Pictoplasma

I just discovered Pictoplasma Berlin, a festival of contemporary character design and art. This my first encounter with the phrase "contemporary character design", and I think it's a very succinct way to explain the position of the toys I've been studying. Pictoplasma seems to be mainly focused on animation- their annual animation festival will take place this April. I discovered the Pictoplasma project while researching the conception of Dot Dot Dash: Designer Toys, Action Figures, Character Art, one of my main sources.

This publication was produced by the same minds behind Pictoplasma. In Spring 09 there was apparently an exhibition entitled Pictopia that "investigated the aesthetic principle of reduction and abstraction in the design of anthropomorphic characters" (taken from catalogue description). I have ordered the catalogue and am interested in reading the essays. Already, by just exploring the Pictoplasma website, I appreciate the approach and the vocabulary used in the discussion of the importance of character design to contemporary visual culture. It is very relevant to my project and am interested in using a similar approach in my writing.