Reflecting on a bold year for motion design with DEMO festival

Growing dramatically since the first DEMO festival in 2019 – which still impressively took over the 360 screens in Amsterdam Central Station – this year’s edition saw motion design descend on 5000 screens in partnership with 12 different digital out of home owners. Each had altering screen specs and in turn, managing motion “for a large variety of screens was quite a challenge,” Liza continues. If you had visited the Dumbar offices in the months leading up to DEMO it’s likely you would have seen studio members hunched over, “spec checking, adjusting the motion works and triple-checking” behind-the-scenes. Work submitted also went through a lengthy curation process led by Liza, creative coder Tim Rodenbröker, interdisciplinary designer and art director Koos Breen, VR sculpting duo Yonk and animation director, Connor Campbell.

Following this in-depth process, work selected was then categorised into a variety of themes. Defined by this year’s curators, each theme offered reflections of current trends amongst the motion design community. These included Total Motion, featuring works with innovative uses of animation; Slow Motion, in which time is distorted as a stylistic choice; Graphic Moves where designers lift from graphic design to create cross-disciplinary works of motion; Shapeshifters, reflecting the morphing qualities of shapes often seen in motion design and Algorithmic Adventures, investigating how advances in technology can mesh with the discipline. Elsewhere was Better Than Real, curating together designers utilising digital design to create hyperreal landscapes; Stranger Things, featuring the humorous tendency of motion designers in terms of narrative; Picture This, with character-based or shape-based works and finally, a Happy Hour of short clips which evoke joy.

From the thousands of applicants, there were also motion designers whose work was elevated by the canvases available. For example, in Amsterdam, Guillaume Roux’s work took over a cube screen above a shopping street, altering the perception of those watching below. “Seeing his typical 3D work on a sculptural-like screen really enhanced the experience, bringing it even more to life.” Those with more tactile approaches to the medium also benefited from the scale DEMO offers, such as the Riso stop motion works of Julia Schimautz, which were “stunning to see on large pillars in Hoog Catherine in Utrecht,” describes Liza. “The warm colours of her work really popped on these screens and the print texture of the work made you wonder how it was made.” Members of Studio Dumbar were additionally on hand in these larger locations, organising small group tours to highlight the range of work.

Given the number of motion designers featured at DEMO, the festival itself is a community event. Wandering around key areas, online friends were often spotted bumping into each other, finally connecting in person after following their work on social media. Individuals had also travelled from all over the world to see “their Instagram feed live”, from South America to neighbouring European countries. Such fondness for the festival develops not only from Studio Dumbar’s infectious enthusiasm for championing the growing field of motion design, but also due to DEMO being the largest of its kind. It is so common for fans of creativity to nip down to a local photography, painting or sculpture exhibition, but at DEMO the world of screen-based creativity gets it moment in the spotlight.

“Our focus was to put motion design forward, to give it the platform it deserves, to inspire the community and also just show everyone not knowing what motion design is in the first place the brilliant and beautiful motion works made by many talents,” adds Liza on this point. “It’s really great that we can bring everyone together who is as passionate about design as we are and that we have become a real community and support each other.” In this sense, DEMO lifts up not only those who view the work but increases the opportunities of those featured. Take Yonk who, in 2019, featured one of their first pieces together at the festival and three years later led its curation.