Art in Abstraction: Poster Gold Winning Works & New Entries

This week, our collection of Gold winning entries from our 2023 Poster Annual competition, plus one new entry from our 2024 Poster Annual, all use different forms of abstraction to convey their message and stand out in the crowd. From symbolic representations to simplified artistic motifs, these posters show off a wide variety of amazing abstract designs.

Our first gold winner is “CONTACT” (above, left) a poster from Graphis Master Hoon-Dong Chung at Dankook University. This poster was designed for the 2021 1st International Osaka Poster Fest in Japan, and as such was keen on making a statement. Chung used an abstract design of interconnecting squares and spikes forming a 3D star shape to symbolize ‘CONTACT,’ which was the exhibition’s main theme. The poster’s geometric motif carries into more than the central shape and is used to frame the text and the poster in a striking space of squares.

Our next gold-winning entry hails from Japanese designer Daisuke Kashiwa. The poster, “35 Years of Chernobyl and 10 Years of Fukushima” (above, right) was created for the 11th International Eco-poster Triennial, hosted by The 4th Block. 2021 was 35 years after the Chernobyl accident and 10 years after the Fukushima accident, and yet while the long-lasting dangers of nuclear power are known, new plants are still being built and used. To show the long-reaching and long-lasting effect that nuclear power plant failures can create, the artist used abstract animal designs, representative of wildlife affected by radiation. The lines on the animals resemble bones, and the radiation warning symbols surrounding them make the connection to x-rays and radiation all the stronger.

Our final gold-winning entry is from German Graphis Master Fons Hickmann, founder of the studio Fons Hickmann M23. The poster is meant to advertise the premiere of a production of “Guiseppe Verdi – Don Carlos” (above left) at the Wiener Staatsoper theater. The poster itself has very little to do with the show, which is a 5-hour-long grand opera originally penned in 1867 and is based on the life of Prince Carlos, son of King Philip II of Spain. Instead, the poster seems to represent the state of the world at the time of the show, that being the worldwide pandemic that prevented almost all forms of air travel, grounding all flights much like the plane showcased in the picture. This is made especially relevant when considering that this opera was also streamed by the theater to the internet, truly marking it as a “world premiere.” 

Finally, our new entry comes from designer Viktor Koen from the design firm Attic Child Press, Inc. to create “The Museum of Extraordinary Things Exhibition Poster” (above, right) for the School of Visual Arts. This exhibition showcased work from students in the school’s MFA illustration department and was based on the novel The Museum of Extraordinary Things by author Alice Hoffman. The poster showcases a mysterious creature that defies the typical representations of mermaid archetypes to reflect the psychological complexities of the novel’s main character, as well as her status as a mermaid attraction. 

You can check out the full collection of our Poster Annual 2023 winners here. To enter our 2024 Poster Annual Awards competition, click here.