A NEW BREED OF CHARACTERS IS TAKING OVER!

They’re invading advertising, art, media, fashion and urban landscapes across the globe! Contemporary character design, abstract and reduced to the essentials, has redefined the 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.

The Pictoplasma archives began in 1999 as an extensive inventory, collection and showcase of contemporary character design. With the countless images collected in its archives, through publications, exhibitions, installations and the bianual conference, Pictoplasma examines the vast array of possibilities that characters offer as signs of an independent graphical language.