DESING FOR PEACE

7. International Student Poster Competition, Skopje 2014
05-20 December 2014
Youth Cultural Center

Partnership

PLAKART in partnership with Youth Cultural Centre announces the Seventh International Student Poster Competition, Skopje 2014. The project was supported by Ministry of Culture and Skopje City as well as traditionally by international partners and associates.

The issue

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
-Martin Luther King

The main objective of this competition is the world peace and the human rights issues. So far the known synonyms for “peace” include ”amity,” “friendship,” “harmony,” “concord,” “tranquility,” “repose,” “quiescence,” “truce,” “pacification,” and “neutrality.” Can a designer act as peacemaker in the world?
While some of these descriptions are appropriate, they are still quite limited in describing both the nature of peace and the role of the peacemaker. Any attempt to articulate the nature of peace and peacemaking, therefore, must address those conditions which are favorable to their emergence. Freedom, human rights, and justice are among such prerequisites. Also included are proactive strategies such as conflict resolution, nonviolent action, community building, and democratization of authority.

Cause

The goal of this poster competition is to create and promote concept of Peace and human rights. Encourage people, both in and outside the design and cultural community, to the movement of PEACE. Raising a new generation committed to creating a Peace. Try to create and provoke an attention that will grow in to international movement, campaign. Explain/complain/create and achieve higher standards of visual communication and visualize your thinking.

Ultimate goal

As designers we are obligated to act toward intolerance, act of injustice, war crimes…. therefor we are going to create and provoke an global action, first by inviting students to participate for the competition, then we will invite the professional designers to send posters on the same topic. As one of the greatest creative minds has once said “The life of a designer is a life of fight: fight against the ugliness.”

Brief

Today we are facing ongoing war on every continent of the earth. The great George Orwell has written: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength”. From todays’ point of view, this quote it’s far before our time, being timeless and universal. The political language in all its variations, it is designed so the LIE sounds like the TRUTH! Today we live in a world where there is a continuous attack of information, but as much this sounds illogical and odd, we are all HUNGRY for the TRUTH!
There is a saying “a told lie is 50% truth”, but from today’s point of view this transforms into “50% truth is a big LIE”!
Facing this issue we didn’t wanted to sound as a chronicle of the past, present and future states around us, facing the world we live in, because we are all witnesses of the time and the burden we carry from our own believes.
With this topic each one of you, young designers can transform its own truth in to a visual message, in a world where only brave succeed to move the boundaries of the relatively.
Life is beautiful, love is the most powerful weapon, designers all over the world unite and Design for peace!

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”
-Mahatma Gandhi

Prizes

Two winners awarded with equal prizes:
1. Participation in jury work 2015 for the 8th Skopje Poster Festival (fully covered expences)
2. Organization of poster exhibition in MKC Gallery 2015
3. ICOGRADA Certificate

Winners & Honorable

2023 student posters
1109 applicants
44 countries

Winners

1. Ferhat Tunc – Turkey
2. Aslihan Tatligil – Turkey
E. Johanna Pedarnig – Germany

Icograda excellence: Evrim Aktepe – Turkey

Honorary mentions:
Zhang Yichi – China
Marija Dimitrievska – Macedonia
Mary Yudina – Russia
Amadeus Fronk – Germany
Megan M. Brajkovich – USA
Mingliang Li – China
Hrant Petrosyan – Armenia

Jury members / Conference guests

Davor Bruketa
-Bruketa&Zinic, Croatia
Iva Babaja
-President of Icograda, Croatia
Kostadin Tanchev-Dinka
-Macedonia
prof. Ayşegül Izer
-Head of Graphic Design Department, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Turkey
Borut Vild
– Serbia
Mila Melank
– Association of Applied Artist and Designers,BiH
Ivana Stojanovska
– Elance-oDesk, Macedonia