Jeremiah Karge: Inside The Character
Jeremiah is an actor specialising in bringing non-human creatures to life, including iconic television roles such as Tinky Winky in the Teletubbies and the Cyberman in Doctor Who. His interest in playful creativity extends beyond performance to encompass installations and interactive public art.
Luke Pearson: Life without Hilda
Nottingham-based illustrator and comic book artist Luke Pearson is best known as the creator of the ‘Hilda’ graphic novel series—and for the Netflix animated series based on them. Shortly before publicly announcing the discontinuation of the series we met him at his Pictoplasma exhibition to talk about the genesis of his graphic novel, the intimidating move from the books to an international TV series, and the different levels of scariness in both media.
Justin K. Thompson: The Architect of Into the Spider-Verse
Justin K. Thompson is an award-winning production designer for such illustrious outfits as The Jim Henson Company, Lucasfilm Animation, and Sony Pictures Animation’s celebrated Academy Award winner ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.’
During Pictoplasma 2019, we talked with him about being self-taught in a highly competitive industry, taking a leap of faith with new technology, and why he prefers to remain unseen.
Philippa Rice: The Balancing Act of Keeping it Real
Philippa Rice, known as the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ‘Soppy,’ is an artist working in a number of different media including comics, illustration, animation, model making and crochet. We met spontaneously at her exhibition during Pictoplasma 2019 where she introduced us to her growing family of characters, talked about the difficulties of finding the right work/life balance, and the importance of being honest…
Iza Rutkowska: Traveling the World With a Giant Teddy Bear
Iza Rutkowska, a Polish visual artist, designer, educator and culture manager, uses artistic tools to integrate communities and instigate social change. She creates playgrounds with children, backyards with residents, and travels the world with a giant teddy bear.
Living the dream? Her work has also its dark sides. We talked with her about how happy endings often require digging in your heels and about the pain of allowing your creation to have a life of its own.
dina Amin: Upcycling E-Waste to Reveal its Inner Character
Although trained as a product designer, Cairo based dina Amin loves to explore intersections between disciplines. In 2016, she started a side project ‘Tinker Friday’ on Instagram, where she combined her passion for product design and stop motion with consumerist critique, showing people what’s inside the countless things they throw away. We met up with her after her tinker workshop at Pictoplasma 2019, where attendees were invited to create characters out of broken smartphone parts, defunct earphones, and a mountain of obsolete electronic waste. She told us why she loves to take things apart, what our products reveal about us and the society we live in, and the complications of buying a Dremmel in Cairo.
Cabeza Patata: Exaggerating Characters Without Pushing Stereotypes
Cabeza Patata, the illustration and animation studio formed by English craftswoman and illustrator, Katie Menzies, and Spanish 3D artist and animator, Abel Reverter, are building a world of strong but playful characters that pop up everywhere with their bold colors and badass attitudes.
We talked with them about their first steps as a collective, how 3D character design is still subject to weird gender issues, and why it makes more sense to acknowledge being part of a larger trend than pursuing the myth of the genius in the bubble.