The stand out work from GDFS’ International Poster Competition

From 17th — 23rd October, the Graphic Design Festival Scotland filled Glasgow with live projects, talks from industry leaders, and conferences discussing all elements of visual culture. In the run up to the event, the festival ran an international poster competition, which received a staggering 3,443 entries from more than 70 countries in just three months. As a result they have created one of the largest private poster collections in the UK.

Judged by design studios Unfun, Lamm & Kirch, Warriors Studio and Étienne Hervy, 200 of the submissions are currently being exhibited at The Lighthouse in Glasgow as part of the festival. The collection of wide scoping contemporary graphic design will run until the 25th November.

In order to tackle the thousands of submissions the team received they chose three categories to question and consider the work: concept, content and delivery. In this sense they judged the work on the originality of it’s content but most importantly, “What message is the designer trying to communicate?” Secondly, whether this message communicated is worth telling, “Have they managed to simplify or successfully communicate a complex issue or topic?” Lastly, the poster in question was judged on it’s final delivery, taking into consideration the tone that the poster emulates, “Does the medium(s) they use support the message they’re trying to convey?”

On choosing one stand out poster to be awarded first place, Beth and James explained that they were looking for work that “makes innovative use of media or medium” but also, “alters perceptions or ways of thinking”. The winning poster, designed by Koos Breen was chosen due it’s “strong combination of an interesting concept with an original, engaging and practical resolve. It also works well as a functional and practical piece of communication design.”