The Festa del Grafisme, organised by a group of professional graphic designers, defends a serene, slow look at graphic design, combining experimentation with playful experiences, and the link with the small, quiet population of Portbou, which is as cross-border as the design.

Understanding that the traditional conference format has become obsolete in the global era where everything is on the net, the Festa explores new ways of presenting the graphic designer’s work and formulates a new conference format: the “experience”. It is a gathering that breaks down barriers and bridges the gap between the speakers and the audience, gathered in small groups to foster dialogue and communication and discover unique spaces where they share personal, professional, design and life experiences.

The Festa was created as a space exclusively for graphic designers. In 2016, a unique edition was proposed as a reaction to the tight-knit relationships among graphic designers, opening up its vantage point to look outside this discipline and taking an interest in other professions’ ways of thinking and doing things: writers who critique, photographers who write books, architects who shoot photos, very special industrial designers, etc.

From an initial meeting point, the lecturer-shamans guide the participants to the place where the experience occurs. The projects have a variety of topics, scopes, formats and methods, carried out before the audience using reversible devices often used by puppeteers and travelling merchants. The materials leave the Westphalia van, the centre of gravity and backdrop for the scene, and are projected towards the audience.