5th Poster Competition Awards 16/11/2019
The 5th international poster competition organized by the Yiannis and Eleni Garedakis Museum of Typography in Chania, has been embraced by artists from around the world. The awards ceremony was held on Saturday, November 16, 2019, along with the opening of the poster exhibition, that will be held at the museum amphitheatre for a year.
The 30 distinguished posters were selected among the 530 valid entries, from 68 countries around the world.
The winners of the competition are:
1st prize Dimitris Lelakis (Greece) with a prize of 1500 euros
2nd Prize Nicos Terzis (Sweden) with a prize of 1000 euros
3rd Breech Asher Harani (Philippines) with a prize of 700 euro
Another surprise-prize was given after a public vote on Lia Merilaine from Finland (700 euros).
The honorary distinctions were awarded to: Jingmeng Bi (China), Alex Egner (Bellingham USA), Trevor Wong (Hong Kong, China), Siddha S Kannur (Mumbai, India), Ivan Mišić (Serbia), Anna Kłos (Poland) , Yen Chu Chian (Taiwan), Giovanni Tavares Pereira (Brazil), Kántor Attila (Budapest, Hungary), Lau Pik Yoke (Malaysia), Erick Ginard (Cuba - Mexico), Alexander Dimopoulos (Athens, Greece), Yimin Luo (China - Canada), Yibing Hu (China), Kerem Acar (Turkey), Irina Goryacheva (Moscow, Russia), Xiaoshen YE (China), Nancy Merou (Athens, Greece), George Patsalides (Cyprus), Maroof Soheili (Kurdistan, Iran) ), Vangelis Argyros (Chalkida, Greece), Zhang Jia Ming (Taiwan), Iia Meriläinen (Finland), Mara Bratanova (Sofia, Bulgaria), Semih Oduncu (Bulgaria), Łukasz Chmielewski (Poland), Maria Begli (Thessaloniki, Greece).
The ceremony was held in the crowded amphitheater of the Museum of Typography with the founder of the museum Yiannis Garedakis emphasizing in his greeting the extroversion nature of the competition.
The jury consisted of:
Yiannis Garedakis (journalist, publisher, founder of the newspaper "Haniotika Nea" and chairman of the Board of the Museum of Typography),
Dimitris Arvanitis (Graphic Desingner, member of AG I-Alliance Graphique International) ,
Lila Kalogeri (illustrator),
Alexandros Kokkolas (graphic designer, professor at Vakalo School of Art and Design),
Spyros Orneraki (cartoonist, illustrator)
Gisis Papageorgiou (cartoonist, illustrator).
Mr. Spyros Ornerakis described the competition as a "treasure", underlining the high level of artistry that existed. He emphasized the difficult task of the committee to decide who would be awarded, and called on representatives of local bodies to support the institution of the competition, which, he stressed, is a global event.
Mr. Alexandros Kokolas spoke about the value and contribution of the Museum of Typography to the education of graphic design students and the preservation of the history of typography while stressing that this is an area that should be supported by all. He characterised the creations of the participants as outstanding and underlined the difficulty of the committee in distinguishing some of them.
Ms Lila Kalogeri said this year's participations in the Poster Contest were perhaps the highest since the institution's inception and noted that many entries that were not distinguished and not included in the top 30 were very good. She also emphasized the artistic integrity of the works and the richness of the visual media used by the participants.
For serious personal reasons, the members of the jury Dimitris Arvanitis and Gisis Papageorgiou were unable to attend the competition, and they sent written greetings, including, among other things, the importance of the competition, the timeless value of the poster and the charm that young people.
A special moment was the greeting sent by the Museum's collaborator, typographer-lithographer and graphic designer Antonis Papantonopoulos, who although hospitalised, managed to send his own message of support to the contest, while describing in a humorous way his personal, multifaceted relationship with the art of the poster.
The winner of the first prize of the competition Dimitris Lelakis, after receiving his prize, spoke about the value of the competition as a step of expression for the young creators while emphasising his international scope.
