I've been spending a lot of time at Pictopia!, the 3rd Pictoplasma conference for character design that takes place in Berlin this week. The festival and conference was initiated in 2004 and has been on show in Berlin before as well as in New York. The conference is organized every other year, taking turns with an animated film festival.

Here's what they say:

As market-friendly branding or its subversive inversion, loveable kitsch or urban art - contemporary character design, abstract and reduced to the essentials, has redefined aesthetic standards of visual communication worldwide. By playfully sampling and remixing visual codes, these characters evade established pictorial norms, confronting the viewer head on, emotionally and regardless of cultural background.

There are lectures by established and up-and-coming character designers like James Jarvis who's lecture I visited today. There are urban street artists and illustrators, presentations of their work and an affiliated 'character walk' through galleries in Berlin that host openings corresponding to the conference.

This year the designers come from 16 countries worldwide, presenting a lovely compendium of character design today. Check out the website here to find out more. If you are in Berlin, I highly recommend a visit at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

Brooklyn-based artist Leon Reid IV, also known as Darius Jones of the street-art team Darius and Downey will be making a special presentation at the ATM Gallery in Berlin this thursday, 24th july at 4.30pm.
Leon will be speaking about his 13 years of work on the street in places such as New York City, London and Berlin while addressing his involvement in the genres of pure graffiti, street-art and legal urban art. The presentation will include over 60 projected images. Signed copies of the new book "The Adventures Of Darius and Downey" will be sold after the presentation.
The entrance is free and the lecture takes place tomorrow, 24th July, at 4.30 pm at the ATM Gallery, Brunnenstr.24 in Berlin Mitte.

If you're around, have a look...

I'd like to take the chance to publish a few photos that were sent to me by Rob of staynice, one of the guys organizing this year's 'Sweatshop' T-Shirt graphic design exhibition. The actual exhibition, which ran in correspondence with the Breda Graphic Design Festival, closed at the end of June. According to Rob, the show was a big success and companies from all over the globe had their stuff on display. Needless to say, Allmightys was there too with a few shirts on display ;)

I think the guys did a brilliant job with the organization, design and display of the whole thing. I was really impressed and hope this won't be the only time we can show your work on our shirts in Holland or elsewhere!!

Joint Custody Project is a collaboration art project where 22 artists start a piece of art, then anonymously change it with someone else, while receiving one themselves. They continue on the one they received for a few days, and swap again. At the end, all pieces are exhibited at a show where the artists themselves see the pieces for the first time as a finished item. I think the idea is cool, and after Los Angeles, the project has been running in Berlin too. If you are in Berlin tomorrow night, check out the opening at the Raab Galerie at Fasanenstrasse 27 from 7 p.m.

Read more here... 

Drawing Day is a worldwide drawing event encouraging everyone to drop everything and draw for the sake of art. The internet is an open canvas. Help drawingday.org create 1 million drawings online this day and boost online art communities.

All you have to do is submit drawings at any of the art communities listed on their website on June 7 . Communities include: Facebook, Flickr, DevianArt, MySpace,YouTube, Amateur Illustrator and RateMyDrawings. Go here for the full list and links to groups for each site.

Happy Drawing Day All!!

Circleculture Gallery in Berlin opens it's doors on May 30th to Anton Unai's show 'The Disenchantment of the Bourgeoise'. Unai, described by the press as 'Berlin street art scene's enfant terrible', shows large-scale painting, photography, collage and impromptu performance.
Anton Unai originates from Barcelona, lived in various European countries and has now taken up residence in Berlin. He is a true street artist, dissecting the environment in which he lives and recreating his vision of the urban environment. His work is both messy, elegant, violent and sombre.

read more here...

Here is a nice introductory movie made by the Breda Graphic Design Festival organisers. The current exhibition "Sweatshop" is part of this festival where we also have or shirts on display. It's been running since May 23rd, so if you're in Holland over the next 4 weeks, make sure you pay them a visit...

watch it here... 

The guys at Staynice.nl are soon launching Sweatshop, a graphic design exhibition which specializes on graphic design on T-Shirts. We sent them a copy of all our designs and they will be exhibited, along with shirt designers from all over the world, in Breda (Holland) from May 23rd until June 29th.
I went there myself to hand-deliver our shirts, and the location as well as the exhibition design is very cool indeed :) Well done, guys!

So, if you are in Holland during that time, go and check it out!! I'm sure it will be great fun and a cool display of amazing shirts from around the globe!

You live in London and need more inspiration for our current competition? Then maybe should pay a visit to Welcome Collection Gallery in Euston.

This exhibition explores the intriguing creations of the Festival Pattern Group - a unique project at the 1951 Festival of Britain involving X-ray crystallographers, designers and manufacturers. At the instigation of Dr Helen Megaw, a leading Cambridge scientist, diagrams of atomic structures inspired an eclectic array of patterns on curtains, wallpapers, carpets, lace, dress fabrics, ties, plates and ashtrays. read more here

24 April-10 August 2008
Crystal structure designs from the 1951 Festival of Britain.

Wellcome Collection
183 Euston Road
London
NW1 2BE