Skip to main content
We no longer support Internet Explorer. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience. Find out more.

Affinity Live: Our very first live event

Months of planning, development and building renovations all came together for our very first Affinity Live event. Here’s a look at how it was done…

The plan: to create an impressive space where we could host events, product demonstrations and training sessions. This idea had been in the pipeline for some time, but once the date was set for our very first live event, 11 July, our ambitious project really kicked into action.

This was our first foray into building renovation and a huge amount of effort and resource went into transforming Serif HQ. Designed by Neil Ladkin, our creative director, it was a real labour of love. You can see the monumental amount of work involved in our video and images below…

A before, during and after walk-through of our HQ transformation…
The new showcase atrium at Serif HQ.
Our new bar (nicknamed ‘Tug Boat’) and play area.

And the cherry on the cake was the installation of our huge 4x3m screen…

Time-lapse of the installation of our new big screen.

With the paint barely dry on the walls, all that hard work really came to fruition as soon as our guests started to arrive and admire the space.

Charlotte from Artist Relations talking to illustrators Man-Tsun Tsang and David Sossella.

Proceedings kicked off with a keynote presentation made by our managing director Ashley Hewson, where he made a number of big announcements which included the launch of our second iPad app, Affinity Designer for iPad and a time frame for the release of our Affinity Publisher free public beta.

You can watch the full presentation here:

Keynote presentation by Ashley Hewson.

The only disappointing note of the night was that England were knocked out of the World Cup!

Football, it transpires, didn’t come home to England…

Affinity Designer for iPad was developed with the input of leading creatives. We felt incredibly privileged that some of them travelled the huge distance from Germany, France, Italy, Croatia and even as far away as Hong Kong to attend our event in person. We also had the pleasure of being joined by industry players, journalists from the creative press and notable members of the Affinity community, such as Frank Wagner and Thomas Jahnke who run affinitytutorials.de.

As the evening progressed guests had the opportunity to eat and drink, as well as trying out their vector skills using Affinity Designer for iPad.

Developer Matt Priestley showing the guys from affinitytutorials.de around Affinity Designer for iPad.
Illustrator and creative designer, David Wildish, and his son checking out Affinity Designer for iPad.

We can’t wait until the next Affinity Live, stay tuned!


Spotlight editor

As editor of Affinity Spotlight Melanie oversees the stories, interviews and tutorials published on the site. Outside of work she enjoys travelling, reading crime thrillers, Pilates and dabbling in a spot of oil painting. Get in touch with Melanie if you would like to contribute or be featured on Affinity Spotlight.