The "Occupy: What's Next?" Award by Wu Zhonghao (CN)
- Erik Brandt, Graphic Designer, Minneapolis (US)
- Pascal Colrat, Graphic Designer, Paris (FR)
- Jochen Fiedler, Graphic Designer, Leipzig (DE)
- April Greiman, Transmedia Design and Photography, Los Angeles (US)
- Morteza Majidi, Photographer, Babol (IR)
- Gunter Rambow, Graphic Designer, Guestrow (DE)
- Elizabeth Resnick, Professor, Mass. College of Art & Design, Boston (US)
- Dr. Bettina Richter, Curator, Poster Collection, MfG Zuerich (CH)
- David Tartakover, Graphic Designer, Tel Aviv (IL)
- Jeanne Verdoux, Graphic Designer & Artist, New York (US)
- Rene Wanner, International Posterblogger & collector, Basel (CH)
- Dr. Sylke Wunderlich, Art Historian, Berlin (DE)
A rising star in poster design: Wu Zhonghao wins the international Occupy: What's Next? competition
The grand prize for the international poster competition on the theme of Occupy: What's Next? has been won by the Beijing designer Wu Zhonghao, whose stark image of a lone figure emerging into a circle of light is underscored by the word "future".
Selected by a distinguished panel of 12 judges, this poster and 15 others — including two posters by Taber Calderon, New York, and two by Casandra Popescu, Hamburg — were chosen for their graphic impact and creativity in confronting the challenges of economic inequality, greed, corporate influence, political corruption and environmental tragedy that were identified by the populist Occupy Wall Street movement of fall 2011.
The winner of the "Public's Choice" category, as voted by Facebook users, was Christoper Scott of Dungannon, Northern Ireland, whose image of a deforested Amazon region is expressed by a crumbling leaf in the shape of the South American continent. Posters from Canada, Taiwan, USA and Switzerland also won public recognition for their visual statements about election fraud in Iran, the risks of nuclear energy, the beliefs of the 99%, and the possibilities of lateral thinking.
Hundreds of ideas were contributed by design professionals, students, and non-professionals from over 35 different countries. Consistent with the goals of open participation and transparency, the organizers are also publicly sharing the top selections of the individual judges. This yields a fascinating insight into the perceptions of these figures whose backgrounds include art history, graphic design, photography, curation and journalism.
The competition results provide an unparalleled view into the worldwide significance of the Occupy concept. Viewed together, these posters convey the intensity of discontent with the status quo maintained by a hyper-priviledged 1% while demonstrating the role that designers around the globe can play by engaging constructively in social debate. Designers were urged in the briefing to go beyond the conventions of protest by creating positive messages. The submissions and the jury's selections make clear how difficult that task is.
The Occupy: What's Next? poster action was organized by the San Francisco design initiative "Next By Design", led by Erik Adigard, Jean Benoit Levy and David Peters, with the support of Adobe Inc. An important partner was Plakatsocial. An iPad application is in development now. All works are offered under Creative Commons license. You are invited to freely share these images provided you explicitly acknowledge their creators.
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