Contemporary character design is all around us, though how often do you stop and think about it? From advertising to fine art, street graffiti to album covers, the art of creating abstract characters is now being appreciated on a much larger scale and even has its own festival to celebrate the artform.

In March and April, Berlin will be transformed into a character biotope and a meeting point for an international scene of designers, artists, producers and an interested public. At the heart of the festival is an exhibition which explores the huge diversity of the character universe, where artists remix and sample, condense the surreal and uncanny, inflate all proportions and stage bizarre rituals to introduce their characters into contemporary culture.

The Pictoplasma Festival kicks off in Berlin this weekend.

JetBlue Airlines has launched a new viral campaign lampooning the plight of corporate CEOs. “Welcome Bigwigs," which has begun popping up on blogs across the web, thankfully manages to squeeze some humor out of the decidedly unfunny financial crisis. In a series of videos, a distinguished, scenery-chewing host helps befuddled execs acclimate to commercial air travel; for example, checking in to your JetBlue flight is “easier than writing off a toxic asset,” and every plane has leather seats—just like the private jet you’re used to! And while these little features might make the transition from bigwig to bourgeois a little smoother, there’s no avoiding the fact that airport terminals are still filled with—gasp!—regular people.