Gabby's WORD 29 March 2012

Back in London after a busy two days in Barcelona and with a rather sore head from the awards show on Tuesday night. Day two of PromaxBDA Europe proved to be just as interesting as day one. Although I was a little put off by the name of the session ‘Cool Shit’, I was enticed to go see what the hype was about and was impressed by the work that Creative Review’s Patrick Burgyone and Discovery Network’s Federico Gaggio selected. I found myself downloading ‘The Night Jar’ app. Created by 5 jam, this is a video game that has no video. Through audio stimulation (the delicious tones of Brit born Benedict Cumberbatch) you must make your way out of a dying spaceship relying solely on the audio responses that you hear. SapientNitro’s www.sneakerpedia.com powered by Footlocker certainly intrigued me; I loved the way they encouraged and promoted this already vibrant community of collectors, without being brash or bolshy in their ownership. Digital work to promote charities; after seeing the presentation I visited BBH Barn’s, www.slaveryfootprint.org, found myself smiling whilst watching BBDO’s ‘Autism speaks’ and was truly touched by www.underheardinnewyork.com. Finally, to end, the beautiful and stunningly simple allisnotlo.st, created in conjunction with google… It left me with a spring in my step.

Later that afternoon I tried to attend ‘Something for nothing’ with Juan Carlos Pérez of Televisión, Olivier Schaack of Canal+ and Gábor Varga of HBO Central Europe but it was packed. People were flooding out of the session into the hallway and no amount of standing on my tippy toes could get me a good view of the event. That afternoon I was able to spend time in the sunshine with Barcelona’s famous graphic designer, Mario Eskenazi and his wonderful partner who happily translated for me. We spoke of his time in Spain, being an architect’s son, teaching, what he loves and whom he loves and how it feels to walk the streets of your city seeing your work displayed throughout… His response ‘I feel like I am part of Barcelona’… Not a bad way for me to end what were two fantastic days in one of my favourite cities.

I’ll be back on Tuesday with more news, but for now, wishing you all a lovely weekend and fingers crossed, the sun shall remain.

Gabby