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 to the competition 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 Vrints-Kolsteren (Belgium), Juhi Vishnani (India/ USA), N&MS (Nam Huynh & Mark Bohle) (Germany), Shinwoo Park (Paper Press) (South Korea) 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 2022 competition received 9,514 works from 94 countries in 2022. The posters are all designed between 2019-2022. 

We have curated 164 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.

36 posters were awarded with jury commendations and 4 posters (or poster series) were selected as winners.

The jury are pleased to share with you the winners of 2022 International Poster Competition and posters given commendations below:

Congratulations to Europium! Their poster Crossfade was awarded 1st place in the 2022 International Poster Competition.

Europium (Ghazaal Vojdani, Julia Andréone) developed the visual identity of the first edition of CROSSFADE, a cultural weekend of encounters around gender, music and fashion, a collaboration between Institut Français de la Mode (Paris) and the fashion collective GAMUT. Crossfading is the moment of transition between two audio or video tracks, these few seconds when two worlds mix, replace, overlap and meet. Crossfade brings together artists, musicians, designers, professionals and lovers of fashion and music, ready to meet the creative students of the Institut Français de la Mode. The poster features one of the performers of the event (Franky Gogo) who has been captured in a moment of trance whilst dancing. Europium also collaborated with artist Nicolas Jullien who interpreted the theme with singular drawings.

Selected jury’s comment

Vrints Kolsteren: “The image that draws you in from a distance, forms an intriguing contrast with the second layer of small and delicate details.”

Mark Bohle: “Every single element of the poster attracts the eye. The photography is well done. The type works well. The drawings are weird and funny. The poster doesn’t want to be cool. It’s honest. All elements do sound together as one complex song. Complex but not noisy at all. I like listening to it and I don’t get bored of looking at it.”

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

Hammer’s poster series Gessnerallee Cycle 4–11 was awarded 2nd place in the 2022 International Poster Competition.

Since 2020, the performative arts venue Gessnerallee has been run by three women who encourage interdisciplinary projects which question traditional modes of production. The team organizes itself in collective structures. For this reason, Hammer (Sereina Rothenberger and David Schatz) found a traditional corporate identity approach to be unsuitable to the nature of the collective. We were looking for a flexible element that would fit the performative nature of theater and came up with the idea of creating a mascot. A mascot is able to interact with different subjects—it can appear on stage, in print, animation and in video. Unlike a logo, it is difficult to define a dynamic mascot in a corporate manual. A mascot is something you can cuddle. Illustrated by Tomiris Shyngyssova, the octopus has three hearts and eight arms with independent neurological features—an ideal representation of a collective. To pick up to the collective’s intention to challenge hierarchies the posters don’t promote the most ‘important’ events but pick up the current themes of the venue. Each one shows a combination of a photo from press materials or pop culture alongside the octopus in different states of action, which disrupts the visual world of the poster material akin to a parasite.

Selected jury’s comment

Warriors Studio: “This series reminds us why we love design. It’s a total WTF? For us these have all of the qualities a successful poster, or series, can have. They are visually arresting, intriguing, imaginative, original, technically accomplished and straight-up lovable. One of the most memorable pieces of work we’ve seen in years. The combination of the absurd, endearing imagery juxtaposed with the official regal looking logo of the Stadt Zurich is exceptional. An impressive demonstration of trust in the collaboration between client and designer. The confidence of removing all but the name of the organisation and the single funder/partner logo is the checkmate of this series. The way posters should be. No fucking about. Incredible.”

Nam Huynh: “I have a sweet spot for cartoons and love how the implement of a smart character catalyzes the impact of a charming message. It’s very smart (but not easy) to create a good mascot. Like a cute pet it can immediately break social boundaries and evoke sympathy for everything it wants to tell you. It’s a series that doesn’t get boring. When I used to read comics, I was always curious about every upcoming cover page. I feel the same about these posters.”

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

MENSLIES’ poster East Palace West Palace 3 years Anniversary was awarded joint 3rd place in the 2022 International Poster Competition .

This poster was made for the 3 years anniversary of East Palace West Palace, which happened at Zhao Dai club. EPWP is an open lab for any queer fearless artist to come experience and defy the possibilities of the nightclub space as a site of performative transcendence. EPWP was named after the very first Chinese LGBT movie. With the typeface combination, MENSLIES (Haojun Pan, Yenk Wang) wish to deliver an imaginary scene of the ultimate Sino queer party extravaganza, diverse but harmonious. The graphic of three legs were inspired by female stocking ads in early days, the identities were blurred in the frame and it stands for the meaning of third.

Selected jury’s comment

Shinwoo Park: “In MENSLIES’ work, particular highlights include the textural details of the images and the sensuous use of colour. Fine noisy gradients play a large role in creating a unique atmosphere, allowing the graphic elements of the posters to stand out with their metaphorical meanings. Just like oriental painting, there is the charm of making poster viewers imagine the meaning of the empty spaces which the relationship between the images creates.”

Juhi Vishnani: “There is an abstract chaos to the poster, yet a sublime balance holding it together.”

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

Liebermann Kiepe Reddemann’s poster series das bisschen Totschlag – No Risiko Tour 2022 was awarded joint 3rd place in the INTL International Poster Competition.

The poster series was designed for the band ‘das bisschen Totschlag’ in order to promote their tour. It was designed with a 3D drawing tool that Liebermann Kiepe Reddemann (David Liebermann, Maximilian Kiepe, Jana Reddemann) created exclusively for the band: https://drawingtool.dasbisschentotschlag.de

The concept was to create a poster series for their upcoming tour, representing their digital, experimental electronic sound as well as their post punkish, grungy sound aesthetic. Liebermann Kiepe Reddemann tried to find a visual representation that is embracing the typographic aesthetic of old punk zines and handwriting in a digital space.

Selected jury’s comment

Mark Bohle: “Rough and raw but futuristic. Surprising visual appearance that fits the content. Very unique. Ugly! Awesome!”

Juhi Vishnani: “This poster series nicely captures Sol LeWitt’s quote “the idea becomes the machine that makes the art.” With this series, the process of making the poster becomes the poster. While the composition, color and overall feeling is rooted in punk visual aesthetics, the method of making is quite punk in its own way.”

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