The Pictoplasma Conference presents 8+ hand picked key lectures by the world’s most influential artists and upcoming talents, cutting-edge graphic, toy and game designers and leading animation filmmakers. It is the meeting point for 500+ international attendees, offering the chance to learn from, be inspired by, and rub shoulders with some of today’s most innovative and avant-garde visual creators.

Cécile Dormeau is a French illustrator based in the suburb of Paris. She worked in graphic design agencies and as a junior art director in an advertising agency for two years before starting her career as an illustrator. Using simple bold lines and bright colors, she creates illustrations and GIFs that explore body image and everyday issues faced by women.
Parallel to her personal projects, she works for clients such as Google, GQ, the Sunday Times.

> cecile-dormeau.tumblr.com

Mauro Gatti is an Italian, Los Angeles based all-around creative guy in love with producing all sorts of fun stuff. During the day he is in charge of content creation at the amazing JibJab Studio; at night he truly awakes and splashes around in illustration, animation, game design, GIFs and children’s books illustration.
His work is full of humor and his style is iconic and simple, inspired by the illustration of the 60s and 70s. His clients include Google, Vodafone, WeTransfer, Barilla and other Italian brands. He is always in company of his inseparable bullmastiff Cyrus and his favorite quote is Charlie Chaplin’s ‘A day without laughter is a day wasted.’

> maurogatti.com

Scott Benson is a self-taught Pittsburgh based animator, game developer, illustrator, and co-founder of the international indie animation collective Late Night Work Club.
He was the lead writer, artist and co-creator of the recently released video game Night In The Woods, a highly praised adventure focused on exploration, story, and character, featuring a memorable cast of anthropomorphic cartoon animals grappling with meaning and connection in a godless universe during late capitalism.

> bombsfall.com

Paris-based artist Amandine Urruty lives in and works from her bed, with a suitcase full of pens always at the ready. After studying at university for “far too many years” and a brief career in underground music, she now uses her outstanding drawing skills to create an astonishing repertoire of beasts and weird characters in all kinds of media—and exhibits the results around the globe

> amandineurruty.com

James Curran is a British animator and director with a background in videos games, music videos, commercials and most recently GIFs. As well as regularly working for clients including Disney, Nike and Samsung he has also become known for his Gifathon projects – 30 GIFs in 30 days in New York City, Los Angeles and Tokyo, based on his personal experiences while living in each city.

> slimjimstudios.com

Google Allo is a messaging app that enables non-verbal communication through stickers, doodles, emojis and selfie filters. The focus is on making digital interaction more personal by creating content and tools to help people express themselves. The app has been developed by the Expressions team, who have worked with artists around the world to produce thousands of conversational and locally relevant stickers that are bursting with personality and emotion.
Emily Meinhardt is a design producer who is passionate about the business side of creativity, filtering out the noise and distractions for artists and designers to make inspiring work. She’s terrible at responding to texts in a timely fashion, but rejoices in finding the perfect GIF or sticker.
Alice Moloney is an art director and has always been fascinated by miniature things, pictograms, and characters—so she’s found her happy place in commissioning stickers. She has spent the last eight years creating, commissioning and teaching illustration, with a constant focus on exploring new spaces for it to be applied and experienced.

> allo.google.com

Sean Charmatz has worked in the animation industry since 2005. He has most notably served as a writer and director on ‘Spongebob Squarepants,’ in addition to designing, storyboarding, and developing shows for Disney and Dreamworks. In his spare time, Charmatz produces what he calls ‘explorations’ for his social media accounts. These experimental images and animations combine his talent for design and storytelling with found objects observed in everyday life – and have proven to be highly viral!

> instagram.com/sean_charmatz

Edel Rodriguez is a Cuban American artist who has exhibited internationally. Inspired by personal history, religious rituals, politics, memory, and nostalgia, his bold, figurative works are an examination of identity, mortality, and cultural displacement. He is a regular contributor to the The New York Times Op Ed page and The New Yorker magazine, and has created over a hundred newspaper and magazine covers.