Project: 3nd International poster competition
Category: Graphic Design
Agency: Kostas Kanellopoulos
Client: Graphic Stories Cyprus
Description: In the framework of the 5th Conference on Graphic Design & Visual Communication in Graphic Stories Cyprus invites all the creative people to take part in the international poster contest titled “Graphic Design, Challenging the Perception” and to see their work printed by creating their own postal card. The international contest is part of the 5th Visual Communication Conference in Cyprus that will take place between of March 15-17 2019.
The Creative idea: Design is the common language of millions of people on earth, owes its power and effectiveness to the diversity of its creators, their particular perception and their heterogeneous roots, but knows no boundaries, commitments, religions or green lines. Design has become the most powerful means by which man can shape his environment and thereby, society and himself and cause a real change. Graphic Design has the power to shape, influence, challenge, and eventually change the common perception, the way we see, understand or interpret something. Graphic Design requires creativity and imagination, and these are based on perception. What we perceive is more than what our eyes or ears bring to our brains, it is a product of our own mind. Perception is a combination of what we see, our past experience, and our particular view of a situation.
It is also the ability to see, hear or understand something through our senses and then interpret it using logic, emotion or in any other way, ultimately producing a mental impression.
Perception is not static, but it is altered and shaped, influenced by a number of factors. Visual communication designers have not only the right tools and knowledge but also the responsibility to challenge, influence and change the common perception. The theme of the contest, “Graphic Design, Challenging the Perception”, as well as the respective exhibition, aim to highlight and promote the value of Graphic Design in terms of shaping and challenging the common perception. Participants in the contest are invited to visualize their thoughts, ideas and concerns about Design’s power to shape and challenge the perception, they are asked to challenge the perception.
About the Poster: The title of the work is “The irony of perception” and is a special construction mirror. Through this piece, the audience processes and deconstructs reality with a new perspective of truth “What we see, what we perceive as reality, is what we make of it. A construct based on our own subjective, flawed or even prejudiced ideas. This leads us to a distorted understanding of the world and of the people.” Here the audience doesn’t face a poster but itself and learns to question his subjective truth and his perception. This (fabricated) reality comes into question through a experiential learning method, through an inner dialogue and conflict with oneself with the sole purpose of discovering new perspectives for the world around us. The audience becomes a spectator of itself, engaging in an inner dialogue that will reveal a true understanding of our world, leaving behind the flaws of any popular belief.
