'HOW TO THRIVE AND NOT SURVIVE'

The Art Department | World Tour

Since Playgrounds was founded one of the topics that was talked about in talks, interviews and panels was mental health and dealing with the pressure of being a creative in a highly competitive industry. At The Art Department | World Tour we once again dive into this topic because we feel it is super important to really open up about this issue and address this from different angles.

Joining us in the conversation is our host and creative consultant Spiridon Giannakis. This German based art book publisher found his way into the industry with a magazine, panel discussions, and his appearance of numerous festivals where he again and again rose awareness about work-life balance and the way the industry was shaped.

Also tuning in is Stephanie Hayot, Business Development Manager at ArtStation. We invited Stephanie to join the conversation because she works with numerous artists, of course is tied to the biggest portfolio platform for concept art and in this role sees how artists are dealing with the work pressure and social media pressure. We’ve had the pleasure to have her on stage in 2019 in a Firestarter panel with this topic and it was a delight to hear her take on this subject.

Third participant in the conversation is psychologist and coach Michelle White. Michelle has a passion for enabling individuals and organizations to develop the meaningful and resilient approaches which underpin positive and sustainable change, growth and leadership. She has worked with individuals wishing to make changes, develop themselves further or overcome a challenge to organizations within the arts, education, charitable and corporate sectors, such as Google, Youtube, BAFTA, BFI.

Host of this panel is Playgrounds director and curator Leon van Rooij.

Next to the way the creative industry deals with plannings and deadlines, a new factor came into the mix last year: a worldwide pandemic. This internationally thriving industry also addressed this worldwide crisis and studios and companies thought of different ways to support their artists.

In this panel we want to focus on the good vibes and ways to thrive in these difficult times and not just survive.

Confirmed artists

MEGAN BRAIN & SHANNON TINDLE (USA)
character design on Kubo and the Two Strings
interview
LOISH (the Netherlands)
character designer for LEGO, Guerrilla Games, Amazon
interview
FELICIE HAYMOZ (Switzerland)
character designer on Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Isle of Dogs
interview
RUAN JIA (China)
concept artist on World of Warcraft, Diablo III, the Halo franchise
interview, panel 'Asian takes on visual storytelling'
BEATRICE BLUE (Spain)
illustrator & vis dev for DreamWorksTV, Procreate, Nichelodeon
ask me anything
JAMA JURABAEV (United Kingdom)
concept artist for Ready Player One, The Mandalorian
interview
ARMAND SERRANO (Philippines)
art-director & production designer for Hotel Transylvania, Big Hero 6, Olaf's Frozen Adventure
interview
ANDREW BAKER (New Zealand)
creature & concept artist for The BFG, The Hobbit trilogy, Ghost in the Shell
interview
AAYNA VINAYA (India)
illustrator & art director
artist talk
DANIEL CLARKE (South Africa)
illustrator & character designer for Netflix, National Geographic Kids, Nickelodeon
interview
TAN ZHI HUI (Malaysia)
concept artist & illustrator for Amazon Games, Supercell, Epic Games
artist talk, demo
2veinte (Argentina)
design studio, independent shorts 100 years Armenian Genocide, Wild & Woolly
artist talk
SUTU (Australia)
XR artist These Memories Won’t Last, Prosthetic Reality / Eyejack
interview
AMIR ZAND (Turkey)
concept artist Axis Animation, DreamworksTV, Quantic Dream
panel 'Middle Eastern artists in a Western dominated industry'
LOBO (Brazil & USA)
design studio Day One, Threehouse
interview, panel 'State of the industry - South America'
YANGTIAN LI (China)
concept artist on Call of Duty: Black Ops IV and Black Ops III
interview, panel 'Asian takes on visual storytelling'
HICHAM HABCHI (Morocco/USA)
concept artist & creative lead at Riot Games
chat and doodles
ANAND RADHAKRISHNAN (India)
illustrator
interview
9B COLLECTIVE (USA)
black-owned concept art studio: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, The Mandalorian
panel 'The rise and success of black creatives’
AYRAN OBERTO (Venezuela)
digital painter for Unite Image, Zombie Studio
demo
ABE TARAKY (Afghanistan)
senior concept artist at Sony Santa Monica Studios
interview
GODWIN AKPAN (Nigeria)
concept artist Disney and Kugali, Triggerfish Games
interview
FARAZ SHANYAR (Iran)
concept artis The Lion King, Aladdin, Machinegames
panel 'Middle Eastern artists in a Western dominated industry'
JOHN NEVAREZ (USA)
film & story artist on Coco, Inside Our, Cars 2
pictionary with giants
PATRICK O’KEEFE (USA)
art-director Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
pictionary with giants
NICK HIATT (USA)
concept artist on Destiny, Call of Duty, Halo
pictionary with giants
WILL COYNER (USA)
concept artist for EA, Disney Interactive, WB Games
pictionary with giants
LOGAN PRESHAW (Australia)
concept artist Ark 2, League of Legends video games, Junkernauts
artist talk, demo
JACKIE NGUYEN (Australia)
illustrator, character design for Passion Pictures, Procreate, Art of Play Games
demo
HARRY MACK (USA)
freestyle rap
LYNN CHEN (China)
vis dev Warner Bros
panel 'Asian takes on visual storytelling'
OUR HOSTS
CRISTIAN CHIHAIA (Romania)
concept artist & art director at Ubisoft
panel 'State of the industry - Eastern Europe'
MARKO PRPIC ZETS (Croatia)
digital artist & IFCC festival director
panel 'State of the industry - Eastern Europe'
MARK MOLNAR (Hungary)
concept artist & art director for LucasFilm, Time Warner, Netflix, MGM
panel 'State of the industry - Eastern Europe'