1991, Selfpromotion Studio Mykkänen

Ulla Aartomaa, longtime curator of the Lahti Poster Museum and the Lahti Poster Biennale, wrote: "One of the most important Finnish graphic designers after the second world war, Martti Mykkänen past away on the 22nd of February, 2008. He was born on November 15, 1926 in Soinlahti, Iisalmi, Finland. He was known for his posters and lay-outs. He was the one, who designed a new look to book jackets in the end of the fifties. After studies in Finland, he spent eight months in Switzerland and after that he was the follower of the so called Swiss style. In his book jackets he got impact from the Polish posters." The pictures on this page are from Ulla Aartomaa's book "Martti Mykkänen Graphic Design", published in 1999 by Studio Aartomaa Oy. Please see the link list for more information on Martti Mykkänen.

1962, Helsinki

1968, Helsinki

1983, 5. Lahti Poster Biennale

1989, personal exhibition Lahti

تسبیح عربی در ایران کاربرد چرتکه را دارد - یه سکه - دوسکه - ....

درسرزمین ایران فقط اسب ها نجیب نیستند زنها هم بگونه ای خود را نجیب میدانند

WEB POSTER EXHIBITION - Turkish posters in Zuerich

Invitation card for the exhibition, based on part of a poster by Bulent Erkmen The exhibition Afisler - contemporary posters from Turkey that runs at the Museum fuer Gestaltung in Zuerich from September 21 to December 20, 1999, offers a rare glimpse into a world unknown to most of us. This obscurity is surprising in view of the high international reputation of some turkish designers like Yurdaer Altintas, or Bulent Erkmen, who speaks at the coming AGI Seminar in Zuerich and received the bronze medal at last years International Poster Biennale in Warsaw. Also the turkish society of graphic designers Grafikerler Meslek Kurulusu plays a very active role and organizes, for example, a yearly graphic design competition in Istanbul where it awards the Ihap Hulusi prize. By the way, Ihap Hulusi, well known for his travel posters, and one of the earliest turkish graphic designers, was a student of Ludwig Hohlwein.

Savas Cekic, 1992 Read, read! Client: Istanbul City Administration

Yurdaer Altintas, 1999 In memoriam Alfred Hitchcock Client: International Film Festival Istanbul

Ugurcan Ataoglu, 1997 The best Poster for the best book designs

Bulent Erkmen, 1991 Exhibition poster, B, 8 artists, 8 works Client: Kunstsalon AKM, Istanbul

Savas Cekic, 1996 Theater poster for the play Ayyy...Hitler Client: Theater Bakirkoy, Istanbul

Ahmet Naci Firat, 1996 Hold your breath, you will soon need it Client: Cumhuriyet newspaper

Savas Cekic, 1998 Bergama must not become Simmitville Client: Sel Publishing House, Istanbul

Ahmet Naci Firat, 1998 18th exhibition of graphic works Client: Association of Graphic Designers GMK

Bulent Erkmen, 1995 Exhibition poster

Bulent Erkmen, 1995 Client: The International Prison Watch

The exhibition, with 64 posters on display, was organized by Bettina Richter and Kurt Thaler from the museum staff, both longtime Turkey fans. It is open from Tuesday to Friday 1300 - 1630. There is no catalogue but a leaflet with an excellent short introduction to turkish posters, and a list of the exhibits with designers, dates, and translation of titles. Three catalogues from other turkish poster exhibitions are on sale.

Bettina Richter, Kurt Thaler exhibition organizers

Felix Studinka curator of the poster collection

Karl Wobmann, former curator 1972 -1990

WEB POSTER EXHIBITION - Andres Ramirez, street posters from Mexico

Andres Mario Ramirez Cuevas is a partner, together with Alejandro Magallanes and Leonel Sagahon, in the mexican graphic design studio La machina del tiempo. He is internationally less well known than the other two, because, as Alejandro explained "he prefers to make posters for the streets, and not for the big competitions and yearbooks". Here are some recent political posters from his blog Musica contra el poder (Music against power):

The Virgin of Guadalupe, mexican icon, is wearing the mask of the Zapatistas

Andres Ramirez is incredibly productive, making a poster almost every day, 300 a year. You can find many of his posters all over Mexico City. Indeed, when I checked my digital poster archive for pictures of street posters that I took in 2004, I spotted the following examples:

The entrance of a music hall that is plastered with concert posters and pictures (Ramirez at lower right)

WEB POSTER EXHIBITION - Greek designers illustrate 24 Quotes about design

This web exhibition accompanies a current exhibition in Athens, Greece. The following text and pictures were kindly provided by Dimitris Arvanitis. 24 Quotes about Design Poster exhibition by Greek Designers Association The Greek Designers Association organizes on 1-10 February 2008 a poster exhibition on the theme: "24 Greek Graphic Designers make posters on 24 quotes by famous typographers, artists and theorists as Massimo Vignelli, Paul Rand, Juan Ramon Jimenez, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Maurits Escher, Steven Jobs, Marshall McLuhan..." There was a web exhibition at first, for the site www.hegrade.gr under the direction of Angelos Bakas, who run the project for the 3rd World Congress of Typography and Optical Communication, on June 2007, in Thessalonica.

Nihonten, Japan seen by Lebanese The Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, University of Balamand, organized a workshop, a cultural bridge linking Japan and Lebanon. Japan is well known in Lebanon, obviously through the cliches of sushi, samurai and animation movies to the extension of film directors like Kurosawa and architects like Ando. Nihonten, academically, showed a deeper image of the Japanese culture. Purpose of the workshop The purpose of Nihonten is to promote Japan and Lebanon mutually. In Lebanon, the promotion of Japan is through the introduction and deepening of the Japanese culture, art and design. In Japan, the promotion of Lebanon would be through the work of Lebanese students and their personal vision of Japan. Schedule 12/11 to 27/11, the students followed lectures, exercises and worked on posters under the continuous supervision of the project leader. 28/11, a jury of teachers selected 48 posters to be exhibited 28/11 to 11/12, final checking, printing and hanging the posters 11/12 at 18h, opening of the exhibition 14/12 at 18h, invitation of Japanese officials, and friends of Japan to a reception 16/12, last day of the exhibition Students who followed the workshop 41 students from the school of Decorative Arts, section of Advertising and Graphic Arts followed the workshop. The students were from the following majors: 16 students from the third year of Artistic Direction; 8 students from the third year of Advertising Creation; 12 students from the fourth year of Artistic Direction; 2 students from the fourth year of Advertising Creation; and 3 students from the fourth year of Illustration/comics. The names of the 41 students are: ABI DIB Terry, ABI WARDE Mona, ABOU HAYDAR Jessica, AKL Talal, ASMAR Guy, BAAKLINI Isabelle, BOU CHAYA Antoine, CHAMI Ralph, CHAMIE Maria, CHERFANE Yana, CHOUCHANI Dominique, DOUMIT Ralph, FARRAN Stephanie, FEGHALI Karen, GEMAYEL Paola, GHALI Gabriel, GHRAIEB Louis, IGHNIADES Mia Danielle, HALAL Christelle, HAYEK Caline, KALLAS Rosa Maria, KASSAB Grace, KEYROUZ Sarah, MAFTOUM Marc, MAZRAANI Wissam, MCHEILEH Andre, MECHREF Carine, MOUSHATY Serge, NASSAR Karen, NASSIF Marc, NOUNEH Sabine, RAAD Sandra, RIZK Krystel, RIZK Ramona, SALHAB Roger, SAMMAN Farah, SASSINE Danielle, TAWIL Nayla, ZACHARIOU Souraya Coralie, ZAHR Anthony and ZIADE Christine.

این آقا ناخداست . تو مادی های اصفهان قایقرانه زورق گرافیک اصفهان را میرونه

خسته نباشی ناخدا

A short introduction

When graphic designer and teacher Armin Hofmann was awarded the Art Price of the City of Basel in November 1997, not too many people in Basel knew about him or knew what he got the prize money of 20'000 swiss francs for (about 15'000 US$). Just to be on the safe side, the city councilors arranged for a small private exhibition of some of his posters for the guests of the award ceremony so they could form their own opinion about his work, as the official announcement put it.

However, at his school, the Schule fuer Gestaltung, where he taught graphic design for 40 years until 1986, they still know him very well, and he has the status of a cult figure among students and teachers alike. In many american art schools, his textbook is required reading and his teaching methods and ideas still influence their curriculum. He may be better known in Tokyo or New York than at home and has received high honors from prestigious institutions all over the world.

Art education in the USA
1960, exhibition poster

The local newspaper Basler Zeitung then had the good idea to show some of his posters in its weekend edition of November 22, 1997, and so it was high time for Rene Wanner's Poster Page to also give its tribute to Armin Hofmann, and that's the origin of my third web poster exhibition. These are the posters that were in the paper:

William Tell 1963, Poster on the play by Schiller, where the hero is forced by a tyrant to shoot an apple from his own child's head with his bow. The perspective drawing of the letters TELL lets you feel the flight of the arrow	Municipal Theater Basel 63/64 1963, Theater poster for the whole season. The weekly program was attached to it	Carl Orff, Carmina Burana 1993, Concert poster. The poster was originally designed in 1986, and is used regularly, with different lettering. I saw one on the street last week.
Kunsthalle Basel, Young dutch sculptors 1958, exhibition poster	Kunsthalle Basel, Rothko, Chillida 1964, exhibition poster	Basel Museum of Applied Art, Lace 1969, exhibition poster

Some attach this label to the whole group of graphic designers that ever worked in Basel, from Burkhard Mangold and Niklaus Stoecklin to Herbert Leupin or Wolfgang Weingart and all their students. It is indeed remarkable how many well known graphic designers had their origins in this small city of 250' 000 in northern Switzerland. Others would limit the period to the Armin Hofmann years, possibly including those of his predecessor Emil Ruder.

Still others characterize it by "simplicity, sans serif, color limitation or hard edge". I also like the joking definition of Swiss Style as "Helvetica on a grid" (I am quoting Ken Hiebert and April Greiman, two famous Basel students, a bit out of context).

It may be more instructive to hear what Armin Hofmann himself says about his poster work:

With my simply constructed black-and-white posters, I have endeavored to do something to counteract the increasing trivialization of color, evident since the Second World War on billboards, in modern utensils and in the entertainment industry. (in Armin Hofmann, His Work, Quest and Philosophy )

Whatever the essentials of the Basel School may be, here is an inside look of the Basel School of Design in late November 1997:

2000, Rene Wanner and Gianni Bortolotti (right) in Mexico. The picture is from the Studio Bortolotti web site. Please see the link list for more information on Gianni Bortolotti.

Gianni Bortolotti was born on July 14, 1937 in Castel San Pietro Terme, a small town close to Bologna, Italy. He studied fine arts in Bologna, and architecture in Florence, and gained his first experience as graphic designer in the famous Castiglione studio in Milan, from 1960 to 1965. He then opened his own studio in Bologna, widening his interests to industrial design, visual communication, interior design and architecture. Professor Bortolotti was a sought-after and well-liked teacher and lecturer, both in Bologna and internationally in the USA, Finland, Japan, Argentina, China, and particularly in Mexico. His award winning, distinct poster work brought him recognition in many international collections, competitions and exhibitions, and he remained productive until shortly before his death on December 30, 2007. I personally met Gianni only a few times, in Brno and Mexico, and our verbal communication was not easy, as my italian was even shakier than his english. However, as Gianni was a true communicator, this was no obstacle for him, and we remained in regular, and happy contact over many years. He treated me as an equal, and supported my work generously and excitedly, with posters and pictures and news, and I miss him.

سومين دوسالانه بين الملل خط شـارجه در تاريخ 14 فروردين 87 توسط شيـخ دکتـر محمد القاسمی حاکم شارجه افتتاح شد . در اين دوسالانه 151 نفر از 30کشور شرکت کردند .

در بخش خوشنويسی سنتی علی شيرزای يکی از جوايز را دريافت کرد و از دامون خانجانزاده تقدير شد .

در بخش گرايش هـای نويـن ابـراهيم حقيقـی از ايران جـايزه اول را دريـافت کـرد و از محبـت حجت رنجبر تقدير شد .

در اين نمايشگاه اسـتاد جليـل رسـولی يکی از داوران بيـن المللـی دوسالانه بود . که نمايشگاه انفرادی از آثار ايشان برگزار شد .

نمايشـگاه تحت عنـوان آثـار هنرمنـدان ايرانی ، شـامل آثار ابراهيم حقيقی ، دامون خانجانزاده ، حجت رنجبر و امير شاهرخ فريوسفی در بخش مستقل به نمايش درآمد .

اين دوسالانه تا تاريخ 12 خرداد در شارجه برپاست

مذاکره گرمی در آستانه سال نوآوری وشکوفایی میان دو آهنگر تبریزی در میدان کاه فروشان تبریز در جریان بود قرار شد بعد از عید پیرمرد سمت راست بیاید وبا پیرمرد سمت چپی همکاری داشته باشد

اگه گذرتان افتاد تبریز سر بازارچه شتربان دم گرمابه مغازه آهنگری این جوانان است سر ی به آنها بزنید

خیلی سخته که بتونی کنار همین فرات لب تشنه ای سر از تن جدا راتصورکنی!

سیستم مخابرات وانتقال برق در شهرهای عراق واقعا دیدنی است از یکی میپرسم این سیمها چیه میگه : توعراق اگه یه رشته سیم آسیب دید عوضش نمکنن یه سیم دیگه بجاش میکشن ومیشه همین که میبینید!