‘100 Beste Plakate’ 2021 – society in its discourse

Denise Pflügl

18.11.2022

For the 17th time the ‘100 Beste Plakate 2021’ exhibition in Austria takes place at the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts and shows the winning posters from the entire DACH region. The focus of this year’s competition was society in its discourse. From gender, climate, equality, Covid-19 and culture to cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

For those who don’t know, ‘100 Beste Plakate’ is a competition in which designers, studios, agencies, print shops and students from Austria, Germany and Switzerland were able to participate.

Out of 2.008 Posters the 100 award-winning posters were presented at MAK. The exhibition is also shown in other cities of the participating countries. 39 Posters from Germany, 54 from Switzerland and 7 from Austria are exhibited there.

The variety of posters included a wide range of photography, illustrations, typography, collages, abstract art, graphic design, 3D designs, and more. Some design techniques are presented and described below with examples from the 100 poster exhibitions. Forward went there to summarize the diversity of posters.

Photography – Covid-19, equality, film

The poster themes that worked with photography as the main design element addressed especially the following topics: COVID-19, equality and culture, like film or theater.

Mafia Mashi x Forward Festivals (Austria) communicated with their poster “Choose Life” how important it is to get vaccinated in order to return to freedom. With their choice of concept, they managed to make a bold statement that speaks for itself. Back in 2021, the poster caused a stir because it was a very provocative and eye-catching photo. Mafia Mashi is known for her bald pictures and manages to show it again with this award-winning poster.

© Forward Festival/Zwupp/100BestePlakate e.V

Laura Hüppi’s (Switzerland) poster “Jeder Frau Ihre Stimme” explores inequality and a woman’s right to speak up and vote for her country . In Switzerland the women’s voting right was introduced in 1971. The simple portrait of a woman censored with red bars shows that society changed throughout history (although sadly not everywhere).

Illustrations – climate change, capitalism and consumerism

The Illustration posters at the exhibition spoke for climate change, capitalism and consumerism and also for culture events like theater or Festivals.

Verna Mack (Germany) shows human nature in a playful and colorful way, but at the same time presenting to us the bitter reality. Her poster called the “Human Parasite” sums it up in one very successful way – truthful and bold.

Collage

The film poster ‘Alles Ist Hin’ by Miriam Häfele (Germany) for the film by film academy student Jan Prazak uses collage to show what the film is about: that everything is broken, things, lives, relationships. This particular film poster represents more than just about this film – our society and it’s consumerism.

Poster series – equality, women’s rights and everyday life
The poster series shown at ‘100 Beste Plakate’ show either with their simplicity or complexity of certain thriving topics, like equality and women’s right, climate change and many more.

The Academy of fine arts Vienna showed up at the entrance of the exhibition with their work ‘Serene/Striking/Acceptance/Chirping/EverydayLife’ from Benjamin Buchegger, Daniel Car and Olvicer Hofmann. A series of five posters very simple and similar, but still an eyecatcher.

The poster series ‘Artificial Sexism’ from the designers Isabell Hammelbeck and Jana Michael (Germany) presents itself with a direct statement that crosses out the parts of statements that represent old ways of thinking in each of their four posters. The poster speaks certainly for itself – Artificial Sexism.

However, it is a small summary of 100 posters, so of course there are many more great posters to see, so enjoy some other great posters from the exhibition below. And of course we recommend visiting the “100 Best Posters” exhibition at MAK Vienna, because it’s never as memorable online as it is on site.