DESIGNERS IN CREATIVE RESISTANCE RESULTS
Tbilisi Design Festival, as well as Ad Black Sea 2025, continue their mission of engaging the creative community in urgent causes. As political pressures rise in Georgia and around the world, we have once again invited designers to express their civic position through visual protest - this time, a set of postcards. These selections feature winning works chosen by the project curator, Paula Scher - one of the most influential graphic designers of our time and a lifelong advocate for the power of design as a tool for resistance. Authoritarian regimes have historically feared creativity, and for good reason: it communicates, it questions, it defies. These postcards serve as a reminder that design is more than just beauty and aesthetics but can, in fact, embody bravery. We'd like to express our deepest gratitude to Paula Scher for the care and conviction dedicated to this project. And, of course, to all the designers who have answered the open call and used their voice and creativity when it mattered the most.
Here in Georgia, we know the truth behind Russia's ""cultural gifts."" This poster strips away the pretty facade of those nesting dolls - where you'd normally see flowers, there are guns and bombs. The doll bleeds because that's what Russia's ""culture"" really brings us: violence disguised as tradition.We've lived through their ""soft power"" - tanks rolling in while they claim it's protecting Russian heritage. The message is clear: stop calling oppression a culture. We see through the painted smiles to the weapons underneath. This art speaks for everyone who's had Russian ""culture"" forced on them at gunpoint.
"One Man" ShowThis poster is designed as a circus event ticket. The main and only performer is Vladimir Putin, who has been ruling Russia and terrorizing neighboring countries since 1999. A dancing pig represents Russia with its bloody, imposed culture.
The bottom section of the ticket has a tear-off portion, showing Russia's neighboring countries that have repeatedly faced Russian "cultural expansionism" throughout history. The only way for them to achieve liberation is through ideological and cultural separation from Russia.
The system should work for us, not trap us!
A minimalist and forceful visual of Orwell’s timeless warning. The quote stands like law carved into stone, showing how unchecked authority distorts morality. The clean design contrasts the chaos it implies, reminding us that tyranny often arrives masked in logic and order. With just one phrase, the poster delivers an entire manifesto on dictatorship, decay, and danger.
This poster visualizes the cycle of violence seeded by authoritarianism: concentric storm-like rings filled with fragmented text, representing the endless echo of propaganda, lies, and oppression. The bold headline slices through the chaos like a warning.
This poster visualizes how hate consumes both victim and perpetrator. Blurred shadows evoke the dehumanizing fog of war, where form and identity are erased. Bold fractured typography expresses the violence of language and propaganda, as hate scorches the light out of souls who could have illuminated the world. The chaotic layering of type over spectral forms symbolizes a world where love is forgotten, and brutality rules.
This poster uses typography as a battlefield - the massive word WAR slices through a haunting image of soldiers advancing through destruction. The fractured letters symbolize how war tears through lives, landscapes, and truth itself. The visual tension between word and image forces viewers to confront the illusion of victory and the permanence of loss.