Deanna Marsigliese

Animation Art Director and Illustrator at Pixar Studios, Top Creativity Keynote Speaker

Topics: Arts & Culture, Creativity, Customer Experience, Inspirational & Motivational, Storytelling

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Biography

Deanna Marsigliese is a Character Art Director at Pixar. Since 2012, she has contributed to such feature films as Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4, Inside Out & The Good Dinosaur, along with the celebrated short, Bao.

Prior to Pixar, Deanna worked as a freelance artist, designing & animating characters for various film, television & commercial projects. Past clients include Laika, Sony Pictures, Universal Feature, Walt Disney Feature, Disney TV, Nickelodeon, among others.

Deanna loves to teach & once served as the Professor of Classical Animation at Seneca College in Toronto for 6 years. She continues to deliver panel talks & lead workshops working most recently with SXSW, D23, ILM, Leaders London, Pixelatl, CTNX & The Walt Disney Family Museum. Deanna can also be found in her own Disney+ featurette, episode 2 of the new Inside Pixar documentary series.

Deanna is a vintage fashion enthusiast with a penchant for large costume jewels. When in need of inspiration, she loves to travel the world at length with her husband Dan with a surprisingly small backpack. Worlds away from bland, Deanna’s whimsical and one-of-a-kind style embodies the magical and creative nature of Pixar.

Speech TopicsExpand each topic to learn more

Appeal

Appealing to our audiences is the ultimate goal… but what is appeal, exactly? Twenty years of designing animated characters has taught me quite a lot about this ever-elusive quality and my discoveries may surprise you! Learn what lies beyond pleasant combinations of lines, shapes and colors. In this talk, we go deeper and explore what it means to design from the inside out.

Designing Women

Ah, animated female characters. Mermaids and princesses… all of those big, pretty eyes and perfect, pretty noses. Nice? Sure. Interesting? Not so much. In this talk, I condemn ‘pretty’ in favor of something more.

The Art of Exploration

Travel is at your fingertips – any day, anytime – without even leaving the room. In this talk, I explore the notion of SEEING, versus looking. Learn to find inspiration in the most (seemingly) ordinary things and to experience even your most familiar surroundings in a brand new light.

Intuition, Authenticity and Meaning: How making cartoons made me better at life

Workshop: Collaging Life. Embrace the unexpected!
In this collage workshop, we make new connections by exploring the bold and surprising results that only paper art can provide!

The Art of Exploration

Everyone looks, but only a handful of us SEE. In this workshop, I teach the perennial art of exploration. You will learn to find inspiration in the most unexpected & overlooked spaces, forever changing the way you experience the world around you.