Conference & Festival
OF CONTEMPORARY
CHARACTER DESIGN
AND ART

10 – 14 MAY 2017

From May 10 to 14 Pictoplasma transformed Berlin into the world’s most vibrant meeting point for a diverse scene of artists and creatives, trailblazing the face of tomorrow’s visual culture. While international creators and producers met for a central conference to exchange strategies for tomorrow’s figurative representation, the wider festival showcased latest trends in character design and art, cutting edge screenings brought the latest animation eye-candy to the big screen, and numerous exhibitions throughout the city invited all to experience original works and outstanding character craftsmanship.

CONFERENCE

11 – 13 MAY/

ARTIST TALKS,
LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS

At the heart of the Festival, the central Pictoplasma Conference presented 18+ key lectures by the world’s most influential artists and upcoming talents, cutting-edge graphic, toy and game designers and leading animation filmmakers, offering the chance to learn from and be inspired by some of today’s most innovative and avant-garde artists.

18 ARTIST TALKS

AVAILABLE AS DOWNLOADABLE PICTOTALKS!

Amandine Urruty

2011 France

FR/ Amandine Urruty Amandine lives and works between Toulouse and Paris. Pencils and crayons are her medium of choice. Her deviant portraits of young ladies and pigs in grotesque outfits and too much make-up are the very essence of Rubenesque carnality. 2011 Paris, 2011 Berlin, 2017 NYC amandineurruty.free.fr >>>

Chris Haughton

2025 Ireland

IE

Irish author/illustrator who has recently published his first non-fiction title The History Of Information, tracing the history of information technology, from language and pre-historic drawing to writing, to print, media, computing, the internet and Artificial Intelligence

DXTR

Germany

Eran Hilleli

2020 Israel

ISR

Hasbro

USA

Georgina Melone, Vice President at the Hasbro Invention Lab, and principal designer James Yuen, share how the entertainment company is continuously committed to create the world’s best play experiences, while opening up to new audiences that connect with its iconic brands in unforeseen ways—from ‘Transformers’ to ‘My Little Pony.’

Jack Sachs

Current illustration/design/animation it-boy Jack Sachs introduces us to his trademark jumbled up faces and awkward shapes influenced by the pioneers of early CGI, shares some cruel details of his CV and frustrating job experiences, and gives valuable DIY tips on how to make your break through.

Kirsten Lepore

USA

Kirsten Lepore, LA-based director and animator famed for her Emmy winning episode of ‘Adventure Time,’ talks about the joy and challenges of stop-motion, shiny butts and how to cope with loosing control over your own artistic work once it’s gone viral globally.

Mate Steinforth

Germany

Mate Steinforth, designer/director of former Psyop fame and creative director at Sehsucht Berlin, talks about creative challenges in times of Internet everywhere, FOMO and the absurd longing for more likes—all while keeping his business healthy and reserving time for private projects.

Miss Lotion

Denmark

Danish illustrator Louise Rosenkrands, formerly known as Miss Lotion, introduces her bright and playful depictions of sassy, confident women, leads us through her career, from street art to google stickers, and explains how she manages to juggle between motherhood and insane working hours while drawing peaches and eggplants.

Nathalie Choux

France

Nathalie Choux, renowned for her extremely successful and uplifting children’s books (with over 50 bestselling publications under her belt) takes the stage to reveal her surprisingly dark side—with beautifully delicate, fragile porcelain figurines of fractured woman, and intricate drawings of intimidatingly hairy animals.

Nathan Jurevicius

2025 Australia

AU, CA

Creator of the Scarygirl brand that has developed a huge following and manifested itself as graphic novels, limited edition figures, animations, video games, specialty products and a feature film

Peter Millard

Peter Millard, celebrated independent filmmaker and animator from England’s Malvern Hills, leads us through the making of his rough-and-ready, jazz-inspired, hand-drawn animations. His films are chain reactions—joyful, unnerving, funny, loose and daft: a celebration of animation at its most anarchistic.

Pikuniku

France, UK

London-based game designer Arnaud De Boc introduces us to the complex mechanics of procedural animation and how it can enhance empathy in the play of the absurdist puzzle exploration game Pikuniku currently under development.

Pooya Abbasian

Iran

Iranian artist Pooya Abbasian takes the stage to share his love for ancient Persian artefacts and symbology, talk about the challenges of a long-distance creative friendship, and examine the meaning of monsters in his work—a reoccurring motive throughout all his animation films, fine art and children books.

Rob Flowers

Rob Flowers, illustrator from London with a bold, distinctive style defined by bubblegum colors, eccentric characters, and grotesque humor, gives a private tour of his ever growing toy memorabilia collection and shares references from LSD infused 70s kids adverts to creepy cryptology.

Samuel Boucher

Canada

Montreal based Samuel Boucher shows off his soft-edged, high-saturation worlds awash with mysterious characters, takes us on a live-tour through the puzzle-filled heads of his recently released ‘GNOG’ game and finishes things off with a surprise that brings the audience (and himself) to tears.

Sean Charmatz

USA

In his spear time Sean Charmatz, former writer/director for ‘SpongeBob Squarepants’ and current animation director for the LEGO Movie sequel, creates some of the Internet’s finest in contemporary animism under the label ‘The Secret World of Stuff.’ In his talk he examines how storytelling is the main driving force in the creation of sharable content.

Sophie Koko Gate

2024 UK

Artist, animation director, and writer based in London

Ton Mak

China

CHN

ANIMATION SCREENINGS

Nathan Jurevicius

Axel Digoix

Rune Spaans

Gerhard Human

11 – 13 MAY/

Big screen
psychedelic
eye-candy and
storytelling genius

The Festival’s film section brought animated newborns to the Babylon big screen, whisking the audience around the world in three freshly curated programmes brimming with psychedelic eye-candy and storytelling genius.
After their morning premiere for the registered conference attendees, with many of the international studios and filmmakers present for Q&A rounds, the programmes awaited the wider festival audience for their re-run in the evenings.

VIEW 2017 ANIMATION SELECTION

CHARACTER WALK EXHIBITIONS

10 – 14 MAY/

12+
EXHIBITIONS AND
GROUP SHOWS
THROUGHOUT
BERLIN

The accompanying Festival exhibitions staged new work by an impressive line-up of participating artists – presenting sculptures, paintings, installations, art editions and multiples – many of them for the first time in Berlin. One highlight was the vast group show by the 4th Pictoplasma Academy Alumni, introducing the raw talent of our annual master-class and taking a fresh look at the upcoming faces of tomorrow.

VIEW 2017 EXHIBITION LINE-UP