs with local top-speakers and other creative content that will give real insights into what the ADCE network stands for and the value of European diversity across the industry. Country proposals are as follows:
- Portugal: 33 artists have been invited to develop 1 illustration on the ADCE Festival theme and a small video talking about their creative process. During the Festival there will be a virtual gallery to see their work and buy the fine print from the artist. On the 6th of November, they will also celebrate the ‘ILUSTRA HACKATON’: a sprint event where 5 Portuguese artists will collaborate intensively on an illustration project. For 8 hours, they’ll explore different languages, discuss new ideas and develop personal projects. No software, no hardware, just illustration.
- Austria: Michael Katzlberger, CEO at TUNNEL23 will offer a talk entitled ‘Can Artificial Intelligence be creative?’ where he will give a comprehensible overview of the fascinating discipline of artificial intelligence and show many practical examples for the use of AI in the creative industry. From image and video processing, voice control, product design, text generation, and processing to the management of advertising campaigns.
- Ireland: the Institute of Creative Advertising and Design (ICAD) will share The Best of Us ’20, a unique exhibition showcasing the best of Irish advertising and design that uses Dublin as its canvas. The exhibition uses pioneering video projection and mapping technology, along with interactive digital guides, to present the work on landmark buildings as backdrops.
- Cyprus: visual designer Charis Tsevis will give the talk “What about Ornella? Lessons learned. Lessons worth sharing.” on education and self education, great teachers, goal setting and discipline, and lessons learned from Gestalt psychology over his three decades career as a designer.
- Switzerland: Neutral Communication Agency will reflect on ‘How to strategize brands in the age of confusion’, and how the virus and the breakdown of consensus-based-reality have pushed us faster and further into the 21st century.
- Ukraine: Olga Shevchenko, Creative Director at Vintage Web Production, will share her thoughts about why ‘Creativity is indeed just like sports’. “When you first start, -she argues-, you have no idea as to what you’re doing. It takes a lot of practice and a coordinated team to become successful”.
- Italy: the ADCI will share a video capturing the reactions and comments of the Italian creative community all around the theme of the “Undistancing”, from post-lockdown creativity to the true meaning of commitment in this period.
- Lithuania: product designer Jonas Lekevičius will share his views about ‘Artificial Intelligence and Designer Collaboration’. “Before AI completely replaces designers, it might help us, give us ideas, new creative tools, and might even critique our work using vast amounts of data”, Lekevičius thinks.
- Germany: ADC Germany proposes two activities. On the one hand, Roland Lambrette, ADC Member & rector of the Bremen University of the Arts will debate on ‘Kreativity and responsibility – a 5 Mio. Dollar question’. On the other hand, ADC Germany will present a virtual reality game that has been created in collaboration with Germany’s Foreign Office as a way to highlight Europe’s strengths: diversity, peace, and cohesion. ‘Pathways – Europe at Your Fingertips’ takes players on an incredible journey across the continent.
- Russia: ADC Russia will talk about their recent ADCR winning works 2020: Birds Record Music Video from BBDO Moscow for WWF Russia, Font of kindness from Smetana for Russian charity foundation ROSBANK, and We are Siberia from TutkovBudkov for S7 Airlines.
- Finland: will be represented with an inspirational act curated by the creative team at hasan & partners and hosted at the communication agency during the day of the event.
- Latvia: Anna Andersone, start-up founder and Riga TechGirls CEO, will talk about the human need for touch and making a business case out of it, but above all benefiting the society on a much larger scale than we could ever imagine. ‘How many hugs?’ is the title of the talk she proposes. Her background and experience lies within building design and tech companies and supporting the start-up ecosystem in Latvia by founding designer and developer co-working space THE MILL, being on the board of TechHub Riga and actively being outspoken about gender equality in tech.
- Spain: David Ruiz, founder and creative director of ruiz+company will highlight the importance of knowing where we are to know where we are going with a talk entitled ‘Stop and think’. He will share his insights after the amazing experience of sailing around the globe on his own for 4 years.
The ADCE Festival will also program a curated selection of workshops delving into the singularities of the creative process, aiming at inspiring and challenging abilities regarding problem-solving, endurance, collaboration, and innovative ways to enhance inner creativity. The Festival will end with a simultaneous event that will connect all Clubs and venues around Europe.
About the Art Directors Club of Europe
ADCE passionately believes that only if we are a diverse, connected, and collaborative European creative community, we will solve complex problems. ADCE is the platform where the creative community unites to interact and foster, explore, celebrate and promote creativity as a multi-solution approach. ADCE educates, inspires, and exchanges knowledge and experience by leveraging the diversity of European creativity.
The Art Directors Club of Europe (ADCE) is a non-profit association headquartered in Barcelona. It comprises 23 professional clubs and associations of graphic design and advertising from 22 European countries: Austria, Cyprus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Georgia, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Ukraine.
Founded in 1990, the ADCE strives to foster excellence in graphic design and advertising creativity at a European scale. The association represents more than 5,000 professionals from the field and gives visibility to the best works accomplished locally. The current president is Ami Hasan, founder, chairman and creative director of hasan & partners.
