Enhance your everyday reality with the characters you wish were there! Our day-to-day existence is often far less exciting than we wish it was: always the same old street corner, the lonely bus stop, or familiar patch of sky glimpsed through the bedroom window. Instead of zooming in on the smartphone screen, maybe we can improve the bigger picture, by adding the hidden friends, absent monsters, or secret figments of our imagination we wish were there? 

Pictoplasma, the world’s leading festival of character design, has teamed up with Adobe Project 1324 to invite all global youth (aged 18—24) to augment the banality of everyday by giving a face to their imaginary friends and secret sidekicks! Starting with a regular photograph of a typical setting like a nearby grocery store, the office elevator, the school gates, or the front doorstep, entrants are invited to add a character (or characters) to the scene. Any medium or style can be used to alter the original photo—from drawing and collage to digital painting or vector illustration.

Five winners will be awarded with a fellowship, including travel costs and attendance at the 15th Pictoplasma Berlin Conference May 2019—and the opportunity to exhibit in an exclusive group show.

The Secret Sidekick Challenge opens May 23, deadline for submissions is June 25, 2018.