We'd love to start things off on a lighter note, with exclusively pleasurable, playful party news (you'll need to scroll down for those), but first it's...

BACK TO SCHOOL: THE PICTOPLASMA ACADEMY HAS OPENED!

To schedule the world's first character design "summer-school" in mid-October, let alone in Berlin, is not the wisest decision we've ever made. However, this time we seem lucky: Just now the sun came out for a brief moment, and blessed the 40 selected participants from 20 countries, happily piling up during the lunch break in the campus garden of our Pictoplasma Academy. The intensive course is our long-time dream come true, with a steady stream of master-classes, workshops and jam sessions, all under the close guidance of illustrious artists such as Rilla Alexander, Nathan Jurevicius, Gary Baseman, Benjamin van Oost, Mark Gmehling or Philip Hunt.

If you happen to be in Berlin this Wednesday, the 16th of October, you are invited to join us at the Babylon Cinema (Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30), where we'll gather at 22:30 for a special, late-night pyjama screening of "Character in Motion - Remastered", featuring the best animation jewels from previous festivals.

And yes – we already look forward to the next Academy in 2014!

Come to think of it, we actually have a lot to look forward to in 2014: It will have been exactly 15 years ago that we put our slow 56k modems to use and excitedly registered the domain pictoplasma.com, without the slightest clue what it might lead to. Additionally, spring 2014 will see the 10th birthday of our Pictoplasma Conference and Festival.

We decided that deserved a party:

10th(!)
PICTOPLASMA
CONFERENCE & FESTIVAL

Berlin, 30 April - 4 May 2014

Coming April 30 - May 4, the Pictoplasma Conference on Contemporary Character Design and Art celebrates its 10 year anniversary, with a specially immersive program of more than 20 awe-inducing artist presentations and back-to-back conference lectures, 100+ freshly hatched animations illuminating the big screen, numerous hands-on workshops, endless fun, immeasurable inspiration and loads of confetti. You are herewith invited to join the festivities and meet the avantgard of today's image creation, mingle with like-minded spirits and dive head-on into an insightful and inspiring week full of exhibitions, creativity, knowledge, networking, and – of course – a big birthday party!

FIRST 2014 CONFERENCE SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED:

First confirmed speakers and contributing artists promise an epochal line-up, including Diana Beltran Herrera (COL), the best thing that could possibly ever happen to paper (and we're not talking origami here); Kimiaki Yaegashi (JP), creator of perfectly executed Japanese pizza psychedelia; James Jarvis (UK), pioneer of the soft vinyl designer toy revolution gone free-hand; Juan Pablo Manzelli a.k.a. Chu (ARG), Argentinean art legend of Doma fame oscillating between perfect wood-carvings and large scale interventions; Brecht Vandenbroucke (BE), surrealist, absurdist, humourist extraordinaire; Buff Monster (USA), master of all characters living in brightly colored ice-cream landscapes; Andy Martin (UK), animation wizz-kid and planetary explorer; Tim Biskup (USA), long recognized for his complex colour and design theories mixed with decidedly populist aesthetics; and many, many more…

CALL FOR ANIMATION ENTRIES

The annual Animation Screenings are always a welcome visual tour-de-force and undoubtable high-light of the Pictoplasma Festival, with freshly curated programs and special premiers showcasing the very best of characters in motion, ranging from music visuals, motion graphics, narrative shorts, experimental animation, and everything in between…
Once again we're on the hunt for the latest generations of characters out there in the world of moving images, and once again we count on you: Should you want your work to grace the big screen, please don't hesitate to share it with us. Deadline for submissions to be considered is the 1st of February. Find all the details and the downloadable entry form here…

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION - NEW RULES, GREAT SAVINGS

Head on over to http://berlin.pictoplasma.com, see the festivities' ingredients blossom and catch a glimpse at our upcoming "Early-Bird-Full-5-Day-Festival-and-Conference-Offer"!

Upcoming Early Bird offer? This time things are slightly different: Online registration for the anniversary edition is currently still offline. You'll have to snap into action at the right moment - and that moment is coming up soon:

Starting Monday, the 21st of October 2013 at noon (CET), registration begins with a tempting 180,- EURO EARLY BIRD OFFER, LIMITED TO THE FIRST 100 ATTENDEES.
As soon as the limit of 100 Early Bird tickets has been reached, the regular ticket price applies. And there's no predicting how fast that will happen.

So set your alarm, mark your calendars, count the days,

peter and lars

This month's newsletter eye candy from top to bottom: The Pictoplasma Academy, it's participants and the original namebadge memorabilia from our 2004 Festival, followed by Berlin 2014 speakers Kimiaki Yaegashi (pizza), Tim Biskup (painted poligones) and our current Character Arrival teaser (split flap)...


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