100 Best Posters – serie

In February 2018, an international jury of experts, having been appointed by the board of the association 100 Beste Plakate e.V. (The 100 Best Posters), met to once again evaluate all entries submitted to the annual competition. It has selected ground-breaking designs from the fields of advertising, corporate design, author graphics and poster design. Thus the outstanding creative achievements of well-established institutions, graphic design firms, ad agencies and of individual students enrolled at German-speaking universities or design schools throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland will be awarded. The diversity of this medium, which has managed to resist an ever encroaching digitalisation into its field, will be portrayed in this book - showcasing both its value as a means of public announcement and as a visual message bordering on fine art. Following on from the competition 100 Best Posters 17 will present, in printed form, the prize-winning designs. Text in English and German.

For 20 years the association 100 Beste Plakate e.V. has been spotlighting the most groundbreaking poster designs from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In its anniversary year, the group and its members are facing existential questions, just like graphic designers all over the world. The coronavirus has laid waste not only to people’s lives but to cultural life as well. In our day and age, museums are closed while people are still allowed to shop at DIY stores; they can get a haircut, but theatres remain off-limits. The place of culture in society is shifting, which most often means it is becoming less relevant. But what is society without culture?Some of the posters included in this book were made for events that never happened, for billboards that remained empty, for an audience that wasn’t there.These upheavals have had an impact not only on the selection of the 100 best posters of 2020, but also on current trends in the graphic arts. Last year, as the authorities imposed restrictions, or in some cases even outright bans, on interpersonal communication, the desire for visual communication and design seemed to grow by the same measure. This book and the posters presented in it can be regarded as a physical testimony to the time and space that was lost in 2020.Text in English and German.