Where Have All the (U.S.) Posters Gone?
We can argue all day and night about why the printed poster is disappearing from the visual landscape, but the truth is that posters are still being produced all over the world. Designers everywhere are creating posters that are well-conceived and beautifully crafted, but there is evidence that the poster is simply not taken as seriously in the U.S. as it is in almost every other part of the industrialized world. As evidence, look at the major International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) endorsed poster competitions around the world over the past year. Very few US designers enter these competitions and, for the most part, even fewer win anything.
Two such competitions stand out: the prestigious Toyama International Poster Triennial in Japan and the China International Poster Biennial. At Toyama, of the 4,516 posters submitted for judging from 49 countries, only 52 were from the USA. And of those, only 7 were selected for exhibition at the Toyama Museum of Modern Art (out of 409 exhibited). In China, the numbers were even more stark: of the 178 posters selected from all entries, 106 came from Asia, 66 from Europe, and only 5 came from all of North and South America.
What can we say? We’re trying to do our part to keep the American poster alive on the international design scene. Legendre+Rutter had three finalists chosen for exhibition in Toyama and four of the five US posters selected in China.
Finalists in the Toyama International Poster Triennial: “Cet Obscur Objet du Désir” by Legendre+Rutter and "Imagination" by Yann Legendre
"Les Liaisons Dangereuses" by Lance Rutter, Toyama Poster Triennial
Finalists in the China International Poster Biennial: "Niki de Sant Phalle" and "Fantasmagoria Fukuda" by Yann Legendre
Finalists in the China International Poster Biennial: "Music Awards Dinner" and "Homage to Mucha" by Lance Rutter
So true! It seems like poster design outside of the U.S. is completely different then inside the U.S. Nice work guys, love the posters!
That is why Chicago International Poster Biennial comes in and makes changes. Excited for the upcoming 2010 one!
One niche where I still see a lot of posters (including a few I fell in love with this year) is as promotional tools for rock concerts. Are those posters too pedestrian or purposeful to garner any serious attention from the international community?
Tim, There is a great–if somewhat underground–culture of “gig poster” makers in the U.S. I don’t think the international community is completely aware of this movement, partly because the designers tend to shy away from these kinds of competitions. The Chicago Biennial was an exception, since gig poster maker, Jay Ryan was a juror, and over 100 of these posters were entered. The designers outside the U.S. who I’ve met and talked to about gig posters are always very excited about them. The more exposure this work gets, the better for the overall reputation of the U.S. poster scene.