Geneviève Smal, la créatrice des jeux Si-Trouille
Avec une mère comédienne et professeure de déclamation, un père politicien mais surtout poète, Geneviève Smal est plongée dans un monde littéraire toute son enfance, sur les hauteurs de Namur où elle est née.
By following her mother to the Conservatory and arguing with her father, who taught her the fundamentals of negotiation, she quickly took on the role and voice of multiple theater characters. She dreams of being a clown or perhaps... a writer. Or both!
At the Liège Conservatory, she studied the art of speech and won a first prize. At the same time, she took courses in communication and later enrolled in a pedagogy training. Phew! In the meantime, why not try out a first media experience? It will be Radio Contact, it will be Nostalgie.
Ses diplômes à peine en main, Geneviève Smal file en Turquie, « pour des raisons sentimentales », et s'inscrit à l'université d'Istanbul pour apprendre le turc. Elle y reste quelques mois puis rentre assez précipitamment, un poste d'enseignante artistique lui étant offert.
Oratory
Après un passage en Turquie, durant près de 10 ans, Geneviève sera prof de déclamation, d’art de la parole et d’art oratoire au Conservatoire de Namur, et aussi de Ciney, de Florennes, Saint-Hubert, etc.Aux adultes et adolescents, elle propose aussi des enseignements plus techniques tels l’orthophonie ou la diction.
In parallel, she teaches communication to the elderly at the University of the Third Age. And she founds an association, L'impact, through which she acts in and writes plays. And then, as if that weren't enough, whenever she can, Geneviève returns to Turkey to continue her study of the language. And in the process, she takes 4 years of Turkish courses at Marie Haps. "I've become a knowledge addict. It's probably my educational background that pushed me there. It was quite convoluted! I decided not to waste any more time."
She further adds to her skill set by completing a postgraduate degree in management and business consulting, studying finance, accounting, and law. In 2007, she leaves the Conservatory and founds her company in Liège, Si-Trouille.
Provoking change
The raison d'être of Si-Trouille: to provoke change. "I noticed, whether in teenagers, adults, or the elderly, that a simple work on scenic characters could modify their personality, often lastingly. I thought that if it worked for them, it could also be as effective for leaders, politicians, etc."
Corporate seminars initially, then quite quickly, business leaders, politicians, lawyers... They want to improve the impact of their communication. She offers tips straight from the theater: use of scenic characters to shine in public, voice projection, enhancing speech, etc. Humor is very often an excellent ally!
Creating constantly and continuing to learn
Geneviève a amélioré ses compétences avec des études de Synergologie, à Paris. L’objet de cette discipline est de décrypter le fonctionnement de l’esprit humain à partir de son langage corporel, afin d’offrir la communication la mieux adaptée. Son travail de fin d'étude était axé sur les items de stress lors de la prise de parole.Geneviève a également rédigé un livre boite-à-outil pour tous : “La parole en public pour les timides, les stressés et autres tétanisés “ aux éditions EDIPRO. Et puis un autre, en collaboration avec Chilina Hills : “97 exercices décalés, pour prendre la parole n’importe où, n’importe quand et avec (presque) n’importe qui ! ” édité chez Eyrolles.
"You only think about playing."
She heard that phrase, sounding like a reproach, a mockery. "Playing is my natural way of living. Everything is learned through play, everything is experienced, and everything is much faster. You can change an incredible number of behaviors through play, acquire phenomenal data. Playing should not be a reproach, but a fabulous springboard!"
"Takattak came naturally, after business seminars on the Art of the Comeback. "Playing is the best way to train and be able to respond on the spot."
A meeting with Sullivan later and the desire to move from jokes on paper to a real illustrated game, and Takattak took shape, with the success we know now, and a few months later, Takattak À la Récré took over.
Si-Trouille éditions compte à présent 6 jeux :
Takattak classique, Takattak à la récré, Takattak Trash, Skinooly, Satyrik et Takapa, le petit dernier, créé en duo avec Zébulon.
Dès la création de Takattak, les demandes pour des conseils pour lutter contre le harcèlement son arrivées en masse.
Impossible de ne pas s'y former : une formation longue en Thérapie Brève a complété son long parcours.
Geneviève consulte donc maintenant à Liège et a constitué une équipe de thérapeutes brefs, spécialisés dans le harcèlement : Objectif-Rhinocéros.
The illustrations
Sullivan Hismans, the illustrator of Takattak, Takattak À la Récré, and Satyrik
Immersed in the culture of early animated manga, Sullivan Hismans has always drawn. He is praised by all for his "gift" and naturally continues in this direction, with artistic humanity, higher studies at St-Luc Brussels (illustration section) and then La Cambre (graphic communication). He remains faithful to this dual approach to creation, illustration, and graphic design, but not only that.
"Mastery of traditional drawing techniques is very important to me, it's my foundation. But I also cultivate an attraction to contemporary artistic forms, a taste for precise and neat graphic design, balanced typography, and effective compositions."
His first professional experience of 2 years, as a video editor for an international thematic TV channel, adds a new dimension to his animation work. He takes the opportunity to acquire a professional level in editing but also in TV graphics post-production, collaborating with journalists.
He became a freelancer in 2001, working in paper graphic design, illustration, web design, video editing, painting, sound...
"Self-taught in web programming, I now work with WordPress, which I use to develop strong and highly customized universes while providing my clients with an incredible array of content management tools. This CMS is perfect for our current communication environment, where blogs and social networks abound."
Since 2011, he has reformulated his approach. Under the name Hiskills, he has expanded into multiple areas of activity and projects. A new "hype" beer brand, comic books, a children's book project...
"The notion of style doesn't seem relevant to me. I like to overturn expectations, create surprises that arouse interest, make great leaps between disciplines and into unknown territories. It's fearless, unbridled, that I approach each new creative adventure."
"I really like to operate on a gut feeling. I invest in projects I believe in. There's an impressive number of young entrepreneurs, people with great ideas. Sometimes they just lack the translation of these ideas into shapes, lines, colors, and graphics that will make these projects exist in the eyes of people and that they will love them."
Cédric Vandresse and Xenia Morgun illustrated Takattak Trash.
Cédric Vandresse is the founder of Mad Cat Studio (Animation Films). He is an illustrator as well as a producer, director, and author of animated films.
"Léopold, roi des Belges" (47 min - Arte production), that's him.
He is also a color supervisor and colorist in Belgian animation studios.
We can see his talents in :
- Le magasin des suicides (1h30 – Patrice Lecomte)
- Avril et le monde truqué (1h30 – 1st prize at the Annecy festival )
- K3 (TV series - Netherlands )
He is also a freelance graphic designer (playing cards - training manual - anti-violence campaign for the International Youth Bureau...), a painter of American cinema sets (Luxembourg), and exhibits his work (Belgium).
And he can also be found at the Saint-Luc School of Fine Arts (Belgium) for a Master Class on digital color.
Xenia Morgun was born in Moldova. Her passion for graphic arts has led her to cross borders, first to France (European School of Image in Angoulême) and then to Belgium (Saint-Luc School of Fine Arts), where she has been based since 2015.
She has had a passion for drawing and painting since she was very young. As a child, she was in awe of the illustrations in children's books. Unable to read yet, the image became her guide to discovering the world. She was impressed by the power of transmission through drawing. For her, it was magical, and she still works in this spirit today: to transmit magic!
Do you want to see? https://becaricature.com/fr/
Greg Bruwier, the inspirer of Satyrik
It was he who, one January morning, suggested creating a game about caricatures.
Moved by current events, like all of us, he invites us to reflect on the meaning and impact that caricatures can have on us. As often, Greg has a very global vision of events. He likes to take on the role of all stakeholders.
A civil engineer, he worked for 12 years as a consultant and then as a manager in the telecommunications industry. Curious and insatiable learners, he returned to school to refine his education and obtained a specialized Master's degree in finance from HEC.
Yet he feels like he's going in circles and finds that his job no longer has the meaning he deserves to give it. After all, isn't life a permanent game?
He gets back in the saddle and not content with just playing, creates numerous games. It must be said that Greg, if you ever have the chance to meet him, is a walking, bubbling brain.
So, much to everyone's surprise, he decides to become... a math teacher. And it's in his classes that he allows his students to play with him.
Playing is indeed the best way to learn, isn't it?
He even sells a first game concept to Cocktail Games. The famous KEEP COOL.
And since studying is so much fun, almost on a whim, he dives back into a year of training to obtain his teaching qualification.
And that makes him laugh...
