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The Forward Festival in Amsterdam, powered by a partnership with Squarespace, recently concluded, leaving attendees inspired and empowered to turn their passion into a business through a unique online presence. The festival featured a series of compelling talks from prominent artists and designers, each demonstrating the robust capabilities of Squarespace's design-driven website-building platform.

Squarespace and the Forward Festival are partnering in our join mission to empower creatives, providing inspiring talks and useful tools for their design-driven, all-in-one website-building platform that simplifies building an impactful online presence without coding. This collaboration is devoting itself to unleashing creativity, enabling artists and designers to beautifully showcase their work and grow their digital businesses effectively outside the confines of social algorithms.Together, we want to inspire participants to express their unique visions online and thrive in the digital landscape.

Dutch Design Week is calling: the call for entries for the 23rd edition is now open. Submit your project now!

Once again this year, Content Vienna, the Vienna Business Agency’s competition for digital design, was looking for creative, digital projects in development – from games to virtual reality and animation. The winners have now been selected. Production grants in the amount of 10,000 euros each were awarded five times and three projects were honoured with special prizes. Get to know two of the winners, who are developing projects at the intersections of art, film and AI as well as games and cultural heritage in the interview with S()fia Braga and Rebecca Merlic!

Stephanie Meisl and Gerald Geier emerged as winners in the "Spotlight your Idea" Open Call, a collaboration between the Vienna Business Agency and the Forward Festival. Their creative ideas dazzled an international audience. Gerald Geier presented "Remember the Future," a visionary concept addressing climate change and the world's potential state in 2073. Stephanie Meisl captivated with her fusion of art and AI, showcasing the thrilling blend of fear and excitement and the endless opportunities this creative marriage offers.

For three decades, FREITAG has been synonymous with design, functionality, and sustainable material use. Inspired by the culture of copying, this initiative showcases the company's commitment to recycling and eco-friendly production.

The independent German publishing house Slanted focuses on publications on contemporary art, illustration, design, photography and typography. With their own Slanted magazine, they aim to cover a broad spectrum of the creative industry and its designers and artists. Get to know Slanted, its publications, (maybe upcoming) projects and thoughts about the creative industry and its constant change and development. We talked to Julia Kahl a Partner, Editor and Graphic Designer at Slanted Publishers.

After releasing an animated short “Grump in the Night” earlier this year, family-run Something’s Awry Productions is back with “Unlucky Charms,” a creepy horror short that came out just before Halloween. Maxon talked with Kris Theorin, the studio’s lead animation director, about how he and his brothers, Nik and Kurtis, wrote the script and made the ambitious film using Maxon One, Unreal’s MetaHuman and After Effects.

With “A Thousand Breaths,” the Logische Phantasie Lab (LoPh) is developing an innovative NFT project that creates an artistic registry for breathing injustices, questions how breathing is valued, and develops funding tools for advancing a Right to Breathe. “A Thousand Breaths” is one of the winning projects of the Vienna Business Agency’s 2022 Content Vienna Competition.  We talked to co-director and head of research Daniela Gandorfer about LoPh’s work and approaches.

With the project “Big Data und das Gebaute Erbe Wiens" (Big Data and Vienna's Built Heritage), artist and architect Alunovic Oliver presents an artificial intelligence that independently designs architectural projects. The project uses the city of Vienna's open data on all realised projects of the so-called Wiener Gemeindebau (Viennese communal housing), on which the neural networks used are trained. The aim is to make the Wiener Gemeindebau sustainable as a digital content creation tool, to pass on the cultural heritage of the Wiener Gemeindebau and to offer architects a tool for creating high-quality communal housing.

When Swiss athletic shoe company, On, recently upgraded their classic Cloud 5 shoe, they reached out to FutureDeluxe to create four films to showcase the brand’s craft, comfort and engineered detail. 3D artist Jordi Cerdà Gaya was called on to model and texture the features of On’s updated Cloud 5 running shoe using ZBrush and Cinema 4D. Maxon talked with Cerdà Gaya about the project workflow, Gaya’s self-taught career as a 3D artist and his plans for the future.

HBO Max’s true crime miniseries “The Staircase” explores the story of Michael Peterson and the suspicious death of his wife Kathleen, who was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their palatial North Carolina home in 2004. Chicago-based Sarofsky was called on to create an elegant title sequence that spoke to the story’s labyrinthine plot, utilizing reflections, distortions, layers and perspectives to kaleidoscopic effect. The team spoke to Maxon about their work that foreshadows the true crime drama’s themes and a family divided. Created with Cinema 4D, After Effects, Photoshop, Flame and Octane the title sequence is based on a multi-layered, transparent three-dimensional house.

Vincent Schwenk about his abstract and colorful 3D creations that bring joy and fun to this world. His journey started as a 2D designer and evolved into more than just a 3D artist. He combines many 3D programs to create even more abstract artworks that also have a certain naturalness and also lets the whole world learn with him. With Patreon he has found a platform to share his knowledge and expertise.

Dada-Projects believes in an alternative future for 3D design. As a woman-led studio in a male-dominated industry, Christina Worner wants to advocate for more diversity in the industry to inspire broader change. The studio is always trying to push the boundaries of any 3D tool and experiment beyond the expected. This desire to make a difference and her love of 3D have given birth to Dada-Projects.

Looping Lovers is a multidimensional artist-duo represented by Philipp Ries and Thomas Mayer. Their unique style includes elements that float and move freely in digital space, but not just in digital spaces. One of their new projects includes an exhibition in a museum. In this interview, Looping Lovers talk about how they manage to use nonverbal communication in the form of body language in their projects and what tools and workflows they use to achieve a digital sensuality.

www.dieSpruecheklopfer.at.  is probably the most unimportant podcast there is. The words on the sticker from the young podcaster and no longer quite young copywriter Günter Klinger are not hesitating. His podcast „Die Sprücheklopfer“ (in German language) talks about creativity in advertising. Writing slogans, concepts and social media content. Everything that tempts us into buying on ad-pages, billboards, commercials and digital channels.

The current times sure are scary ones to live in. Social injustices, climate change, and a pandemic shape our present into an unpredictable future. Austrian designers Sophie Falkeis and Kris Hofmann have made it their mission to impact the world around them positively with what they do. With AR and multidisciplinary design, both of them are at the forefront of impactful art and trying to bring complex topics to a wide audience. Both have been awarded with this year‘s Content Vienna production grant for outstanding digital design projects. Content Vienna is a funding program by the Vienna Business Agency, a long-standing partner of Forward Festival, and dedicated to the production and ongoing development of digital projects ranging from games to virtual reality and animation. In an interview, Sophie and Kris speak about how design can make the globe a better place.

Maxon, the developers of Cinema 4D, recently published their cutting-edge Christmas clip thanking motion designers, 3D developers and engineers worldwide to celebrate getting creative with Maxon tools, to which ones now also ZBrush is added.

With the fashion industry as well as Berlin changing at fast pace, VooStore in Kreuzberg remains a constant in both terms. Ever since Yasin Müjdeci founded Voo over a decade ago, it not only stands for fashion besides mainstream but mostly for a special Voo-flavoured lifestyle, that is established way across Berlin’s borders. For our “Featured by #jungbleiben”- series, Yasin Müjdeci speaks about the Voo-way of living, setting trends while sticking to your values and fashion as a chance for inclusion.

If you were amongst the lucky ones, who saw Kaitlyn Chang’s talk at Forward Festival Vienna (and if not, you can rewatch it here) you surely remember how she entered the stage: with her baby daughter in her arms. With symbolically stressing the problem of being a leading female creative in a man’s world, Kaitlyn Chang of  Accenture Interactive wowed the crowd by speaking about disappearing women from leading positions when having a baby. We had a chat with the woman of the hour!

Maxon, the developers of Cinema 4D, just made every motion designer’s and visual effect artist’s life easier: The latest Cinema 4D upgrades bring a bunch of innovative and forward-minded alterations.

3D filmmaker Nikita Diakur makes beauty ugly. With his very own characterful style the creative developed ugly filmmaking and has defined a whole new approach to the scene. In our interview with him, we talked about perfectionism, finding an idea and about his creative concept behind Ugly.

With their latest product release, Zurich-based bag manufacturers FREITAG have built a friendship between a used truck tarp and its airbag. The F707 STRATOS not only comes in a clean and minimalist design but also with its own film brought to life by zweihund.

Stephanie Dewhirst aka “stephDAwurst” is a 3D designer and Head of 3D at animation studio Art&Graft. The independent team of talented and ambitious creative minds makes colourful and quirky characters come to life and tell us visual stories. Art&Graft is the studio behind powerful motion graphics campaigns for global brands like HP, Playstation and Virgin Media. Before her talk at Forward Festival Berlin, we had a quick chat with Stephanie about her early career, her favourite project and about how she finds inspiration in everyday life.

Graphic designer, artist, and professor, father, partner, and above all human being; this is Eike König. Growing up in Germany in the 1970s, he lived through exciting eras, but also emotional ups and downs have made him the person he is now. Linguistically, Eike König is absolutely in his element and admires the aesthetics and the art of sport. We had a chat with him for our series “Featured by #jungbleiben magazine“.

Nothing quite compares to the feeling of writing down your ideas in an analogue notebook. Especially in our digitized times keeping track of your thoughts and inspirations in a classic way seems to be essential for the creative process. Our friends at nuuna create the most beautiful notebooks and know exactly how to make the perfect shroud for your ideas.

FORWARD and ONLINEPRINTERS are teaming up to create a community-driven magazine asking creatives what makes them happy. All it takes to participate is a white canvas and the color black - digital or analogue - to create a blissful moment from scratch. A selection of all the submitted works will be printed and published in “The Happy Zine”.

Maxon, the developers of software solution Cinema 4D, just made every motion designer’s and visual effect artist’s life easier: The latest Cinema 4D application comes up with a bunch of innovative and forward-minded alterations.

Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, Tudors: Annie Atkins is indispensable in the film industry. With her unique graphics and designs for many Wes Anderson films, the designer has made herself a permanent fixture in the industry. In this interview, she talks about inspirations and habits for new projects, about her creativityflow, and how she turned Covid-19 into a new project with a charity aspect. We had a chat with her for our series “Featured by #jungbleiben magazine“.

Somewhere in between art, science, technology, and new media, Ouchhh has found its place. Working with highly advanced artificial intelligence, the new media art studio creates magical immersive art installations. Ouchhh has made a name for itself over the past years by designing and programming prestigious projects such as the world's biggest AI data sculpture. We had a chat with Ouchhh-founder Ferdi Alici about the very beginnings of working with AI, its boundaries, and future projects.

Former competitive swimmer Max Siedentopf sees things from different angles and loves what he does. He is a cosmopolitan, the youngest partner in the history of KesselsKramer and a master in creating creative, provocative and above all unique works. Max is who he is and that's a good thing. We had a chat with him for our series “Featured by #jungbleiben magazine“.

Process is a Vienna-based design studio specializing in generative and interactive design and working in the fields of branding, web, installation and print. As well as traditional graphic design solutions, Process designs and develops highly specialized software that is used as tools for and by clients.

Anton Rahlwes and Nina Sieverding share the new position of editor-in-chief at design magazine form. We have talked to the two of them about design journalism, their new adventure and changes in print due to crisis and digitization.

In late summer, ONLINEPRINTERS and Forward launched an open call for posters focusing on the one topic that has never been more accurate than in 2020: Creative Crisis. We asked creatives what they were doing during Corona lockdown? What has been their inspiration, who has been their muse? We wanted to see how a worldwide crisis made them creative and how COVID-19 affected their artwork. No matter if the piece was created during the lockdown or right after.

Kaitlyn Chang, a real award winning advertising professional, just started working as Brand Innovation Lead at Accenture Interactive, right before the corona lock down. We talked to her about the “new normal”, long overdue digital change, home office curiosities, and nerdy habits.

Climate change is here to stay. 2020 has not only been the year of COVID but also the year of natural disasters. Floods, forest fires, extreme temperatures - the list goes on and on. Feeling helpless in this mess? The Green Energy Lab has made it their mission to come up with innovative solutions to create a more sustainable future and is looking for creative minds to get involved. Don ´ t miss the chance to win 10K prize money!

Vincent Schwenk about his abstract and colorful 3D creations that bring joy and fun to this world. His journey started as a 2D designer and evolved into more than just a 3D artist. He combines many 3D programs to create even more abstract artworks that also have a certain naturalness and also lets the whole world learn with him. With Patreon he has found a platform to share his knowledge and expertise.

Sarah Illenberger gives new meaning to everyday objects. As an artist, illustrator, and designer, she explores areas that cannot be defined by a common job title. In our interview for #jungbleiben magazine, she tells us why Italians allow more creative freedom than Germans.

As fireworks illuminate the sky of London, the city is bathed in a strawberry-flavored cloud. Sounds fictional, but it's actually the work of Bompas & Parr, a studio for multi-sensory experience design. Sam Bompas and Harry Parr combine food with a wide range of creative disciplines and thus create works of art and experiences for all senses. We had a chat with them for our series “Featured by #jungbleiben magazine“.

Musician, painter, DJane, student, curator, boiler room member, cult survivor - Sofie Fatouretchi moves in various commercial and artistic circles and cannot be put in a box. Still, her definition of safe space is "myself, alone at home". After living in California, she is now back in Vienna and more creative than ever before. We had a chat with her in her favorite Viennese coffee house to find out more for our series "Featured by #jungbleiben magazine".

How do you convince your client that your solution works best for the job, and what do you do when your best friend stops talking to you because your creative ideas take up too much of your personal life?  Mirko Borsche has been part of the Forward Festival line-up several times now. He is the founder of Bureau Borsche, a Munich-based graphic design studio offering design and communication consultancy for clients from all fields of interest while creating original works within the scope of art, subculture, and design. In our series "Featured by #jungbleiben magazine", he explains how his team handles idea-finding and why speed is the main requirement for a graphic designer.

The Kreativwirtschaft Austria is looking for the best story until 24. May 2019, that creatives have implemented with their customers from the industry and have created innovation, revenue and added value. We took this opportunity to get together with three winners of the competition. Brand consultant Gregor Fink of knif.marketing, filmmaker Astrid Rampula of astrimage FILM and designer Nicole Herb talk to us about how they have benefited from the competition, how companies can benefit from creative services and why they sometimes want more courage from their customers.

When you talk to Christophe, you soon realize that he doesn’t waste time, which you can also notice in his art and and products. Not content to wait for manufacturing tools and companies to meet his ideas, the industrial designer is part of a new generation of creatives who develop their own production processes. We sat down with Christophe to talk with him about his career, his passion for good products and much more.

At this year's Forward Festival in Zurich, two unlikely things were brought together a little bit closer, namely healthcare and design. Elina Koletou, who filled in for Marianna Rapsomaniki last minute, and Maria Gabrani from the IBM Research Lab held an AI science slam about the usage of artificial intelligence in healthcare. Both of them are doing research in the field of health-related AI and work at the IBM Research Lab in Zurich.

In 2017, the furniture retailer MADE.com started an exciting new project named TalentLab. The crowdsourcing and crowdfunding platform gives young and emerging designers the chance to see their prototypes realized in large-scale production. We had the chance to get to know Romain Deberle, Shan Penghao and Russel Jarvis, who participated in the first MADE TalentLab collection.  

At this year’s Forward Festival in Vienna and Zurich Onlineprinters and Forward launched an open call for posters focusing on the 2018 festival topic "Construct - Deconstruct." Out of numerous applications we selected 10 posters that were exhibited at the festival venues.

So…what’s in it for me, Adobe XD? Is it free? Yes it is! Just recently, the May update for Adobe XD has been released with a big bang: introducing the new Starter plan, you can now work with Adobe XD fast, easy – and for free!

“Kontext” is an initiative launched by Swiss Textiles. Its aim is to draw attention to trend knowledge, promote promising future developments in the areas of design and industry, and encourage exchanges between designers and industry representatives. “Kontext” also wants to identify relevant topics that provide impulses for innovation.

MADE started its crowdsourcing and crowdfunding platform TalentLAB at the end of 2017, asking young and emerging designers to submit projects that they would like to see realized. Designers upload their proposals to the website. MADE then curates collections from these designs and the products that prove most popular and will get funding, will be put into production.  We sat down with three designers, who participate in the first TalentLAB collection, and talked with them about their products, their background and much more.