In a burst of imagination and bold color, Claudia Schramke redefines what it means to capture a city’s soul. Through her visionary key visuals and posters for the Berlinale, Claudia transforms the audience into the very heartbeat of Berlin—a vibrant, ever-changing canvas of human connection, diversity, and cinematic magic.
By: Claudia Schramke, Multidisciplinary Artist & Designer
The Audience as the Protagonist of the 73rd Berlinale
Hello, I’m Claudia Schramke, a communication designer and illustrator from Berlin with a strong focus on drawing and illustration. Since 2021, I have had the immense honor and joy of designing the key visuals and posters for the Berlinale, Germany’s largest cultural event and one of the world’s most renowned film festivals. Berlinale 2023 was a milestone in my artistic journey, and I am thrilled to share the process behind my visual work for this iconic festival.
The Berlinale is all about diverse participation and a vibrant cinema culture—one that shapes and challenges our perspective on the world. When I was commissioned to create the key visuals and posters for Berlinale 2023, the festival’s artistic direction strongly emphasized integrating Berlin’s unique identity into the design. My challenge was to capture the essence of this pulsating, art-driven, and culturally rich metropolis and translate it into a visual language fitting for the festival.
The Idea: The Audience in the Spotlight
This specific briefing encouraged me to reflect on what truly defines Berlin. After thoughtful conversations and observations, it became crystal clear to me—it‘s the people who make Berlin so colorful, dynamic, diverse, and magnetic! The city’s beauty lies in its cultural variety, its coexistence of different perspectives, and the energy created by their interactions.
This realization is directly connected with what makes Berlinale stand out from other major film festivals. With over 325,000 tickets sold and around 490,000 attendees (including accredited professionals), Berlinale is the largest public film festival in the world—a space for intercultural encounters. This inspired me to shift the perspective: Instead of focusing on the screen or the stage, I wanted to make the audience the central motif of this year’s Berlinale design. It felt only natural to celebrate those whose curiosity, enthusiasm, and applause bring the festival to life.
Bringing the Vision to Life
With this in mind, I developed a concept featuring a range of diverse characters seated together in iconic, striking red cinema chairs. This modular and flexible key visual was designed to seamlessly adapt to various formats—from posters and cinema banners to stage and press backdrops, publication covers, social media content, merchandise, and much more—essentially recreating the feeling of packed cinema halls across all media.
After years of social distancing due to the pandemic, a full cinema carries a powerful message. It symbolizes a return to fear-free gatherings, a renewed sense of community, and the joy of experiencing culture together.
A Commitment to Diversity
When designing the characters, it was crucial for me to represent the true diversity of Berlin’s residents as well as the international Berlinale audience. The festival stands for a free, open, and tolerant society, and my visuals needed to reflect that. Together with the Berlinale team, we ensured a balanced representation of male, female, and non-binary characters (which was fun but also quite a challenge!) alongside depictions of children, elderly individuals, and people with disabilities—all naturally included in the imagery.
One of the biggest challenges was portraying cultural diversity without resorting to clichés or reinforcing stereotypes. A particularly delicate aspect was skin color. Initially, I experimented with different shades of brown, black, and white, as well as some abstract tones like purple. However, I soon realized that this approach risked unintended stigmatization. After careful consideration and discussions with the Berlinale team, we found a creative solution: All figures were given varying shades of lilac, creating an effect reminiscent of a shimmering film projection. This added an extra level of abstraction, making the characters more symbolic while enhancing the visual impact. The high degree of abstraction allows for broader interpretation and multiple layers of meaning, ensuring that each viewer can connect with the imagery in their own way.
The Berlinale as a Mirror of Society
Beyond celebrating film, the Berlinale has always been a reflection of global social and political currents. Deeply rooted in the political landscape of Berlin, the festival has evolved into a platform for critical discourse and engagement with pressing societal issues.
As a designer, I see it as my responsibility to be fully aware of the power and impact of the images I create—especially when they reach such a wide audience. With this project, I wanted to take a clear stance, advocating for an open, peaceful, and inclusive society built on mutual understanding and respect.
Being part of Berlinale 2023 was an incredible experience, and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this cultural landmark. I hope my visuals resonated with audiences and helped amplify the festival’s spirit of diversity, unity, and cinematic magic.
Claudia Schramke was born in 1985 in Berlin, where she lives and works today. She is a multidisciplinary artist and designer specializing in visual communication, typically combining drawing with graphic design.
Her diverse artistic practice includes, among other things, branding and identity, illustration and book design, screen printing, cover artwork and packaging, design of experiential spaces and exhibitions, and experimental animation. Since 2021, she has been responsible for the design of the key visuals and posters for the Berlinale Film Festival.
Her work has been widely recognized and received several awards. Her design for the 73rd Berlinale won a Graphis Gold Award in their Poster 2025 competition. For her key visual for the 72nd Berlinale, she received first place at the Joseph Binder Award and a Bronze ADC Nagel in 2022.
In her personal artistic practice, Claudia creates social reportages with pen on paper, considering it her social responsibility to shed light on hidden stories and make the invisible visible. Her illustrated essay “Muster” examines the phenomenon of obsessive-compulsive disorder, while her visual reportage “Weißensee vor Zehn” explores the “invisible” professions that keep an art academy running. She currently documents life in soup kitchens, where meals are prepared for those in need. In April 2024, she visited three different organizations in Bratislava, Prague, and Berlin, creating drawings based on her observations of the volunteers and guests. This social reportage was exhibited in 2024 at the Fotograf Gallery in Prague.
Her inspiration and wild side are drawn from nature, where she feels most at home—apart from her drawing desk. Her two children remind her daily of her aspiration to experiment, play, and create more beauty in the world through her work.
