Winners of the Chicago Poster Biennial

Chicago International Poster Biennial, poster design by Yann Legendre, 2008

In the face of relentless competition from the even more ephemeral world of new media, posters continue to obsess us. And that obsession has a new home in the American heartland: the First Chicago International Poster Biennial. Design Observer is pleased to be an official sponsor, and to publish here 31 of the winners of the 2008 competition. These posters are going live today in Chicago, opening as a public exhibition in Daley Bicentennial Park that will run until October 29.

The Chicago International Poster Biennial is a not-for profit organization established to promote visual literacy, multiculturalism, and international cooperation through the poster work of artists from around the world.

A world-renowned jury of 11 poster designers selected winners. John Massey, jury chair, led an international jurors that includes Michel Bouvet of France, Shigeo Fukuda of Japan, Yossi Lemel of Israel, Alfred Halasa of Canada, German Montalvo of Mexico, Yann Legendre and Jay Ryan of Chicago, and Luba Lukova, Lanny Sommese and Martin Venezky, also of the United States. More about the jury is here.

The International Council of Graphic Design Associations (icograda) has endorsed this first Chicago poster competition. While icograda endorses many such open competitions around the world, this will be the first event of its kind held in the United States.

Official sponsors and partners include Smart Papers, Design Observer, Society of Typographic Arts, Graphic Arts Studio, Handler Thayer & Duggan, JCDecaux, Mohawk Fine Papers, STEP Inside Design Magazine, Tanagram Partners and World Business Chicago.