I stumbled upon the Festival International de l’affiche et des arts graphiques de Chaumont whilst actually in Berlin playing football for the globetrotting mish mash team of graphic designers: Dynamo Alstrasse (which for better or for worse includes some likely lads from GTF, Why Not Associates, North, Odd, Esquire and Wallpaper* to name a few). Hoping to get at least a bit of culture on my visit, I ducked out of the bar for a few hours and visited a bookstore called ProQm and found a thick ‘Swiss bound’ book full of brilliant poster art…
I’ve have collected these books, annually ever since, but have never yet made it to the festival itself. Anyway, hopefully this year – the festivals 20th anniversary- I will at last make it!
The festival has many facets, it brings together professionals and student designers for interactive workshops, vibrant exhibitions, and the much anticipated International Poster Competition, which last year received 2,194 entries from graphic artists across 46 countries.
Every year, a French graphic designer was entrusted with the design of the Festival poster. Now after twenty years of competitions and programming, the event has gained international renown so as to become a major venue of the international graphic design scene. It seemed natural to let these designers express themselves and offer the audience twenty images with a variety of cultural expressions, a trip around the world in twenty posters to celebrate the town and its commitment.
This years international cast includes, Reza Abedini (Iran); Isidro Ferrer (Spain); Haichen Zhu (People’s Republic of China); Jan en Randoald (Belgium); Rodovan Jenko (Slovenia); Dima Kavko (Russia); Alejandro Magallanes (Mexico); Shin Matsunaga (Japan), Paulina Matusiak (the Netherlands); Piotr Mlodozeniec (Poland); Christoph Niemann (USA); Alexandra Noth et Megi Zumstein (Switzerland); Istvan Orosz (Hungary); Pony Ldt (United-Kingdom); R2 Design (Portugal); Claudia Roethlisberger (Switzerland); Leonardo Sonnoli (Italy), Thonik (the Netherlands); Vanessa Verillon (France); Henning Wagenbreth (Germany).
We featured the festival on Wallpaper.com last year