We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the International Poster Competition. 

It was an honour to welcome your work and see all of your inspiring posters.

The jury members were thoroughly impressed by the quality of work submitted and you made it an incredibly difficult process to select winners and the final selections for the International Poster Exhibition, International Poster Book and Poster World app. 

Each year a new jury is invited to review and critique the submissions. 

The competition is reviewed and co-curated by a new international jury each year. This year the jury includes Neo Neo (Switzerland), Europium Studio (France), Han Gao (China/USA), and Warriors Studio (Scotland, UK).

All posters are considered however the jury keep a particular eye open for posters which alter perceptions or ways of thinking, offer creative solutions to problems, contribute to current affairs, open dialogues for debate, provoke discussions and make innovative use of media or medium.

The 2023 competition received 8,849 works from 108 countries in 2023. All posters are designed between 2019-2023. 

We have curated 172 which we believe to be diverse and high quality for you to enjoy and consider.

These posters will be showcased in the International Poster Exhibition in Olympia Gallery and the new Poster World app in collaboration with Nam Huynh and Sebastian König. These entries will also be showcased in the International Poster Book.

47 posters were awarded with jury commendations and 5 posters (or poster series) were selected as winners.

The jury are pleased to share with you the winners of 2023 International Poster Competition and posters given commendations below:

Congratulations to Syndicat! Their poster Bijou Bijoux was awarded 1st place in the 2023 International Poster Competition.

Syndicat was commissioned to design the new identity for Musée de l’imprimerie et de la communication graphique in Lyon, France, keeping the original logotype designed by Bureau 205. Syndicat proposed to use the original logo on various 3D mockups to build the visual language of the museum.

For the Bijou Bijoux exhibition, which was about exhibiting printed matter about jewellery (and not real jewels), the studio presented a selection of printed works from the museum’s historical collection, focusing on various time-referenced printed matter.

Selected jury’s comments

Neo Neo: “Syndicat has done a remarkable job: the abundant, offbeat form of the posters series, collages of classic graphical images together with those very commercial merchandising mock-ups, is unlike anything we’ve seen before. After all, the choice of this bizarre mix is quite relevant in this context, since this is the Museum of Typography and Graphic Communication, and it also exhibits these vernacular forms of communication.”

Europium Studio: “Successful dialogues/collages using imagery from different periods and contexts including historical, commercial, and artistic. We liked that they embraced the idea of time and history through the layering of various images, and not layering for the purpose of creating volume arbitrarily.”

Han Gao: “The poster shows the great potential of the identity for the museum. The idea of putting the previously designed logo on to various mockups really adds some extra flavour on top of a playful yet well-composed poster.”

Warriors Studio: “Bijou Bijoux is an impossible poster to ignore. It is immediate, chaotic, seemingly haphazard, multi-layered and surreal. 

When we think of printing and graphic design what do we imagine? Infantile stationary, industrial packaging, historical artefacts, abstract textures, cut-out shapes and typography combine together to create an off-kilter window into a world of graphic design. These components may not immediately bring the subject to mind on their own but by collaging them together Syndicat have created a ‘graphic design world’ for us to look into, both within this poster and throughout the identity.

Looking into the poster is like looking into a theatrical performance where the visual elements are the characters and props within the stage. Syndicat have created an exhibition themselves within the confines of the poster.”

You can read the complete comments from each individual jury member in the International Poster Book

Robert Radziejewski’s poster series Ankali in October 2022 was awarded joint 2nd place in the 2023 International Poster Competition.

Born in Prague, Ankali is a gently crafted club space for open-minded heads. The poster is an abstraction of a potential person that might visit the Ankali club space on a night in October 2022. Just like the club-goers, the character is vividly colourful and emits rays of light and love.

Selected jury’s comments

Neo Neo: “Robert Radziejewski’s poster aesthetic is one of the most original, singular and strange of the entire submissions. Beautiful in its own way… and it works so well for Ankali.”

Europium: “A duo of complementary posters that work great together. Bold, unexpected, and very original.”

Warriors Studio: “These posters are an explosion of colour and emotion. They feel primitive yet refined, are raw yet polished, naive yet sophisticated. It’s exceptionally difficult to hit the sweet spot between these contrasts but these posters do. There’s a depth to the colour choice and textures which is both optimistic and dark which for a music platform which describes itself as both “happy and sad”, this communicates perfectly. The character feeling like children’s art also brings a lot of emotion and nostalgia to the poster and the character’s “wings” bring something spiritual and supernatural – an enticing atmosphere for an “open-minded” music event.”

You can read the complete comments from each individual jury member in the International Poster Book

The poster Leonardo’s notebook designed by Viter, Chou Yuwei, and Puzzleman Leun was awarded joint 2nd place in the 2023 International Poster Competition .

This poster was designed for FOCA Formosa Circus Art performance programme. Searching through countless notes and sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, the performance piece dissects the performance qualities shared by circus and choir, much like an anatomy lesson. Elements such as language, sound, movement, and space in theatre are dismantled and reassembled to create a poetic performance text. By incorporating the life experiences of the performers and exploring their inner universes through questioning, a dialogue is created with da Vinci’s artistic works, technological inventions, and architectural designs.

The performance poster features stills from the show and is accompanied by da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian Man, with hand-written notes and sketches that represent the unique physical performance of the circus. The images are disassembled and reassembled to explore new possibilities. The programme extends the concept of notes by using an unbound newspaper format, with interlaced and overlapping images constructed seemingly at random. The rational and the emotional intersect, excavating the poetic potential of theatre.

Selected jury’s comments

Europium: “Great art direction regarding photography. Strong humour, referencing a historical icon/artist in a very contemporary manner. Very fresh and fun layout, drawings, and handwriting adding a great deal of personality to the visuals. Nice balance between the freedom of the designer and a strong composition for an institutional poster.”

Neo Neo: “It’s a very contemporary, fresh and personal re-interpretation of da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. The photo is beautiful and the mixture with the drawing works perfectly. It also bring’s a subtle and subversive tone to promote this performance.”

You can read the complete comments from each individual jury member in the International Poster Book

Aurelia Peter’s poster Gift – Iris Touliatou was awarded joint 3rd place in the INTL International Poster Competition.

Iris Touliatou’s work explores the political and affective dimensions of spaces, communities and objects. She often addresses the social experiences associated with these places or objects, such as the experiences of time, intimacy, transience or the sense of community. Her works often consist of found objects and operate with a wide variety of genres and media.

For the poster, the artist envisaged the view from the window from the Kunsthalle exhibition space to the other building where the Kunsthalle Basel office is located and vice versa, i. e. from the office into the exhibition space. In addition, it was important for the artist to play with the double meaning of the word “gift”, which means — differing from “present” in English —“toxic” in German.

The main information is placed horizontally in the middle. This creates a ribbon effect reminiscent of a gift ribbon. The individual letters have a blurring effect and thus accentuate the ambiguity of the exhibition. The division of the format by means of the images and the main information in the middle creates a cross. This symbolism is interesting because the warning sign that something is poisonous and the wrapping of presents both form a cross. Consequently, this represents the double meaning of the word gift. By multiplying and overlaying the images with a section, a depth is created and associates the view to the outside and irritates at the same time. The whole poster becomes a window again.

Selected jury’s comments

Warriors Studio: “You immediately feel a sense of physical space but also a flat abstraction. You have the vertical and horizontal division of the space creating a flat cross and within there are layered images, textures, representational forms and abstract shapes, shapeshifting between recognisable and alien. This interplay between three dimensional and flat pulls you in and plays with your eye and mind, oscillating between tense and calm. 

The layering of irregular rectangular frames are like two mirrors facing each other, creating an infinity loop. As the viewer, you are sandwiched between, caught in the middle, immersed in an otherworldly, dreamlike urban space.

The sensibilities, level of thinking and something else, which you just can’t put your finger on makes this poster very special.”

Neo Neo: “Simply intriguing, poetic, and beautiful.”

You can read the complete comments from each individual jury member in the International Poster Book

Dan Solbach’s poster Matthias Groebel – A Change in Weather was awarded joint 3rd place in the INTL International Poster Competition.

Designed for Kunstverein der Rheinlande und Westfalen as part of the identity (since 2022) for the retrospective exhibition of Matthias Groebel. The artist is using images of early private TV late-night emissions and painting them through a semi-automated process in a serial manner.

Selected jury’s comments

Europium Studio: “We know this poster is simple, but some of the best posters ever designed are the most simple ones. The image crop is very striking, and strong as well as the type treatment (subtitles in yellow) working very well. Sometimes making a great poster also depends on being the one having access to great content, in this case working with this artist to develop an interesting series.”

Neo Neo: “The strange expression of that girl makes it very intriguing. The vintage image treatment and the simple yet subtitle style type works very well with the topic of the show. It’s extreme and beautiful simplicity makes it super contemporary and original.”

You can read the complete comments from each individual jury member in the International Poster Book