Poster as an Antidote

From left: Damian Kłaczkiewicz, Tao Hong, Yossi Lemel

It is great to see that we are all finally united as one human race. At the same time, it is incredibly sad that it took something like the CoronaVirus to bring us all together. Did we really need an enemy to start showing compassion towards one another? Have we not seen prior indicators telling us this very thing? And yet, it did bring us closer, although the toll it took on our society was and still is truly painful.

One of the great examples of this unity that I see every day is among the members of the international design community, who were eager to respond to this pandemic through imagination and creative expression. In the last few weeks, practically in a matter of days, a number of poster competitions have launched, all dedicated to the growing problem of the CoronaVirus.

From top left: Ke Yu, Sun Shaozhong, Bi Jingmeng, Lin Honghui, Katya Vatel, Liang Zhongcai

Authors from all over the world all banded together against the common enemy. Instead of their native tongues, each author spoke to us in a way we all can understand ⁠ — the visual language. They tried to convey to us the simple, and yet predominant concepts ⁠ — love, support, patience, tolerance, and understanding.

From top left: Tan Xiaofei, Oktay Barkın, Zhan Shanshan, Yi Liran, Huang Qinghai, Jiang Shaohua

I’d like to express my gratitude to all the organizers and participants of these poster exhibits, people who chose not to remain indifferent to this terrible plague and respond to this call for action with their art and with their hears. It’s wonderful to know that in these dark times there are those who can point us towards the light and give us hope. Those, who believe, like I believe that a truly compelling art can always show the world the way.

From top left: He Huang, Liwei Liu, Li Yao, Yang Jie, Kseniya Lustikova, Ma Haoxuan

One last thing: as horrible as CoronaVirus truly is, the panic can be 100 times worse, so let us all be united in beating this pestilence and stay united long after we prevail.

Special thanks: He Huang, Li Xu, Xu Wei, Kye-soo Myung, Naser Nasiri, Hossein Mohammadi Vahidi.

Open poster calls where you can participate:

Breath Symbiosis Poster Call
Anti-Novel Coronavirus
Virus is Over
Coronavirus Attack Against a Human Being

Interviewed, translated, and curated by Olga Severina.

Olga is an exhibition curator and graphic designer residing in Los Angeles, California. Having a passion for the graphic arts, Olga Severina founded PosterTerritory initiative that became a launching platform for contemporary art shows and poster exhibitions in the US and abroad. Under its umbrella, she curates graphic art campaigns that tackle a variety of social issues and feature artworks by some of the biggest names in the international design community.