The Brno Biennial was established in 1963, making it the oldest exhibition of graphic design in the world. Every year an international jury selects the winners from a list of hundreds, whose works are then presented in the main exhibition space in the heart of the Czech city.
This year’s 27th biennial was judged by Oliver Klimpel, Serge Rompza of NODE, Tereza Rullerova of The Rodina, Lubica Segecova, and Will Schmid, who chose 46 works from the 878 entries. Part of their unique approach to this year’s selections was to question the boundaries of what can be considered graphic design (NBD), so in addition to featuring what’s conventionally associated with the discipline, the exhibition also provocatively included a range of works including tapestry and comic book illustrations. Posters are a continual staple of visual communication, and naturally the main exhibition was filled with striking contemporary examples of poster design. As this was an exhibition that deliberately aimed to subvert, these pieces also articulated the questioning nature of the brief.
For this month’s instalment of Poster Picks, we’ve selected five of the strongest posters spotted at this year’s Brno Biennial and spoken to the designers behind them about their concepts.