A fact finding mission on the state of poster art!
Like every year, the MAK presents the winners of the annual competition for 100 Best Posters. Germany Austria Switzerland. Keeping track of one of the most potent phenomena of everyday visual culture, the MAK gives, for the 7th time already, a complete survey of the winning entries. The array of posters exhibited fits in with the trend toward plain and simple forms—one of the central themes of this year’s MAK exhibition program: less is more! A dense and effective presentation of ideas-based design at the MAK Works on Paper Room shows that the competition results really stand out from the frequently redundant concoctions of the ever-same that flood the cityscape.

For Austria, studio 3007 was once again successful this year. Eva Dranaz and Jochen Fill excel with their poster ads for the rhiz – bar modern music and events bar. The graphic rendition of the featured experimental music pushes the limits, which is reflected in strongly emotionalizing subjects.

Built in the tradition of a rebus is the poster created in the graphic-design class of the University of Applied Art, Vienna, for the Alumni Talk. The poster illustrates the different workplaces of designer Georg Schnitzer (Londonwien, VVORK, and Vandasye) and places them in a surreal juxtaposition. Abstraction and a sequence of sketchily drawn vector arrows which indicate reading direction connect to the subject of the lecture, Strategy.

This year's competition saw 548 graphic designers participating (173 of them students); participants included 136 agencies or graphics and design offices, 396 individual designers and 16 design clients. Of the entries, 387 came from Germany, 35 from Austria, and 126 from Switzerland. As always, the awarded designs are considered as coequal winners. By country, 53 of 100 winning posters and poster series are from Germany, 45 from Switzerland, and 2 from Austria.

The graphic and exhibition design for the competition was created in an interdisciplinary study project at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design under the direction of Niklaus Troxler, Uwe Fischer, and Manuel Meßmer and with the collaboration of the students Marina Gärtner and Lena Haase (Communication Design Course) as well as Isabel Thoma, Marita Schwenkedel, and Laura Hillebrandt (Industrial Design Course).

Curator Peter Klinger, Deputy Head MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection

www.100-beste.plakate.de

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue 100 beste Plakate 11. Deutschland Österreich Schweiz / 100 Best Posters 11. Germany Austria Switzerland, graphic design: ABK Stuttgart team (Marina Gärtner/Lena Haase), with contributions by Stephan Bundi, Sascha Lobo, and the illustrated essay “Schwarz und Weiß im Meer der Farben” [Black and White in the Sea of Colors] by Anita Kühnel, German/English, 228 pages, numerous color illustrations, Verlag Hermann Schmidt, Mainz, 2012, € 34.80.