Índice - Marco

Índice
Presentación ............................................................................................... 3
Introducción ................................................................................................ 4
Marco teórico .............................................................................................. 6
Antecedentes históricos en el diseño gráfico ........................................ 6
Nuevas tecnologías aplicadas al arte ..................................................... 8
Sobre Pictoplasma ................................................................................... 9
Ejes temáticos ............................................................................................ 11
El character design ................................................................................. 11
La cultura visual ...................................................................................... 12
El selfie ................................................................................................... 14
Conclusión .................................................................................................. 15
Anexos ........................................................................................................16
Biografías ................................................................................................16
Presentación
El Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO) presenta la exposición Pictoplasma:
Character Portraits donde personajes de todo tipo cobran vida en animaciones, cortos, videos
musicales, gráficos en movimiento, dibujos e instalaciones.
Dichos personajes han invadido distintos escenarios. En la actualidad los vemos en la
publicidad, el arte, los medios de comunicación, la moda y hasta en los paisajes urbanos. Por
esto, los curadores, Peter Thaler y Lars Denicke, han compilado durante una década a miles de
personajes distinguiendo las variaciones más sutiles entre ellos, clasificándolos por estilos y
destacando sus tendencias y evoluciones. Todo con la finalidad de examinarlas amplias
posibilidades que ofrecen estos personajes como símbolos de un lenguaje de diseño
independiente en nuestra sociedad.
De esta forma, la presente muestra abarca representaciones que oscilan entre lo más vil y lo
más virtuoso del comportamiento humano, ofreciendo un panorama muy amplio del sentir de
nuestra época y las modalidades de expresión de nuestra realidad actual. Así, Pictoplasma:
Character Portraits conjunta alrededor de 126 propuestas visuales de más de cien artistas, las
cuales pueden ser disfrutadas por personas de cualquier edad. En Pictoplasma los personajes
hablan por sí solos y transmiten su complejidad sin necesidad de recurrir a las palabras.
Nombre de la exposición: Pictoplasma: Character Portraits
Organizador: Organizada por el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey,
MARCO, en colaboración con Pictoplasma.
Curaduría: Peter Thaler y Lars Denicke
Museografía: Peter Thaler y Lars Denicke
Localización: Salas 1 a 4 (Planta baja) (Una obra en Patio de Esculturas)
Duración: Del 19 de septiembre, 2014 al 8 de febrero, 2015.
Técnicas: Dibujo, técnicas mixtas, escultura, video, arte digital e instalación.
Número de obras: 126
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Introducción
Los personajes o mascotas han tomado un papel central en nuestra cultura visual. Los
encontramos en anuncios publicitarios, empaques alimenticios, logotipos, comerciales entre
otros, convirtiéndolos en parte de poderosas estrategias de mercadotecnia. Sin embargo, su rol
va más allá de una táctica publicitaria, ya que a través de ellos se ha creado todo un mundo
paralelo, por lo cual resulta conveniente revisar la trascendencia que dichos personajes están
teniendo.
En este contexto actual, nace el Festival Pictoplasma de Berlín, Alemania, un foro anual único
para el diseño de personajes a partir de la ilustración, la animación y las artes gráficas y
urbanas. Este festival se creó en 2004 en dicha ciudad alemana, pero ha se expandido a través
de exposiciones colectivas a ciudades como París, Francia, Madrid, España y ahora llega a
México.
Así, el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO) presenta la exposición
organizada en el X aniversario de Pictoplasma, llevando como título Pictoplasma: Character
Portraits.
La muestra presenta pinturas, bustos, esculturas e instalaciones de video animado con los
personajes que han dado forma al proyecto.
Con motivo de su aniversario, Pictoplasma invitó a más de cien artistas que han participado
activamente en el festival durante la última década. De esta manera, la exposición se nutre del
proyecto inaugural de Pictoplasma 1999, cuando de las limitaciones técnicas de la Internet
comercial temprana surgió una nueva estética figurativa y los personajes poblaron el nuevo
mundo virtual. Una década y media más tarde, esta exhibición retorna a esta propuesta con
nuevas creaturas que habitan un mundo virtual, pero con un cambio de enfoque, y celebra a los
personajes como sus propios ancestros, como precursores de poblaciones digitales y como
legado para nuestro futuro.
La mayoría de las obras están agrupadas en las Salas 3 y 4, en el escenario de una galería de
retratos clásica. Pero la exposición está igualmente interesada en el giro del retrato más en
boga: el selfie. En una convocatoria abierta, Pictoplasma invitó a diseñadores, ilustradores y
artistas internacionales a explorar el estado actual del exhibicionismo enviando las fotos de sí
mismos tomadas por los personajes con sus propias cámaras. Una selección de las más de dos
mil quinientas obras inscritas se presenta como instalación en #CharacterSelfies (2014),
exhibida frente a la Sala 2.
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Asimismo, la Sala 2 dedica su espacio a una nueva instalación de sitio específico del artista
japonés Motomichi Nakamura. Motomichi fue pionero de la animación en red durante la
década de 1990, mientras radicaba en Nueva York. Es conocido tanto por sus animaciones e
instalaciones de video, como por sus pinturas y esculturas. En esta instalación aplica el mapeo
de video a una bestia poligonal que sirve como pantalla parpadeante para sus visiones
monstruosas.
Más adelante, la Sala 4 presenta otra instalación de sitio específico obra del joven ilustrador
regiomontano el Grand Chamaco, quien eligió el aislamiento del pequeño pueblo de Los
Ramones, N.L. para perfeccionar su estilo, encontrar una voz propia y reafirmar una identidad
mexicana. Para esta muestra, revisa la figura controversial del conquistador representándolo
como el monumento de un caballo retorcido.
Para finalizar el recorrido, el visitante encontrará en el patio de las esculturas la obra The
Missing Link (2013) o el eslabón perdido; mascota no oficial del proyecto, la cual pretende ser
un personaje completamente vacío y solitario.
Así, de manera consistente los curadores desafían las fronteras artísticas de lo que pudiera
representar un personaje, siguiendo los principios de la formalización, la abstracción y la
reducción, y asegurándose de que produzcan siempre la mayor empatía, lo cual da como
resultado una muestra que refleja todo un mundo vivo de seres con autonomía.
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Marco teórico
Antecedentes históricos en el diseño gráfico
Philip B. Meggs, en su prólogo a la primera edición de Historia del diseño gráfico, en 1983, nos
habla del Zeitgeist, palabra de origen alemán que no tiene equivalente en otras lenguas; y cuyo
significado es: “el espíritu del tiempo”, y hace referencia a las tendencias y gustos culturales
que son característicos de un momento histórico determinado. Debido a su inmediatez y a su
carácter efímero, a los que hay que añadir su vínculo con la vida social, política y económica de
su cultura, no solo el diseño grafico sino el diseño en general puede expresar el Zeitgeist de
una época mejor que muchas manifestaciones humanas. Ivan Chermayeff, un diseñador
destacado, ha dicho que “el diseño de la historia es la historia del diseño”.
Desde tiempos prehistóricos, el ser humano ha buscado formas de expresar visualmente ideas
y conceptos, de almacenar conocimientos de forma gráfica y de ordenar y aclarar la
información. A lo largo de la historia, diversas personas (por ejemplo, escribas, impresores e
ilustradores) han satisfecho estas necesidades.
Pintura rupestre de los Fremont, procedente de San Rafael Swell, ca. 2000-1000 a. de C. Los Fremont vivieron en el sur
de Utah.
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No cabe duda que el artista gráfico
contemporáneo es heredero de unos
antepasados
distinguidos.
Los
escribas sumerios que inventaron la
escritura, los artesanos egipcios que
combinaban palabras e imágenes en
los manuscritos sobre papiro, los
xilógrafos chinos, los iluminadores
El monumento de Blau, sumerio primitivo, tercer tercio, IV milenio
medievales y los impresores y cajistas
a. de C. En este primitivo objeto de pizarra se combinan la
del siglo XV que diseñaron los
escritura grabada y las figuras talladas en relieve.
primeros libros impresos europeos
forman parte del rico patrimonio de la historia del Diseño Gráfico. En general, se trata de una
tradición anónima, por que el valor social y los logros estéticos de los diseñadores gráficos,
muchos de los cuales han sido artistas creativos de extraordinaria inteligencia y visión, no han
recibido suficiente reconocimiento.
El concepto del arte por el arte, de un objeto hermoso que existe exclusivamente por su valor
estético, no apareció hasta el siglo XIX. Antes de la revolución industrial, la belleza de las
formas y las imágenes que creaba el hombre estaba vinculada a su función en la sociedad
humana. Las características estéticas de la cerámica griega, los jeroglíficos egipcios y los
manuscritos medievales estaban totalmente integradas con su utilidad y el arte y la vida
formaban un todo cohesionado. Todo el estruendo de la revolución industrial puso al mundo de
cabeza, en un proceso de agitación y avance tecnológico que sigue acelerándose cada vez con
mayor rapidez. Al sacudir las artes y los oficios y sacarlos de su papel económico y social, la era
de la mecanización creó un abismo entre la vida material de las personas y sus necesidades
sensoriales y espirituales. Así como hay voces que reclaman que la humanidad recupere su
unidad con el entorno natural, cada vez hay mayor conciencia de la necesidad de restaurar
valores humanos y estéticos en el ambiente creado por el hombre y en las comunicaciones de
masas. Las artes del diseño (arquitectura y productos, moda, interiorismo y diseño gráfico)
ofrecen uno de los medios para esta recuperación. Una vez más como refugios de la sociedad,
los objetos y las comunicaciones pueden unir a un pueblo. Se pueden recuperar los valores
estéticos y espirituales que están en peligro. Una integridad de necesidad y espíritu, reunida a
través del proceso de diseño, puede contribuir en gran medida a la calidad y la razón de ser de
la vida de las sociedades urbanas.
Por otro lado encontramos que en la década de 1980 tres compañías introdujeron Hardware y
software muy poderosos y, a precios asequibles: Apple Computer desarrolló la computadora
Macintosh, Adobe Systems inventó el lenguaje de programación Post script, que es la base del
software de maquetación de páginas y de la tipografía generada electrónicamente, y Aldus
creó Page Maker, una de las primeras aplicaciones de software que usaba Post Script para
diseñar páginas en la pantalla de la computadora.
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Cuando en 1984 Apple Computer presentó la primera generación de computadoras Macintosh,
pronosticó una revolución gráfica. Estos nuevos programas permitían a los diseñadores
controlar tipografía, escala, color, y superponer formas, logrando un equilibrio dinámico. El
software brindaba a los ilustradores y fotógrafos la flexibilidad y la accesibilidad necesaria
para producir sus mejores obras.
A mediados de las década de 1990, se popularizan las computadoras personales así como el
internet que ponían en marcha la era de la información.
Nuevas tecnologías aplicadas al arte
Pictoplasma Character Portraits presenta una variedad de
animaciones, cortos, videos
musicales, gráficos en movimiento, dibujos e instalaciones. La mayoría de las obras que
componen la muestra las podríamos clasificar dentro de la corriente conocida como arte digital.
Este tipo de arte se define como una creación artística producida usando la tecnología digital.
Tradicionalmente, el arte era considerado como la pintura, el dibujo o la escultura producida
físicamente por la mano del artista. Sin embargo, la definición tradicional se ha expandido más
allá para abarcar diferentes formas de producción artística que incluye diseños generados de
manera digital.
En la década de los sesenta se dio un ‘boom’ tecnológico que traje consigo muchos avances e
innovaciones, esto dio pie al surgimiento de nuevas expresiones artísticas. Después, con la
llegada del Internet este nuevo medio digital permitió a los artistas diseñar creaciones únicas
que utilizan combinaciones tradicionales y contemporáneas dando como resultado lo que
ahora se clasifica como arte digital.
Aunque está abierto el debate sobre si el arte digital es verdaderamente arte o no, al revisarlas
bases del proceso artístico y creativo, encontraremos que estos medios de producción implica
el desarrollo de la creatividad y el conocimiento de los principios de arte, diseño y manejo del
software. No cabe duda que la tecnología digital redefine y amplía las nociones tradicionales de
arte.
De esta forma, el arte digital se está convirtiendo rápidamente en una forma respetable de
arte, abarcando una parte cada vez mayor de la sociedad. Se deriva de la concepción de las
formas artísticas tradicionales, pero con los componentes de la nueva tecnología. Incluso hay
museos dedicados exclusivamente a dar a conocer las diferentes formas de arte digital.
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Los avances en la tecnología digital permiten al artista crear una pieza que ahora puede ser
vista y apreciada en todo el mundo. Por lo tanto, el arte digital no sólo ha ampliado la definición
de arte, sino ha aumentado la accesibilidad de arte al mundo.
Sobre Pictoplasma
Pictoplasma es un festival internacional de
ilustración y animación, enfocado en la
creación de personajes, que se lleva a cabo en
Berlín. Esta plataforma fue fundada por los
alemanes Lars Denicke y Peter Thaler para
estudiar el diseño contemporáneo de figuras y
personajes que aparecen en la comunicación
visual. Así, desde 1999 organizan conferencias,
exposiciones y talleres que reúnen a creadores
y aficionados a estos personajes de todo el
mundo.
Por su parte, Peter Thaler estudió dirección y
animación en The Film AcADEMY Baden –
Wurttemberg en donde hizo cortos y películas
experimentales. Trabajó como director de
animación y arte en numerosos videos
musicales y comerciales. Fundó Pictoplasma
buscando una nueva estética figurativa en la
era digital.
Póster oficial de “Pictoplasma Berlin 2013”, con una
ilustración del El Grand Chamaco, artista mexicano.
Por otro lado, Lars Denicke tiene un doctorado en Teoría de los Medios en The Humbolt
University de Berlín. Un punto central de su investigación radicó en el estudio de la historia y la
teoría de las imágenes, la tecnología y los medios. Impulsado por la idea de crear un lugar para
el intercambio creativo y la colaboración. Denicke se unió a Peter Thaler en 2004 para crear la
Pictoplasma Conference.
De esta forma, juntos han trabajado con la finalidad de examinarlas amplias posibilidades que
ofrecen los personajes como símbolos de un lenguaje de diseño independiente en nuestra
sociedad. Así, han reunido reunir a miles de personajes para distinguir las variaciones más
sutiles entre ellos, clasificarlos por estilos y destacar sus tendencias y evoluciones.
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El nombre Pictoplasma viene de la intención de coleccionar pictogramas (imágenes) que no
fueran directrices comunicantes, sino que por sí solas tuvieran atractivo y pasión, siendo esto,
el plasma – aludiendo a algo vivo flotando a través de las imágenes pictográficas. Después, los
curadores descubrieron que ‘plasma’ tenía un origen griego que significa creatura, creación,
monstruo. Así, que combinado como ‘picto’ refiriéndose a la imagen tenemos como resultado:
Pictoplasma.
En Pictoplasma los personajes han evolucionado ya no son solo criaturas dibujadas, son
esculturas, figuras para el salón, son cuadros, son cine y series de televisión, así que sí.
Pictoplasma ya es arte. Crítica, realismo y fantasía son algunos de los elementos que forman su
filosofía, una filosofía que no solo tiene tiempo para mostrar criaturas extrañas. Así, lo que
distingue a estas mascotas y personajes de sus equivalentes en la animación y el cómic es que
son icónicos y no narrativos, lo que garantiza su reconocimiento inmediato.
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Ejes temáticos
El character design
Pictoplasma Character Portraits es una
exposición que gira en torno al
character design o diseño de personajes
en la época contemporánea. Los
personajes son algo que vemos desde la
infancia a través de animaciones y
dibujos. Y, aunque el diseño de
personajes no se limita al mundo de la
mercadotecnia, ésta se ha valido de los
personajes como una motivación que
acorte la distancia entre el consumidor y
la compañía para dar personalidad a un
producto o una marca.
Gary Baseman | The Portrait of Toby, 2014 | acrílico sobre tela
71 x 50,8 cm
En Pictoplasma los personajes trabajan
independientes del contexto cultural y
de la estructura narrativa. Es decir, son
totalmente autorreferenciales, y están
definidos por características claras y
distintas, por lo que tienen una vida
propia. De esta menara, la función de
un personaje se extiende más allá de
ser mascotas. Peter Thaler afirma que el
diseño de personajes es el lenguaje más
universal de la expresión gráfica.
Concretamente, el diseño de personajes es un proceso que consiste en la definición del
carácter a través de la apariencia física. Así, se diseña el aspecto de cada personaje en función
de su personalidad cubriendo una serie de aspectos físicos como cara, pelo y vestimenta. De
esta manera el personaje se convierte en una pequeña criatura de ficción, humana o no, que
tiene como objetivo complacer a su creador y el público también.
Sin embargo, el character design no sólo produce una identidad que se reconoce
universalmente, sino que también logra vincular en un nivel emocional al espectador y al
concepto, convirtiendo a estas abstractas y simples representaciones en jugadores clave en el
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mundo actual de imágenes. El diseño de personajes permite una identificación instantánea con
y una diferenciación entre productos y marcas.
La caracterización básica de un personaje: sus gustos, sus miedos, sus comportamientos,
puede tomar un poco de esfuerzo mental, ya que es una especie de lista de emociones, hechos
y sentimientos que van y vienen en la vida de un personaje, por lo cual el proceso de realización
visual de esta criatura puede no ser tan simple.
Así, los principios básicos del diseño de personajes son la función, el estilo y la personalidad. En
cuanto a la función se refiere a tener claro lo que se quiere comunicar a través del personaje
para que cumpla con su objetivo. Por otro lado, el estilo de un personaje proviene de la manera
en la que las formas que la componen se mezclan de una manera visualmente estimulante.
Finalmente, la personalidad será el punto más importante. Ésta se compone de muchos
aspectos, pero una gran parte viene de los rasgos y características físicas ya que esas son las
primeras cosas resaltarán al entrar en contacto con el personaje. Asimismo, un aspecto muy
importante que el diseñador debe considerar al momento de crear su personaje es que éste
pueda hacer algo, es decir, que pueda moverse, bailar, tener una expresión facial determinada
o una cierta postura que añadir a su personalidad.
Sin embargo, a pesar de que el núcleo de una creación exitosa es la personalidad. Un personaje
no tiene que ser agradable, de hecho, a menudo son más intrigantes cuando no lo son. Un
ejemplo de esto son la piezas de del artista japonés Motomichi Nakamura. Él se restringe a
utilizar una paleta mínima de negro, blanco y rojo, para crear personajes que encarnan el
choque de los opuestos o de las fuerzas contrarias como el bien y el mal o el hombre y el
monstruo. En su instalación Jack (2014) aplica el mapeo de video a una bestia poligonal que
sirve como pantalla parpadeante para sus visiones monstruosas logrando conjuntar dos
elementos distintos: el digital y el material. Además, Nakamura es reconocido por combinar
distintos mecanismos de producción como 3D Mapping, animaciones, performances y videos.
La cultura visual
Los personajes han invadido distintos escenarios, en la actualidad los vemos en la publicidad, el
arte, los medios de comunicación, la moda y hasta en los paisajes urbanos. De esta manera se
han insertado en nuestro día a día y convertido en parte de nuestra cultura visual. De hecho, el
proyecto de Pictoplasma inició cuando Peter Thaler comenzó a darse cuenta del peso que los
personajes estaban teniendo en distintos ámbitos, sobre todo en el comercial.
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Por lo tanto conviene revisar a qué se refiere la cultural visual. Según Nicolás Mirzoeff en su
libro Introducción a la cultural Visual (2009), es una táctica para estudiar la genealogía, la
definición y las funciones de la vida cotidiana posmoderna desde la perspectiva del
consumidor, más que de la del productor. La cultura visual se interesa por los acontecimientos
visuales en los que el consumidor busca información, el significado o el placer conectados con
la tecnología visual.
De esta manera, la cultura visual da prioridad a las
experiencias cotidianas y pone atención en qué es lo vemos
en la calle, en la televisión, en las revistas y en los demás
medios de comunicación, para analizar los mensajes
implícitos que conllevan y cómo no se nos muestra la realidad
completa, es decir, nos ofrecen una realidad que carece de
realidad.
En este sentido, las imágenes que podemos encontrar en la
publicidad, televisión o revistas, pueden ser imágenes no
reales, estar distorsionadas o mostrarnos sólo una parte de
forma conveniente. La realidad de la imagen se está poniendo
en duda. Estas imágenes pueden estar trucadas de forma que
Doudouboy | Hole A, 2014 | Aluno se puede apreciar esa manipulación que se ejerce sobre
Dibond, Sandwich | 150 x 112 cm
ellas. Ya no debemos de decir ver para creer, sino ver para
interpretar. Podemos ver, pero eso no significa que lo que estemos viendo sea real.
La cultura visual también hace referencia a la crisis de información y sobrecarga visual en lo
cotidiano. Todo lo que vemos en la realidad es ya una copia de algo que ha existido, hay mucha
información y se nos explota visualmente. Piezas como la instalación White Noise Serials (2013)
explora esta problemática de sobrecarga visual. La pieza reúne a cientos de personajes
distintos, de la autoría de varios artistas puestos sobre cajas de cereal enormes que sirven
como soporte para reflejar la emancipación de la mascota del producto que solía representar,
desvaneciendo así los límites que deberían separar el arte comercial de las bellas artes. El
título de la obra alude al fenómeno conocido como “ruido blanco” que es un sonido aleatorio
que posee la misma densidad espectral de potencia a lo largo de toda la banda de frecuencias,
es decir que se mantiene constante y al mismo tiempo contiene todas las frecuencias. Peter
Thaler y Lars Denicke, organizadores de Pictoplasma, trasladaron esta idea a la manera en que
las imágenes publicitarias nos bombardean a tal grado que todos los mensajes los percibimos,
siendo éstos el ruido, son tantos que se confunden y no logran diferenciarse uno de otros, por
lo que los percibimos a todos en una misma línea o frecuencia, convirtiéndose, así, en ruido
blanco.
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El selfie
La historia de los retratos y los autorretratos realizados a través de la historia del arte, son
importantes referentes en la historia de nuestra sociedad, y el Selfie es la derivación de ellos.
En la actualidad encontramos que cientos de
miles de millones de fotos se encuentran hoy
publicadas en las redes sociales de internet.
La palabra Selfie, fue nombrada la palabra del
año en 2013 por el Diccionario Oxford. De
acuerdo a este prestigioso diccionario un
selfie es: a photograph that one has taken of
oneself, typically one taken with a
smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a
social media website: [usage] occasional
selfies are acceptable, but posting a new
picture of yourself every day isn’t necessary.
Muy acorde al espíritu de los tiempos actuales
–Zeitgeist-, los curadores de Pictoplasma
crean la pieza #CharacterSelfies (2014), con el
objetivo de reflexionar y comprender por qué
es importante entender que los selfies se
originan como respuesta al mundo en que vivimos.
En otras palabras, los selfies surgen de las
condiciones sociales de nuestras vidas: la Jaime Álvarez (Mr. Kat) | Selfie Mr. Kat, 2014
tecnología y la mano de obra barata que
fabrican las cámaras de tamaño billetera, económicas, fácilmente disponibles, así como las
innovaciones de alta tecnología en tablets y celulares, que nos permiten subir fotos en un
instante, y el aumento de los diversos tipos de redes sociales.
Hoy en día transmitimos electrónicamente nuestras imágenes y nuestras historias, donde la
constante presentación del “ser” es la norma cultural actual. Somos seres sociales y estos
métodos nos permiten promover el retrato deseado de nuestras vidas. Esta tecnología y los
efectos que tienen en las sociedades, la interacción social y la comunicación han creado
costumbres y normas tan profundos cuyo impacto se equipara al de la imprenta de Gutenberg
en el siglo XV.
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Conclusión
Esta selección de proyectos dentro del proyecto
internacional expositivo Pictoplasma: Character
Portraits representa para el espectador un festín
visual, pero ¿Qué es lo que distingue a un artista
del diseño, de sus colegas?, aunque es difícil y
desconcertante no cabe duda que el autor debe
tener un punto de vista estético característico, un
vocabulario visual que se reconozca de inmediato y
un método único que trascienda y lo distinga.
En Pictoplasma: Character Portraits no cabe duda
que estamos rodeados constantemente de
mensajes visuales donde los que perduran son
generalmente fascinantes en el sentido visual y en
donde muchos de ellos nos plantean un desafío
intelectual y son claramente auténticos. En la
actualidad el campo del diseño es mucho más
amplio que en el pasado y abarca disciplinas como
mass media, gráfica animada o en movimiento, El Grand Chamaco | La muta muerta, 2014 | Alunew media, modelado en 3d, livestream entre Dibond, Sandwich | 150 x 103 cm
otros y aunque el diseño contemporáneo se define
en gran medida por la tecnología, en la actualidad conserva fuertes vínculos con la historia del
arte, la academia así como la manufactura de carácter artesanal.
15
Anexos
Biografías
3753% Tørdal (NOR)
tordal.no
Hilde and Bård live in the small parish of Tørdal, deep in the forests of Telemark. They are
artists and designers and work with different media including sculpture, painting and digital
work. One of their projects Papp is a robotic character with distinctively large eyes.
Sonni Adrian (ARG)
sonnistudios.com
After studying economics, Sonni moved to Miami and then New York to work as animation and
graphic designer. In his colourful and playful work he searches for that lost moment in
adolescence where adventure turns dreams into reality.
Animade (UK)
animade.tv
Animade is a London-based animation studio that believes in simplicity as the essence of
character design. Their success was propelled by a quick-fire duelling game for mobile phones.
Bakea (ES)
behance.net/bakea
Juan Carlos Paz is a Spanish illustrator and sculptor who mixes digital design, illustration and
photography to create original, character-driven work. Bakea is his expanding pop-infused
natural history museum, populated by three-eyed monsters and pastel taxidermy.
Gary Baseman (USA)
garybaseman.com
A self-proclaimed pervasive artist, Gary has expanded his work from illustration to painting, and
on to animation, toy design, video and performance art. Among a host of recurring characters,
Tobi is his constant companion in the search for encounters while travelling the world or in his
home town of Los Angeles.
BeatBots (USA)
beatbots.net
Together with Hideki Kozima, Marek Michalowski is the founder of BeatBots, a group of
roboticists who design interactive characters and machines for entertainment, research,
therapy, art and toys. Their most popular robot Keepon was built to engage in nonverbal
interaction with children, particularly those with autism. When Keepon also became a pop
phenomena BeatBots eventually released an affordable toy version.
16
Bee Kingdom (CAN)
beekingdom.ca
The four Canadian artists behind Bee Kingdom have established a unique identity combining
glass blowing with contemporary character design. Developing their individual signatures, the
nature of their work demands ongoing collaboration in their studios in Calgary and Berlin.
Diana Beltran Herrera (COL)
dianabeltranherrera.com
Diana is a fine artist currently based in Bristol. She explores the chillingly disengaged
relationship between humans and nature in modern society. Primarily working in paper she
presents notions of temporality and change, emphasising the ongoing process of
transformation in both nature and humankind.
Ben & Julia (FR/CH)
benandjulia.com
Ben & Julia create colourful work, mixing animation, watercolour and drawings, live footage and
puppetry. They have a soft spot for nature, forests and fungi in particular, and work for
commercials, virals and music videos. Based in Berlin, they continue to develop the mythology
of Kaluk, a dog that becomes king and is poisoned by his guardian cat.
Billy aka Alex Godwin (UK)
billyandalex.com
Billy has a passion for colour and communicates a visual punch that will make anyone break
into a smile. Working both in her studio and on the streets, she spends a lot of her time on the
road between London, Berlin and South Africa.
Tim Biskup (USA)
timbiskup.com
A fine artist from Los Angeles,Tim received his technical training while working in the
illustration, animation and graphic design industries. In his paintings, he arranges complex
colour patterns in cubist formations. With a decidedly populist aesthetic, Tim portrayals a wide
range of human, animal and mythological characters.
JuliánBonequi (MX)
julianbonequi.com
Julián is a Mexican DF based artist and musician with a background in Free Jazz. As a drummer
he experiments with electronics, noise and improvisation to create intricate rhythmic
environments. In his visual art he applies similar strategies to create stunningly detailed and
abstract 3D computer graphics.
17
Nina Braun (DE)
ninabraun.net
Nina launched her own skateboard clothing company in the 1990s, staking out her territory in a
male-dominated world. She quit the business in 2005 to focus on her iconic knitted characters
whose seductive haute-couture appeal preserves a link to the world of fashion. Nina lives in
Berlin.
Brosmind (SP)
brosmind.com
Brosmind is a design and illustration studio based in Barcelona, founded by the brothers Juan
and Alejandro Mingarro. Their fresh and optimistic style combines fantasy and humor and has
received numerous awards. They work for clients such as Nike, Microsoft, Virgin, Gillette, or
Volkswagen, but still find the time for personal artistic projects, such as the ongoing 'What's
Inside?' series.
Buff Monster (USA)
buffmonster.com
The work of Buff Monster is characterised by happy, typographic characters living in bubbly
landscapes. Starting to make a name for himself by posting thousands of hand-silkscreened
posters across Los Angeles, he is renowned for his meticulously executed paintings and diverse
commercial products. With his Melty Misfits characters, based on ice cream cones, he creates
narratives that reference art history.
Jon Burgerman (UK)
jonburgerman.com
Jon work almost exclusively in pen. British self-deprecation and modern-day angst infuse his
work, and he createsconceptual series of drawings that combine his talent with dabbles into
dilettantism. A committed vegetarian, his love of salad has extended to pizza since moving to
New York.
Büro Destruct (CH)
burodestruct.net
Having worked as a group for twenty years, the Swiss graphic designers based in Bern were at
the forefront of reduced figurative digital design at the turn of the millennium. Their super
minimal, geometric characters are infused with their typographic font designs.
Gastón Caba (ARG)
gastoncaba.com.ar
Gaston is an illustrator from Buenos Aires. His cute, minimalist characters often take the form
of mushrooms, cats or rabbits. He has created characters for major commercial campaigns in
Asia, where his pattern designs for fashion and other surfaces have a big following.
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Juan Pablo Cambariere (ARG)
cambariere.com
Juan Pablo Cambariere is an Argentinean graphic designer with eclectic interests. Concerned
about the widespread corruption in his country, he makes handcrafted, wooden marionettes
that reflect on power and basic structures of dependency.
Guillermo García Carsí (ES)
elsenorstudio.com
Based in Madrid, Guillermo started out as an illustrator, but inspired by Tex Avery he moved on
to animation, where he could distort his characters into every conceivable shape. His preschool
series 'Pocoyo' has won him a long list of prestigious awards and is highly popular in Spain.
François Chalet (CH)
francoischalet.ch
François was one of the pioneers at the turn of the millennium who helped define a new vectorbased language of graphical character design. Based in Zürich, he has expanded his work from
illustration to animation and stage design for a ballet company. His daily blog about his son
Caspar has a large following.
Cherry of Studio Killers (FIN)
studiokillers.co.uk
Cherry is the artist, director, and fashionista behind the audiovisual collective Studio Killers. Her
work consists of self portraits and imagery that flow from the music created by her virtual band.
Chu (ARG)
studiochu.tv
Julian Pablo Manzelli is an artist, designer and animation director from Buenos Aires. His work
is characterised by abstract geometric universes, which he produces as paintings, murals and
sculptures. He is founding member of DOMA.
Gemma Correll (UK)
gemmacorrell.com
As an illustrator known for her portraits of cats and dogs Gemma creates miniature narratives
and comic situations, with an emphasis on wordplay and humour. Her blog about pugs has a
huge following, and she has created a wide range of products starring her most favourite
animals.
Jan de Coster (BE)
slightlyoverdone.be
Jan grew up with a fascination for physics, science fiction and hacking. Gradually he realised
19
that stories about science were more appealing than the theories behind them. In his
interactive sculptures, he crafts imperfect robots and cybernetic installationsthat make people
feel vulnerable and exposed.
Darcel Disappoints (AUS)
darceldisappoints.com
After moving to New York in 2007, Craig Redman started his daily blog Darcel Disappoints, a
reflection on the highs and – especially – lows of big city life. His cyclops image is famous
throughout the fashion and celebrity worlds. In an ongoing collaboration with Paris conceptstore Colette and other companies, Craig has produced versions of Darcel for selected media
avenues.
Sue Doeksen (NL)
suedoeksen.nl
Based in Amsterdam Sue creates intricate worlds that are overpopulated with bright colours,
friendly forms and hidden jokes. Working in a digital-analogue media mix that takes in pencil
drawing, paper cutting, and animation, the results often leave the viewer slightly overwhelmed
by the joyful chaos and multitude of visual adventures.
Doma (ARG)
doma.tv
The collective of four designers, artists and filmmakers emerged at the end of the 1990s in the
street art scene of Buenos Aires with absurd and subversive campaigns that commented on the
political situation. At the height of the financial crisis in Argentina they were making giant toys
that reversed the usual child-doll proportions. Over-inflated and flaccid, they in turn became
cushions to flop on. 'Gordo' was their main character.
Doudouboy (FR)
doudouboy.com
The French designer and animation filmmaker FlorentFeys lives in Marseilles. His work is often
characterised by luscious dreamlike atmospheres inhabited by minimal, almost sterile
creatures. He is also attracted to aesthetics considered low-brow, kitsch or trash.
Jeremy Dower (AUS)
jeremydower.com
Jeremy is an artist, musician, and film director from Melbourne. He creates digital paintings,
exploring the aesthetics of the medium and its virtual plasticity. His work centres on reductive
figuration, playing with the uncanny, bringing characters to life, pausing the process at the
brink to obscure its emergence.
20
eBoy (DE)
eboy.com
Based in Berlin and Vancouver, Steffen Sauerteig, SvendSmital and Kai Vermehr continue to
create an ever-growing pixel style universe. Fuelled by a deep passion for things — cars,
weapons and robots are all part of the growing inventory in their isometric world. While it all
started with digital design, they soon spread their cubic principle to tangible objects.
SiggiEggertsson (ICE)
siggieggertsson.com
Siggi works as illustrator, graphic designer and typographer in Berlin, regularly retreating to the
Icelandic countryside. He has made a name for himself with his distinct use of colour, playful
lines and minimal geometric shapes. His work evokes optical illusions, creating dimensional
effects through complex patterns.
OsianEfnisien (UK)
motatomi.com
Osian was brought up among the pristine glaciers of Snowdonia, North Wales. Snowed in for six
months of each year he spent the dark winters in front of the fire drawing and listening to the
gruesome Celtic legends of his forebears. His current work is dominated by two-dimensional
character variations, fragile patterns and a tiny turn.
Sune Ehlers (DK)
suneehlers.dk
Sune works as illustrator and art director in Copenhagen. He is an obsessive dude-style doodler
– no surface is safe!
El Grand Chamaco (MX)
grandchamaco.com
El Grand Chamaco is an illustrator based in the small village of Los Ramones. After a
troublesome academic career he worked on perfecting his style and finding a real voice and
Mexican identity. Only recently, thanks to the arrival of the Internet to his hometown, has he
begun to share his talent with the world.
Felt Mistress (UK)
feltmistress.com
Louise Evans was trained in fashion design and millinery, and has made a name for herself with
her elaborate couture wedding dresses. Together with her partner, the illustrator Jonathan
Edwards, she creates one-of-a-kind bespoke felt creatures.
21
Pete Fowler (UK)
monsterism.net
Pete made a name for himself producing designer toys on his own label, Monsterism. He also
works in illustration, painting and sculpture. His character-driven work is based on extensive
back-stories, each character having its own specific traits and monster levels.
Jon Fox (UK)
soulofagiant.com
Jon portraits groups of characters ill at ease with themselves in situations of conflict and inner
turmoil. Referencing comic-book aesthetics, he blends figuration and abstraction with
perspectival displacement. Jon lives in Southern France.
Max Gärtner (DE)
maxgartner.com
Max followed his Spanish roots and began an illustration career in Barcelona before moving to
Berlin. A passion for the unbound energy of wild animals underpins his exquisite animal
portraits, which are characterised by a luxuriant use of line.
Geneviève Gauckler (FR)
genevievegauckler.com
Geneviève is a French illustrator renowned for an ever-evolving procession of loveable
characters and technicolor digital mashes. Her works are bright, fun and hectic, often
combining symmetrical designs with soft-edged computer-generated images against
photographic backgrounds. Her initial black, egg-shaped character with white dots for eyes has
gradually mutated into other forms and colours.
Yves Geleyn (FR)
yvesgeleyn.com
Yves is an animation filmmaker from Paris with a strong sensibility for poetic delicacy. He
freewheels with styles, textures, computer graphics, paper cutouts and traditional animation.
Although he deploys a wide cast of characters, birds are always on the scene.
Charles Glaubitz (MX)
mrglaubitz.com
The Tijuana-based artist makes drawings and paintings that often reference the archetypical
end battle between good and evil, with characters that draw on mythology, traditional Mexican
and popular culture.
Mark Gmehling (DE)
markgmehling.weebly.com
Mark is a 3D illustrator from Dortmund. His characters originate from his passion for 80s graffiti
22
and typography, combined with his signature spaghettified limbs. A reduced colour palette of
white, grey, black and gold informs much of his work.
Melissa Godoy Nieto (MX)
melissagodoynieto.com
Melissa works as a designer in New York. Attracted to objects that mix nostalgia with
contemporary life and industrial materials, and driven by a strong interest in pre-Hispanic
history, art and hieroglyphics, her work incorporates colours and textures that reference the
vibrant palette, dynamic and hand-crafted aesthetic of Mexican culture.
Guillaumit (FR)
guillaumit.com
Guillaume Castagné is the visual part of the Gangpol&Mit duo, which describes itself as 'sonic
and visual in love'. Space-age pop and simple toy instruments are combined with geometric,
folkloric imagery and cartoon collages. Guillaume has a weakness for animals, technology and
musical instruments, which he mashes up into post-digital characters.
YekaHaski (GUS)
yekahaski.com
The Saint Petersburg artist applies minimal aesthetics to her work in a broad range of media.
Many of her characters are wormlike or basic organisms set in cheerful environments and
having a barrel of laughs.
Fluorescent Hill (CAN)
fluorescenthill.com
JohanneSte-Marie and Mark Lomond run an animation studio based in Montreal.They started
out directing music videos back in 2002 and soon expanded their repertoire by
directing/producing commercials and short films.
Derrick Hodgson (CAN)
Living in Toronto where he cultivates his passion for gardening, Derrick grows equally organic
critters. He makes productive use of any derivation in the process of drawing. Working with
repetition, his simple, mutating characters have left behind former references to humans and
mammals for more simple organisms such as worms.
Boris Hoppek (DE)
borishoppek.de
Based in Barcelona, in the early 1990s Boris spearheaded the introduction of figurative
elements into graffiti. His Bimbo character evolved from the golliwog, a cuddly racist throwback
to colonial times and minstrel shows. Boris took it to a level of abstraction that allowed him to
address explicit political themes such as immigration, racism, violence and sexuality.
23
Anna Hrachovec (USA)
annahrachovec.com
Anna is a fibre artist living in Chicago. With her knitted characters and installations, Anna
embraces familiar cultural touchstones – from everyday objects to fairytales and urban myths
– twisting them with playfulness and a few well placed stitches. Her website and pattern books
have inspired knitters worldwide.
Charles Huettner (USA)
charleshuettner.tumblr.com
Charles is a Pennsylvania-based artist and animator, known for his quirky drawings of
characters, that he often turns into animated video loops and GIFs. He is also a founding
member of the famed 'Late Night Work Club', a collective of independent animators, that has
recently released its award winning debut 'Ghost Stories.'
FaiyazJafri (NL)
bam-b.com
Faiyaz is a 3D illustrator of Dutch-Pakistani decent, who recently moved to Hong Kong after
years of living in New York. Reinterpreting iconic motifs, he depicts mostly female characters in
scenes that flicker between innocence and pornographic violence or humiliation. His work
builds a tension between soulless CGI atmospheres and the longing for romantic redemption.
Jeanspezial (FR)
jeanspezial.tumblr.com
When a collective has eight or more members, the output is obviously going to be varied. But as
the works on display by Jean Michel Ouvry, Nicolas Barrome and SébastienTouache show, they
are united by a passion for classical composition. In collaborative projects, Jeanspezial plays
with art historical references.
Mark Jenkins (USA)
xmarkjenkinsx.com
Mark is widely known for the street installations he creates using box sealing tape. His work
explores absurdist and surreal themes. Padded human bodies in casual clothing are placed in
public space, interrupting the daily stream of activities.
Jeremyville (AUS)
jeremyville.com
Jeremyville is an illustrator, artist, product designer and author based in New York, who works
with a cast of characters often set in urban environments. With his Community Service
Announcements, posted regularly on Facebook, he reflects on the complexities of daily life in
simple statements. His personal work is informed by a fascination with the apocalypse of
mascots.
24
Matt Jones (UK)
lunartik.com
Matt is a toy designer. The essence of his Lunartik character is distinctly British – he sits in a cup
of tea. As an entrepreneur, Matt has found a way to create an independent production and
distribution system for his toys. He works as illustrator in Berlin.
JuJu's Delivery (DE)
jujus-delivery.com
Berlin Illustrator Julia Schonlau creates children that manage to look innocent and evil at the
same time. Painted in simple, soft yet bold outlines, they are often surrounded by dinosaurs
and other imaginary creatures.
Jean Jullien (FR)
jeanjullien.com
Jean works as illustrator in London, expanding his practice to photography, video, costumes
and installations in an eclectic body of work. His illustrations are classic both in style and in the
way they reduce complex matters to visual puns.
Nathan Jurevicius (AUS)
scarygirl.com
Based in Toronto, Nathan has worked as a freelance illustrator and artist for countless
international companies and publications. His most acclaimed project to date 'Scarygirl',
comprising of graphic novels, vinyl toys, travelling shows, an online presence and a successful
Xbox game, has a devoted fan base. More recently he has used his Lithuanian origins to create a
second universe, Pelada, that expands upon Lithuanian mythology.
Roman Klonek (DE)
klonek.de
Roman lives in Düsseldorf but was born in Poland, and he still has a soft spot for old fashioned
East European cartoons. When he discovered woodcut printing he never looked back and now
exclusively uses the medium to portray a range of whimsical creatures in bold colours and
graphical settings.
Koralie (FR)
cargocollective.com/koralie
Koralie emerged as one of the few female artists working on the streets around the year 2000.
Her female symmetrical character with her iconic plaits is reminiscent of Asian culture and
radiates an airily peaceful aura. She often collaborates with her partner Supakitch with whom
she also runs the Metroplastique fashion label in Paris.
25
Hyein Lee (CAN/HK)
hyeinlee.com
An engineer-turned-illustrator from Toronto, Hyein's work is populated by lonesome, humble
and friendly monsters, which depict melancholy moments with cuddly-toy appeal.
Autobiographical in content, these intimate diary-like drawings are often a direct translation of
the artist’s feelings.
Aaron Leighton (CAN)
aaronleighton.com
Aaron works as an illustrator for editorial and animation projects in Toronto. Born on the
Canadian prairies, he spent his childhood inventing creatures that didn’t exist. He never
stopped – and these days places them in photorealistic settings.
Raymond Lemstra (NL)
raymondlemstra.nl
Raymond lives in Amsterdam, his work rekindles a childlike sense of wonder within contained
fantasy worlds where furry creatures blend with minimalist totemic masks and exquisite retro
futurism. His style references the iconic quality of indigenous art, with other influences ranging
from the aesthetics of the NeueSachlichkeit and Bauhaus to Magical Realism.
Joshua Ben Longo (USA)
longoland.com
In a lengthy and elaborate process, Joshua makes soft sculptures from materials such as felt
and cashmere, fusing the art and craft of character design with notions of desire and curiosity in
inappropriate social settings. He works as a design and fashion consultant in Philadelphia.
Andy Martin (UK)
andymartin.info
London-based animator and illustrator Andy wildly mixes hand-drawing, computer illustration
and claymation. His diverse work is always infused with humour and hilarity. He also dabbles
happily in the audio side of things, allowing him to make silly voices, bleeping sounds and
ridiculously infectious ditties.
Allyson Mellberg Taylor (USA)
allysonandjeremy.blogspot.com
Allyson's drawings are intimate, dreamlike portraits of herself, reminiscent of things seen in a
personal journal or diary. Together with her husband Jeremy, she lives in Charlottesville,
Virginia, where she makes her own ink, boiling walnuts to produce a dark brown colour, or
extracting pigment from pokeberries for magenta.
26
Jordan Metcalf (ZA)
jordan-metcalf.com
Jordan works as graphic designer in Cape Town. In his drawings and paintings, strictly executed
in black and white, he captures a mood between nostalgia and melancholy, isolation and hope.
Francisco Miranda (ARG)
tooco.com.ar
Francisco works as a graphic designer in Buenos Aires. Inspired by the formal principles of Art
Deco, he creates a visionary fusion of geometry and nature, mechanical and organic structures.
Juan Molinet (ARG)
lebureau.tv
Juan is an art director and illustrator from Buenos Aires. His work is influenced by ancient
cultures and robots, early rubber-hose animation from the 1920s, food, and giant Japanese
kaiju monsters. He likes to create fake advertising campaigns with vintage appeal and invent
imaginative characters.
Christian Montenegro (ARG)
christianmontenegro.com.ar
Christian works as illustrator in Buenos Aires who is strongly influenced by early 20th century
avant-garde art, and particularly Expressionism and Dadaism. His digital illustrations often
incorporate the texture of woodblock prints, featuring archetypal characters such as witches or
magicians.
mr clement (HK)
mrclement.com
mr clement is an illustrator, painter and sculptor from Hong Kong famed for his seemingly
friendly graphic novels and sculptures that feature a generic rabbit, Petit Lapin. Drawing
inspiration from popular culture, porn and classical music, his work combines traditional fine
art with sub-culture from West and East.
Mr. Kat (SP/PE)
behance.net/Mr-Kat
The Spanish born, Peru based artist Jaime Alvarez Sobreviela aka Mr. Kat likes playing with
colours and textures. His trademark style combines simple geometric shapes and smooth lines
with hyper-realistic shiny surfaces and a luxurious sculptural feeling. After creating his work
exclusively as virtual 3D renders, he has recently turned away from the computer and started
crafting his characters into haptic sculptures.
27
Mymo (DE)
mymonstersworld.com
Based in Berlin with her roots in graffiti, Mymo still travels the world to paint in public space.
Her paintings and collages are often finished with a lacquer coat to highlight the garish palette.
Her artist name is an acronym for My Monster World, but she has gradually transformed her
hairy creatures into more ethereal beings and warriors, simple forms that dissolve into ghostly
apparitions.
Motomichi Nakamura (JP)
motomichi.com
Currently living in Quito, Motomochi was a pioneer of web animation in New York. He is
renowned for his animation, video installations and VJing, but also painting and sculpture.
Restricting himself to a minimal palette of black and white and red, he creates characters that
embody a clash of opposites or contrary forces such as good and evil, man and monster.
Ben Newman (UK)
bennewman.co.uk
The work of London-based illustrator and artist is a contemporary fusion of bold shapes and
bright colours, often referencing tribal warrior masks, mystical totems and Bauhaus.
Nomint (GR)
nomint.com
Christos Lefakis and YannisKonstantinidis met in London, where they founded an animation
studio. They make narrative shorts with a surreal twist - think encounters between Land Rovers
and two-headed chickens in the mountains.
AkinoriOishi (JP)
aki-air.com
Aki is a graphic artist based in Osaka. Drawing faces using no more than a few dots and dashes,
he arranges his characters into vast, sprawling life systems that can take over entire buildings –
or reduces them to typographic portraits.
Okosama-Star (JP)
okosama-star.com
RyosukeTei ran the legendary FuriFuri design studio that spearheaded the cute Japanese style
of character design. His new studio, Okosama-Star Inc. is based in Kobe and continues to
expand this minimalist world of happiness.
Ted Parker (NL)
ted-parker.com
An illustrator from Utrecht, Ted displays extreme joy in the strangest situations, with his
28
disturbing signature dot-dot eyes and painted-on smiles inscribing themselves onto any face.
He draws all his work upside down.
Parquerama Studios (ARG)
parqueramastudios.tv
MatiasVigliano, founding member of Doma, created Parquerama, a young electricity-eating
character reminiscent of70s sci-fi and comics. Matias created elaborate silk prints, drawings
and vinyl figures, before teaming up with acclaimed animator Dante Zaballa to produce a series
of hand-drawn animated shorts.
Juliana Pedemonte (ARG)
colorblok.com
Juliana is an illustrator and motion designer from Buenos Aires. Her work is full of colour and
usually depicts joyful characters and anthropomorphised machines. She may have been first to
introduce a character with screen-like face, a stylistic device that since been adopted by many
other artists.
Pic Pic André (BE)
picpicandre.be
Brussels-based StéphaneAubier and Vincent Patar produce stop-motion animations starring a
set of tiny plastic toys, including Coboy, Indien and Cheval. They are masters of the quirky offthe-wall Belgian sense of humour.
Pleix (FR)
pleix.net
Pleix is a Paris-based collective of graphic designers, 3D artists, musicians and video creators.
They work with limits, contradictions and accidents that show the fragility of the digital world.
Hybrids of animals, humans and objects, flying dogs and futuristic visions are some of their
recurring motifs.
Ryan Quincy (USA)
ryanquincy.com
For many years, Ryan worked as animation director for South Park in Los Angeles. His personal
work combines elements of the ordinary and the bizarre, the melancholy and the cringeworthy,
and the hairier the creature the better.
Luke Ramsey (CAN)
lukeramseystudio.com
Luke is an illustrator and fine artist living on Pender Island off Vancouver. He runs the art
residency Islands Fold and has collaborated with more than 100 different artists. His graphic
signature is continuous line and a strong conceptual approach.
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Rob Reger (USA)
emilystrange.net
Rob is the founder, owner and creative director of Cosmic Debris, a design house based in the
San Francisco Bay Area that grew out of the DIY punk and guerrilla art aesthetic of the
early1990s. He introduced the world to a character far more popular than she’d ever care to
admit, Emily the Strange, and she has maintained a following with teenagers for twenty years.
Sauerkids (NL)
sauerkids.com
Mark Moget and Taco Sipma are an artist duo based in Rotterdam. Their work echoes classic
cartoon and commercial characters from the mid 20th century. In recent years, they have
moved into more abstract forms of action painting and work on the pictorial disfiguration of the
human face.
FonsSchiedon (NL)
fonsschiedon.com
Fons works as animation director and illustrator in Berlin. He has made a name for himself with
his commercial, style-defining animation shorts and the chewing-gum-like distortion of his
characters' body parts in time and space. All his work has a strong conceptual approach.
Kurt Separately (UK)
falsekurt.tumblr.com
Kurt is a digital artist from London with a Tumblr output under the label Falsekurt. He works in
the genre of Glitch art, the aesthetic of digital errors, artefacts and other bugs, experimenting
with digital images and iconic characters from comics, games and manga, taking them apart
and reassembling in surprising ways.
Peter de Sève (USA)
peterdeseve.com
A native New Yorker, Peter is fames for his illustration work and cover art for The New Yorker
since the 1990s. As the sole designer on Ice Age and its sequels, he can only be described as one
of the leading character designers in today’s animated film industry.
Nick Sheehy (UK)
showchicken.com
Nick is a Tasmanian-born artist and illustrator based in London. He depicts a wide cast of birds,
snakes and other animal characters, often wrapped in costumes, carrying musical instruments
and marching in parade formation. He likes to think of the images as scenes of some unscripted
theatre performance.
30
Shoboshobo (FR)
shoboshobo.com
Mehdi Hercberg is an artist, illustrator and musician from Paris. His drawings twist and distort
the human body with the obsessive energy of a Rubik’s Cube fanatic and he is constantly
experimenting with new media and techniques.
Slumberbean (UK)
slumberbean.com
Slumberbean is the personal project of Bristol-based freelance illustrator Sam Hadley. The
character emerged from the desperate need for sleep that results from living with a newborn.
In his illustrations Sam positions the sleeping character into various settings, from urban to
rural sceneries, winter landscapes and Asian lakes.
Ian Stevenson (UK)
ianstevenson.co.uk
The London artist is inspired by the everyday strangeness of people and the world around him.
His drawings show clusters of meticulously deformed characters and wry, oddball soundbites.
They are overtly cartoonish, but melancholy is always tearing at the surface.
Aaron Stewart (USA)
bendablerubber.com
Aaron works as a designer and animation director in New York. During a visit to his childhood
home in Wichita, Kansas, he re-discovered the old family photo albums. Their quirky Kodacolor
aura and homey settings inspired him to recreate his past adding the friendly critters he had
always longed to be surrounded by.
Will Sweeney (UK)
alakazamlabel.com
Will is a London-based illustrator and graphic artist specialising in comics, clothing, graphics,
animated videos and music packaging. Deep psychedelics and hallucinatory colours are the
principle ingredients of his monstrous creations.
Tado (UK)
tado.co.uk
Mike and Katie of Tado are a graphic design and illustration duo based in Sheffield. They are
some of the most prominent representatives of the super-cute character style and have
released numerous designer toys.
Gary Taxali (CAN)
garytaxali.com
Gary is an award-winning illustrator of Indian descendant living in Toronto. His style references
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vintage comics and mid-20th century advertising. In 2005, he launched his first vinyl toy, The
Toy Monkey, which included a special edition along with a silkscreen print commissioned by The
Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
The London Police (NL)
thelondonpolice.com
In 1998, The London Police started to bring their iconic Lads to city streets around the globe.
The circular-headed characters have become their trademark and are often composed in
repetitive arrangements. In their current formation, they produce meticulous paintings in which
the characters resonate with the urban settings from which they have emerged.
tokyoplastic (UK)
tokyoplastic.com
Sam Lanyon Jones and Andrew Cope travelled the world as backpack buddies before founding
an animation studio in London that produced some of the most influential 3D campaigns of the
early 21st century.Creating iconic characters that incorporated musical technology such as
drum machines, the duo has since turned their attention to cats and dogs.
OriToor (ISR)
oritoor.com
Ori is an illustrator from Tel Aviv, acclaimed for his music videos and animated art. His drawings
consist of repetitive organic forms and he has specialised in improvising frame-by-frame loops,
taking them apart and editing them back together.
Joel Trussell (USA)
joeltrussell.com
Joel hails from illustration but works mainly as animation director in Los Angeles. Renowned for
his prolific music video output and often provocative work Joel likes to combine simple
graphical elements with real footage.
T Wei (NZ)
t-wei.tumblr.com
T Wei is a young and upcoming artist and illustrator living in Wellington, New Zealand. His
quirky drawings and unique style have lately earned him quite some international recognition.
With a strong sense for motion built in to seemingly cubist character designs, he often depicts
cartoon dissections, evoking an adventurous colourful peek underneath the skin of today's pop
consumerist icons.
Amandine Urruty (FR)
amandineurruty.free.fr
Amandine lives and works between Toulouse and Paris. Pencils and crayons are her medium of
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choice. Her deviant portraits of young ladies and pigs in grotesque outfits and too much makeup are the very essence of Rubenesque carnality.
Brecht Vandenbroucke (BE)
brechtvandenbroucke.blogspot.com
The Antwerp-based artist works in painting, story writing, sculpture, short films and comics.
Crude style and vivid coloursare his trademark, which focuses on technology, identity, freedom,
art, childhood and death. Brecht packages his commentary and analysis in surrealism and
absurdist humour.
Amanda Visell (USA)
amandavisell.com
Amanda worked as designer for animation projects, building upon her childhood passion for
vintage Disney-Musketeers and wartime cartoons. Her career took a sharp turn when she
started publicly showing her paintings, in which she continues to explore her passion for
characters from the past.
Andrea Wan (CAN)
andreawan.com
Andrea is a visual artist and illustrator born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver. She is
currently based in Berlin where she continues to work on her a coherent body of surrealist
portraits in watercolour and ink.
Wayne Horse (DE/NL)
waynehorse.com
Wayne Horse aka WillehadEilers is an artist from Amsterdam. In his short films, installations
and performances he has featured many filthy-looking life-sized doll costumes that reek of
fetishised sexuality, violence and freakish behaviour. His drawings are executed in a crude,
grotesque style which renders the quotidian unrecognisable.
KimiakiYaegashi (JP)
okimi.com
An illustrator and graphic designer from Tokyo, Kimiaki is the man behind some very
disconcerting imagery. A bikini babe surrounded by a set of faithful side-kicks with an endless
appetite for pizza are the key figures in his brand of incomparably sexual surrealism with
irresistible pop appeal.
Bubi Au Yeung (HK)
bubiauyeung.com
Bubi works as an illustrator and multimedia designer in Hong Kong. She has created a series of
illustrated stories and characters, most notably Treeson, a friendly Yeti with a stick in his chest.
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The vinyl figures based on the character have worldwide fan base.
Lucas Zanotto (IT)
lucaszanotto.com
Born in the Alps of Northern Italy, Lucas comes from a product and graphic design background.
Straight after receiving his design diploma he turned his attention towards experimental
animation. Meanwhile based in Helsinki, he combinwa handcraft skills with digital techniques,
mixes different media and continuously explores new and entertaining ways of creating
animation.
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