About Project

In May 2024, International Festival of Creativity Ad Black Sea, launched its very first edition of Tbilisi Design Festival featuring Stefan Sagmeister as the main guest of the event. 

The festival coincided with the street protests against the so-called “foreign agents law”, which jeopardized Georgia’s European future. 

Most of the festival participants spent the whole night before the event in front of the parliament, battling with police, but despite the challenges and lack of sleep, they still showed up in the morning and together we created even bigger value out of this event. 

We decided to not change our plans and deprive ourselves of learning and growing as professionals but at the same time use this platform to vocalize our position as citizens of this country.

Since 2015, Ad Black Sea’s mission is to connect our region to Europe with cutting-edge creativity and support creative professionals and organizations on their quest to stand out at local, regional, and international stages. We will carry on this mission and do everything within our power to achieve it. 

Together with Stefan, we decided to launch a new project and establish it as a tradition. Every year, we will choose a special cause for creative minds to address. 

This year the selection of the cause was a no-brainer. We wanted to use creativity against Russian aggression. The consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine have been devastating, and 20% of Georgia remains occupied by Russia.

To maintain awareness and prevent the world from becoming accustomed to this situation, we announced an open call for designers and illustrators to create a poster expressing the injustice and evil of this aggression. 

We received hundreds of posters from Georgia, Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Lithuania, Latvia, Netherlands. 

The final selection was made by Stefan himself. 

We want to thank each and every participant for using their voice against Russian aggression. 

THE BRIEF: 

For centuries Russia - 
Occupies. 
Kills. 
Destroys. 
Demoralizes. 
Corrupts. 
Wherever it comes, it brings physical, mental and spiritual degradation.
Wherever it stays, it brings destruction and death.
It’s an evil empire.

If you are a designer or an illustrator who has experienced or observed the devastating impact of Russian Aggression, create a poster and express your feelings against
this.

ABOUT STEFAN SAGMEISTER

Stefan Sagmeister is an Austrian graphic designer, storyteller, and typographer based in New York City. 

He has designed for clients as diverse as the Rolling Stones, HBO, and the Guggenheim Museum. He’s a two time Grammys winner and also earned practically every important international design award.

Stefan talks about the large subjects of our lives like happiness or beauty, how they connect to design and what that actually means to our everyday lives. He spoke 5 times at the official TED, making him one of the three most frequently invited TED speakers.

His books sell in the hundreds of thousands and his exhibitions have been mounted in museums around the world. His exhibit ’The Happy Show' attracted way over half a million visitors worldwide and became the most visited graphic design show in history. 

A native of Austria, he received his MFA from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and, as a Fulbright Scholar, a master’s degree from Pratt Institute in New York.

“I chose a good number of posters that communicate without the need of any added text: From a functional point of view, I believe their chance to transfer a message is heightened, especially on global social media. 

And I do like extremism in design (but hate it in politics). 

So from an aesthetic point of view I happen to prefer images that communicate without the interference of typography. 

I selected some pieces where the idea was familiar, but the execution of that idea was fresh. I also selected some familiar executions where the idea was fresh. 

And there were a few posters where both the idea and execution were new.” - STEFAN

SELECTED WORK AND DESIGNERS

Julia Artemenko - “Freedom”, Ukraine
Maciek Blaźniak - “Culture of terror”, Poland 
Artem Gusev - “Face of terror”, Ukraine
Yana Halchuk - “Murderer”, Ukraine
Ksenia Igolkina - “Bander cola”, “Fu#k you Russia”, Ukraine
Stas Kolotov - “Life will win”, Ukraine
Bartozs Kosowski - “Person of the year”, Poland
Kosma Masny - “DOVE”, “POOTIN”, Poland
Dato Mchedlishvili - “Peacekiller”, Georgia
Evgenia Nikolova - “Killing is nor bravery”, Bulgaria 
Kateryna Shalnieva - “Evacuation”, Ukraine
Maksym Skoryk - “Blackout”, Ukraine
Kateryna Sokol - “Zmiinyi”, Ukraine
Anna Yurkova - “Pendulum”, Ukraine
Katarzyna Zapart - “Gift from Russia”, Poland

Selected work was published as a first edition of Tbilisi Design Festival Journal and was distributed to Ad Black Sea 2024 delegates on September 12-14, 2024.