Pictoplasma (Hardcover)

by Peter Thaler (Editor, Foreword), Robert Klanten (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Created as an international platform and playground, Pictoplasma showcases high-quality work by a wide array of independent artists and corporations. -- pluto.beseen.com

This exhaustive collection impressively surveys one of the most global languages in graphics. -- creativebase.com Winter 2001

Product Description
„Dot, dot, comma, dash – smiley face in a flash“ (German proverb)

Pictoplasma, a collection by the eponymous Berlin-based project around Peter Thaler and the first ever documentation of modern character design, presents a comprehensive overview of this truly global graphic language and illustrates the remarkable status figures (the picto element) with lively traits and faces (plasma) have achieved in our society, culminating in a visual feast.

As likeable, global identifiers they act as indispensable mediators in the era of multimedia, serving purposes as diverse as branding, logo design, game design (Pokemon, SuperMario), web design, icons or mascots.

Selected from more than 6,000 excellent entries Pictoplasma offers both independent artists and corporations an international platform. Countless styles and techniques divide the figurative images into freehand drawings, vector, pixel, encyclopedia and 3-D styles, gaining in complexity during each respective chapter.

From cartoon to collage, from grafitti to PopArt – Pictoplasma lends the world of characters a new face.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Gestalten Verlag (November 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3931126587
• ISBN-13: 978-3931126582
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #968,201 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Art book for geeks, November 6, 2002

By	Meryl K. Evans "Content Maven behind meryl.net" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Art books are reaching new heights and Pictoplasma is one of the first I've seen. The book is a showcase of contemporary art created by international graphic designers, animators, artists, and production companies.

The art attempts to convey the artist's message emotionally while reaching out to its viewer in the hopes of bonding. The entire book is pure eye candy in every free hand drawing, pixel, vector graphic, 3-D objects, and an encyclopedia of resurfacing motifs. Even non-Internet surfers will recognize many of the colorful and creative designs because they are found other media including television, books, and video games.

The index lists all the titles of the art, contributors' names along with their email and Web addresses. As a confessed non-artist, I'm amazed as I flip through pages of expressive and colorfully rendered art. The book can be much more than just another art book, it can be an inspiration for those in the process of creating. This is the coffee table book for geeks and Web designers and it'll go just fine with the books containing the Monets, Picassos, and Renoirs.

The book has a companion Web site and you can view pages at the publisher's Web site.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Technology behind the book, October 14, 2004

By	Karmen Flemming - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What I find interesting about this book, besides the high quality of design technique for characters, is the technologies people implement to create characters. It covers hand rendered, vector, raster and 3D formats for character design. Pure computer generated graphics, as well as applying real textures scanned in from nature. This book is a bit like an encyclopedia to world wide character design, applying a vast range of techniques and methods in creating them. Very useful.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational Ecstacy, June 5, 2004

By	Joshua Michael Smith "Hydro74" (Lake Mary, Florida United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Not knowing what to expect from this book, i was flat out blown away not only by the vast amount of images, but the level of talent that was chosen.

as a vector illustrator, i would highly suggest this to be on your shelf because something will inspire you to push your own work higher.

joshua
http://www.hydro74.com