My Lecture at Algebra Bernays University in Zagreb

I’m pleased to inform you that on November 13th, I held a lecture at Algebra Bernays University in Zagreb. The lecture was titled “Recognitions and Purpose” and explored the role of design in a social context, balancing accolades with the creation of art that communicates values, shapes perspectives, and inspires responsibility.

Algebra Bernays University is part of the largest private educational organization in the Republic of Croatia and the region, present in more than 20 cities throughout Croatia.

You can learn more about the lecture here.

I’m thankful to Iva Babaja, Assistant Professor at Algebra Bernays University, for her tireless efforts in making this lecture possible.

 

"APD Talks blog" on WeChat

I am pleased to share with you that I am one of the three designers interviewed by the APD Talks blog. APD (Asia-Pacific Design) Talks is a graphic design blog on Weixin (Wechat). This particular post is about posters, and it's featuring, among others, my poster designs and the Tolerance Poster Show.

You can read the interview and see more images here.

 

Blast From the Past

In April of 2020, I printed and arranged for posting my Corona awareness posters throughout New York. I did that to raise awareness among my fellow citizens.

In the following months, I designed the translated versions of the poster, and they were posted in 8 different countries around the world. You can see more about that here.

Today on my way to my studio, to my total surprise, I saw some of those posters on the scaffolding in the construction site on 21st Street. I don't know how, but they survived for more than a year and a half, moving from one construction site to another.

 

The book "My Place Under the Sun" in the kindergarten

Today, December 6th, foundation Zaklada Vincero bought and donated 240 books to kindergarten Potok in Rijeka, Croatia. The book was created to raise awareness and funds for the non-profit organization Moje mjesto pod suncem (My Place Under the Sun).

I came up with the idea of creating a children board book that's based on the idea of a horizontal split of a logo. When one flips through the pages, one is not only exploring different combinations of faces, but also a variety of combinations of words written on the top and bottom pages. For the textual part of the book, I acquired help from famous Croatian writers Slavenka Drakulic and Rujana Jeger. They wrote the text in a way that in every possible page combination, the words always form a sentence that empowers and educates the kids. Altogether, 12 top and 12 bottom pages offer 144 different possible visual and textual combinations. 

All three of us, together with Bodoni publishing company from Zagreb donated all the profit from the book to Moje mjesto pod suncem.

Here below are a few photographs and videos of kids receiving the books. 

 
You can read more about this project here.

 

The Board Book" My Place Under the Sun"

The non-profit organization Moje mjesto pod suncem (My Place Under the Sun) originated in Rijeka, Croatia. Their program's primary goal is to provide children below the poverty line with activities that will enable them to grow and develop based on their abilities rather than on the severe social context surrounding them. They offer these kids quality extra-institutional education in the hope that it will boost their self-esteem and self-reflection and help them realize their full potential.

When I was asked to volunteer my services and create a logo for My Place Under the Sun, I decided to create something child friendly and also something empowering, that's why I created this image of a child as a superhero.

After creating the logo, to raise even more funds for the organization, I came up with the idea of creating a children board book that's based on the idea of a horizontal split of a logo. When one flips through the pages, one is not only exploring different combinations of faces, but also a variety of combinations of words written on the top and bottom pages. For the textual part of the book, I acquired help from famous Croatian writers Slavenka Drakulic and Rujana Jeger. They wrote the text in a way that in every possible page combination, the words always form a sentence that empowers and educates the kids. Altogether, 12 top and 12 bottom pages offer 144 different possible visual and textual combinations. 

With everything mentioned, we were able to make a very simple and inexpensive interactive book that's suitable for both parents and kids. Although it's very hard to understand the full concept of this book by only looking at the pictures, hopefully, you can get the gist of it.

All three of us, together with Bodoni publishing company from Zagreb donated all the profit from the book to Moje mjesto pod suncem.

"Fake For Real"

I just received a catalogue for the show Fake For Real, A history of Forgery and Falsification. The show is on display in the House of European History. It's a project of the European Parliament.

One of the posters from my collection of posters for the Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition in Belgrade in 1941 is included. It's part of the show titled A Fake Conquers The World, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Here is a short quote of the organizer explaining the show:
"In the routine of daily life, the sensational, spectacular and supernatural are sweet seduction. They allow us to escape the ordinary. But the game of deception is only fun when we have agreed to it. When we are deliberately deceived, we are on the losing side in many regards, losing our money, credibility, integrity or even our existence.

While the current quantity of (dis)information is unprecedented, the problem is an ancient one. History is filled with countless examples of fake masquerading as real. The Trojan Horse, a mythological archetype of deception, symbolically links ancient history to very contemporary problems of the internet-dominated world.

From the lessons of the past, a roadmap can be pieced together: one that lets us wander into the realm of the fantastical and fabricated when we want to, while providing an exit strategy for when we are ready to return to reality."

 

Tolerance Poster in the altar room of St. Markus München Church

As a part of the Tolerance Poster Show in Kunstareal München District, in Germany, the St. Markus München church displayed Tolerance posters on the construction scaffoldings around it.

 

On top of that, the minister of the church also decided to display the poster by Angie Wang, a US designer, in the altar room of the church. 

 

The church seems to be the appropriate and the right place for tolerance.

We are thankful to the minister for doing this.

 

 

Call for Solidarity and Togetherness by High School Students from Rijeka

I am happy to share with you this news that appeared yesterday in the Croatian newspaper Novi list. One of those beautiful side effects of the Tolerance Poster Show.

"For the next week, the windows of the City of Rijeka on Korzo will be decorated with posters of students from the First Croatian Gymnasium in Rijeka and children from the My Place Under the Sun program at the Center for the Culture of Dialogue. 

The posters that will be placed on Tuesday carry important messages from students and call for solidarity, and were created as a continuation of the international Erasmus + project »p.s. Initiate Solidarity ”which is being implemented in France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Croatia, where 24 schools are involved in the project, and the holder is the Center for Peace Studies in Zagreb. 

PRHG students previously sent postcards to their fellow citizens with messages indicating various social problems, and later, under the leadership of Diana Rosatti, Helena de Karina and Nataša Kuzmar Colnar, they made posters, while some of the posters were created during the collaboration of students 1.d . classes and children from the My Place Under the Sun program. 

The posters on Korzo were created as a reaction of students to the exhibition "Tolerance" by Mirko Ilić, and the goal of the exhibition and all activities is to encourage citizens to think about the society in which they live and act in solidarity so that everyone lives in a better world."

 

The World After

 

The new book The World After, with the subtitle Posters That Question Our Future is a collection of posters with a Covid-19 pandemic theme. The book was created by Olga Severina and Donna Jackson.

I am pleased that my Corona Awareness poster is included in the book too. You can see and read more about my Corona Awareness Poster campaigns here.

My interview in "Novi list"

Here are the pages of my interview about the Tolerance Poster Show in the Croatian newspaper Novi list.

 

"Poster Man" by Seymour Chwast

I just received a new book titled Poster Man by Seymour Chwast. The book has a selection of 140 most important posters from the five-decade career of Seymour.

I am especially pleased because in the book Seymour decided to also include the Tolerance poster he created in 2017 for my Tolerance Poster Show.

On top of that, this Tolerance poster is sharing the spread with one of my favourite posters of Seymour's, Protest Against The Rising Tide of Conformity. I am obviously not the only one with that opinion. In 1964, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez decided to take a few pictures in front of that poster.

 

 

"Vecernji list" Interview

One of the leading Croatian newspapers Vecernji list devoted its front page of Sunday edition to the interview about me. 

To all of my friends who cannot read Croatian, I was fantastic.

To all of my friends who can read Croatian, I need to apologize for the mediocre interview. I will try to do better next time.

 

 

Child Superhero Logo

The organization Moje mjesto pod suncem (My Place Under the Sun) originated in Rijeka, Croatia. Their program's primary goal is to provide children below the poverty line with activities that will enable them to grow and develop based on their abilities rather than on the severe social context surrounding them. They offer these kids quality extra-institutional education in the hope that it will boost their self-esteem and self-reflection, and help them realize their full potential.

 

When I was asked to volunteer my services and create a logo for My Place Under the Sun, I decided to create something child friendly, also something empowering, that is why I decide to create this image of child as super hero.

 

Recently, the organization started the fundraising drive. People started to post on their social media, not only the donation telephone number 060 80 20 25 and bank number of the campaign HR 1924020061500087226 where one can donate money, but also they started to draw their own versions of child superhero logo.