Winners of the competition "100 beste Plakate Deutschland Oesterreich Schweiz 2009"

Please visit the official web site or the Call for entries for more details.

The jury (Trix Barmettler, Guenter Karl Bose, Flavia Cocchi, Rene Grohnert, Reinhold Luger) selected 100 posters for the exhibition from over 1600 received. The competition does not award any prizes among those selected, declaring all hundred a "winner". The exhibition opened on June 24, 2010 at the Kunstforum in Berlin, and will travel to Essen (DE), Dornbirn (AT), Lucerne (CH), and Vienna (AT) during the next few months. An excellent catalogue with an interesting text on "wild posting" is published on the occasion.

The exhibition in Berlin The exhibition was designed by students (Jakob Gresch, Brita Jaichner, Hanna Kruse, Marc-Samuel Ulm und Barbara Wildung) of Prof. Peter Eckart from the Hochschule fuer Gestaltung Offenbach am Main whose impressive concept tried to rythmically shape the exhibition space, simulate the natural environment of the posters in the city, and emotionally involve the spectator. Most designers I talked to seemed to like it. I found the exhibition design rather confusing and annoying: Most posters are at knee level, including the labels with the details Some posters are on the floor, horizontally, while others are in their normal vertical position, like those from Troxler or Wagenbreth Some posters are squeezed into a corner, like Le Quernec's, so you are forced to look at them at an angle The problem "white poster on a white background" is not solved While you wander aimlessly between cardboard pyramids and cubes, you ask yourself if you have seen all the posters, and which of them might be the jury works It is difficult to compare two posters, or to get an overall impression of the exhibition as you never see more than a few at the same time. In fact, when I arrived I was wondering where the poster exhibition was until I realized that I was standing right in the center of it Among the positive aspects are that the entry hall of the Kunstforum is quite well structured and the different white shapes look interesting, it would be a great place for kids to play hide and seek, or Tangram with the blocks, but I actually went to Berlin to see the posters, not the brilliance of the exhibition designers. Compare the video above with that of a more traditional exhibition, in Chaumont, or, for the ultimate test of a sucessful "exhibition concept", with the street posters in Berlin. Jury member Guenter Karl Bose expressed his hope, in a short statement in the catalogue, that "perhaps in the future, the catalogues ought not to come across as so exertedly original". I can definitely agree, and would extend his wish to "exhibition design".

The posters The posters in the video above are from the 100 beste Plakate web site, where information about the designers, client, format, printer .. can be found. They include the jury members posters and those of Agnes Steiner, Alain Le Quernec, Alexandra Noth, Annette Haefelinger & Christina Ruether & Darius Gondor, Annik Troxler, Ariane Spanier, Axel Watzke, Betty Schimmelpfennig & Wolfgang Schmitz, Boris Brumnjak, Carina Boehler, Carsten Hardt, cosmic.ch, cyan, Daniel Treufeld, Daniel Wiesmann, Daniela Mirabella, David Clavadetscher, Demian Conrad, Domenic Geissbuehler & Selina Lang & Nadine Geissbuehler, Dominique Schmitz, Elisa Huber, Eva Dranaz & Jochen Fill, Eva Kretschmer, Eva Thiessies & Marvin Boiko, Falko Gerlinghoff, Flo Gaertner, Florian Lamm et al., Fons Hickmann & Gesine Grotrian-Steinweg & Thomas Schrott, Franca Moor, Giorgio Pesce, Gunter Rambow, Guenther Kieser, Helen Hauert, Helmut Prochart & Beate Goebel, Henning Kreitel, Henning Wagenbreth, Holger Matthies, Ina Bauer & Sascha Lobe, Jakob Kirch & Fabian Fenk, Jakob Kirch & Wiebke Rosin, Jan-Kristof Lipp, Jianping He, Jiri Oplatek & Simon Stotz, Johannes Buettner, Johannes Siemer, Katharina Tauer, Katja Schloz, At. Strichpunkt, Klaus Pockrandt, Korbinian Kainz & Arne Fehmel, Lena Schrieb, Lex Drewinski, Magdalena Leupold & Denise Henning, Mara Weyel & Christoph Sauter & Artur Gulbicki, Marco Poblete, Marco Sartori, Marlon Ilg & Simon Trueb, Martha Luczak, Matthias Gunkel, Megi Zumstein & Claudio Barandun & Daniel Peter, Megi Zumstein & Claudio Barandun, Melchior Imboden, Michael Allocca, Michael Rudolph, Michal Florence Schorro, milchhof atelier, Miriam Waszelewski, Miriam Zedelius, Miroslaw Adamczyk, Nathalie Gabrielle Kornoski, Nicolaus Ott, Niklaus Troxler, Noah Bonsma, Pablo Lavalley, Patrick Bittner, Patrick Oltean & Marcel Mendler, Paula Troxler, Paulus M. Dreibholz, Peter Moser & Juerg Schaffhuser & Wolfgang Moehrle, Pierre Mendell, Sabina Keric, Sabine Schwarz, Silvia Francia, Sophie Schultz, Stefan Guzy & Bjoern Wiede, Stefanie Schwarz, Steffen Schuhmann, Stephan Bundi, Susan Winter, Susanne Roehrig, Suse Schandelmaier & Joerg Sebald, Thibaud Tissot, Thomas Korf & Sebastian Kokus, Tom Ising & Martin Fengel, Uwe Loesch, Volker Pfueller.