Get ready for Antwerp’s finest design festival Us By Night
Three intense nights of design & creativity - a festival curated for the hungry.
Housed in an enormous riverside castle pulsating with light, sound and energy, Us By Night 2019 is set to be the best edition yet. Situated in an iconic part of Antwerp, the festival seeks to take you on a journey of the senses: XXL screens & projections, live art, DJ’s, water installations, locally sourced food and drink, a bustling night market – and rumour has it, the world’s biggest disco ball!
We’re thrilled to be one of their media partners this year, and as we prepare to pack our bags and hit the Eurostar in just a few days time we can barely contain our excitement.
With the festival schedule now live, here’s a rundown of what’s in store this year..
Check out the full festival line-up here.
Anything can happen as Us By Night!
01. Main Stage
Gracing the main stage this year, Us By Night have curated a stellar line up of diverse creative talent from across the industry including ground breaking creative directors, graphic designers, leading artists and illustrators, branding agencies and experts in interactive design and animation. Highlights include London based designer Camille Walala, hot off the back of her incredible show ‘Walala Lounge‘ at London Design Festival earlier this month; Art Director Serial Cut, French graphic designer Alexis Tyrsa, award winning animation studio BUCK and 3D set designer Gary Card.
A taster of this year’s incredible speaker line-up
02. The Living Room Stage
Us By Night’s more intimate setting, the Living Room stage has a less academic feel, and a more interactive vibe. Think arm’s length with your heroes, relaxed atmosphere and great chairs plus video & audio in relaxed surroundings.
On the schedule for the 2019 edition are talks by Grilli Type (check out our interview with cofounder Noël Leu here), NYC based artist and illustrator Shawna.X, Spanish illustrator Sebastian Curi, Dutch branding agency Studio Dumbar and Art Director Gilles de Brock to name but a few.
Get up close and personal with your design heroes at The Living Room stage!
Check out the full Us By Night 2019 festival schedule here.
03. Tutorial Stage
Incredibly that’s not all – alongside a bursting schedule of talks, a variety of FREE to attend tutorials and classes with leading designers, digital craftsmen and animators will be on offer for those keen to get involved. Expect to hear from collage artist Alice Isaac, London animation director Kwok Fung Lam from The Mill, Spanish visual designer Alex Troucht, London based creative agency Caterina Bianchini, the Dublin Google Mobile UX team and Antwerp based interactive installation studio LAB101.
Become best of class with our A+ tutorial stage
04. Interventions & Nightmarket
Of course, the Us By Night experience would not be complete without fully immersing yourself in the tantalising Nightmarket – an area bursting with games and sports, craft beer and cocktails, food courts, a flea market, live art, installations and tattoo shops – all set in a Bangkok-esque environment!
Live art, interventions and performances entertain and delight at the Nightmarket
Here are a few of our highlights / things we can’t wait to check out:
TOYKO is a multidisciplinary design studio based in Ghent, Belgium.?T he studio was founded in 2006, born from a shared passion for striking visual culture.? TOYKO will be selling a range of limited edition art products, prints and more!
het Consolesalon A nomadic living room turned into arcade hall bursting with games and consoles ranging from Atari to SNES, presenting old school classics and retro rarities side by side with contemporary indie games. They will also be providing some extra oomph to your retro experience with a curated collection of amiga demos and peculiar game installations provided by their resident collector and DIY friend Stijn. And all of that, just for you to enjoy!
King of Pong A sideproject of Undefined, an creative studio based in Antwerp. Ping pong table design shown in photo is created by Studio Entropica. King Of Pong turns the concept of ping pong upside down. They organise epic ping pong tournaments and create custom tables with a spin.
Supercollect are putting together a fine selection of artefacts, books and prints by some of the nicest artists you will meet at Us By Night. They will also showcase and sell their fine art print collabs, and are in charge of the production of the UBN festival merch.
Supercollect was founded in the wings of Us By Night, where Bart (@wham_office) and Stoffel (@superdruk) met and partnered up to complement each others expertises. Supercollect invites artists, illustrators, designers around the printing press, to work together on a personal level, and to produce limited edition art prints & collectibles.
Join us on Instagram and Twitter for live coverage of selected design talks, Instagram stories from the frontline of the festival and highlights from Antwerp hot spots! Extra interviews and a full festival round-up will drop on Inkygoodness in the days following the festival – so stay tuned for more to come!
King of pong
Us By Night is a unique nocturnal experience combining an inspiring lineup and an endless nightmarket guaranteed to provide 3 nights you can’t miss. Come for the talks, stay for the experience. Explore the arcade, a wide range of local and delicious food, get tattooed or play some fluorescent ping-pong. Tickets for 2019 are now sold out. usbynight.be