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On the second stage, Adrian Shaughnessy of Unit Editions talked about F.H.K. Henrion. He stated, ‘I came to the conclusion that his range of activities, intellectual standing and depth of accomplishment have no equal in British graphic design, he was in fact the complete designer … He invented the notion of the professional graphic designer.’ Shaughnessy talked about what made Henrion an important figure, including his attention to social design, product design, design education, new media design and design theory.

Design studio I Love Dust followed on the main stage. Art director Johnny Winslade and designer Olly Munden talked about their beginnings, lifestyle, lads holidays and projects. And spoke candidly about their Southsea and New York bases, their working processes and team ethic.

Jon Burgerman followed with his entertaining take on the world, stressing the importance of drawing, sketchbooks and play, ‘A sketchbook is a wonderful place, where anything can happen’, said Burgerman. He advised taking work into the outside world: ‘Computers are great and the internet is great, obviously, but not all the time.’

Richard Turley, creative director of Bloomberg Businessweek, gave an interesting talk that felt almost like a sales pitch. Turley talked about the process behind the magazine’s cover design, who gets involved and where the ideas come from before talking about his career journey from student magazine project through to The Guardian / The Observer and as art director of G2 magazine. It was interesting to see the complexity of the Guardian grid in detail and for Turley to explain the maths involved to the audience – all delivered with wit, comic timing and encouragement to ‘bite the hand that feeds’. See ‘Taking care of business’ in Eye 80 and ‘“X” marks the spot’ on the Eye blog.

Well known to conference stages worldwide, Marian Bantjes talked in detail about her projects – her process, obsessive tendencies and her desire to ‘do something impossible’. Bantjes listed her influences as Herbert Matter, Milton Glaser, A. M. Cassandre and Jan Tschichold, among others, and concluded by speaking about her new book Pretty Pictures (see Mark Porter’s review on the Eye blog).

‘Digital content creator’ Jeff Greenspan, who has worked in advertising and for Facebook and Buzzfeed, presented his ‘side-projects’. He told a story about being held up at gunpoint when he was 25 and how it changed his outlook. He insisted, ‘Find your own voice and speak with it very loudly … Stay visual, be clear and surprise.’ His projects work to change people’s behaviour.

Offset 2014’s final speaker was Irish illustrator Chris Judge, known for his ‘Beast’ series of picture books.

Offset 2014 in numbers: 1650 Irish delegates, 850 international, of which only 350 came from the UK. Of the total figure, 700 were students and a large proportion of the audience were young and early-career designers and illustrators. The emphasis of many of the talks was the importance of play and personal projects to balance with professional, income earning projects.

The Offset archive, with videos going back to conference in 2009, is available on the website and includes talks by some of the most celebrated and respected designers today.

Pam Bowman, typographer, lecturer in typography and joint course leader for graphic design, Sheffield Hallam University

Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions and single issues.