22.10.2014—26.4.2015
MAK Works on Paper Room
With its ninth presentation of the exhibition 100 Best Posters. Germany Austria Switzerland, the MAK will once again be placing up-to-the-minute graphic design at the center of attention. Media theory pioneer Marshall McLuhan, in his 1967 book The Medium is the Massage, described various forms of communication and the levels of perception on which they “massage”—and thus alter—the human sensorium. McLuhan had originally intended its title to be The Medium is the Message, but a printing error then made him aware of this alternative—and, to his mind, immanently appropriate—twist on his own saying.

And it is in this sense that the best 100 “ambassadors to and/or masseurs of the public space” will again be exhibiting their design ideas in the MAK Works on Paper Room. This year’s submissions overwhelmingly featured the employment of typography-based strategies that probe the range of possibilities between economy and excess in poster lettering. Among the 100 winning posters on exhibit, works by up-and-coming designers take their place alongside those of established figures in a refreshing combination, with this year’s presentation once again showing how, as jury member Holger Matthies puts it, posters “function as an irreplaceable category of urban furniture.”

From nearly 1,700 submissions, an international jury consisting of Verena Panholzer (Vienna, jury chair), Reza Abedini (Iran/Netherlands), Christophe Gaudard (France), Holger Matthies (Germany) and Felix Pfäffli (Switzerland) selected the best 100 posters and poster series from Germany (55 winners), Austria (4) and Switzerland (41).
 
Catalog 100 beste Plakate 13. Deutschland Österreich Schweiz / 100 Best Posters 13. Germany Austria Switzerland, designed by 2xGoldstein, including a special thematic contribution by Jan-Henning Raff entitled “Theories to Understand Graphic Design in Use: The Example of Posters,” and published by Verlag Hermann Schmidt, Mainz, 2014, 2oo pages. € 34,80 

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

 

Guided tour

with the curator Peter Klinger
Thu, 6.11.2014, 5 p.m.


A cooperation between the MAK and the Verein 100 Beste Plakate. e.V.