Poster Monday: La Catrina

Poster Monday: La Catrina

Day of Dead
Poster Monday |

Poster Monday: La Catrina

“La Catrina” is the first Poster Monday spot of November and belongs to Gyula Molnár from Hungary. He is a graphic designer and art teacher. His first posters are characteristic Pop Art works, later he switched to drawing and painting in a very detail oriented style. In 1983 he designed a famous Hungarian travel poster, displaying an interesting emblem of the country. His posters are often provocative and erotic. Today he is a member of the Hungarian Poster Association (MPT). Gyula now is retired from teaching but he is still very active as an artist, his newest works focus on provocative topics of sex and politics.

The poster “La Catrina” was made for the collection Calacarteles 5 an event organized by Autopsia Colectiva for the Day of the Dead celebration; that day in Mexico is one of the most important cultural celebrations of the year in which loved ones who have already died are remembered with a rich and colorful event full of symbolic elements among which we find “La Catrina” who is an elegantly dressed skeleton. and it was created by the engraver José Guasalupe Posada as a criticism of people who appear to have or to be something that they are not. The Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico on November 1 and 2.

If you would like to learn more from Gyula Molnár and his work visit his website and If you want to see your design published on Poster Monday visit our submission page

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Poster Monday “To Death With a Smile”

Alvaro_Rego-ToDeathWithaSmile_2017
Poster Monday |

Poster Monday “To Death With a Smile”

For the first Poster Monday spot of November we have a poster coming from Mexico. It was designed by Alvaro Rego and its title is “To Death With a Smile”. Alvaro is a Mexican graphic designer and director of MUMEDI, the Mexican Museum of Design, and is also the creator of the “To Death with a Smile” International Poster Contest and Exhibition. MUMEDI is a multidisciplinary space focused on design, where creativity is exhibited, sold, tasted, experimented, lived, breathed and enjoyed.

The poster concept is a Cempasúchil flower or Marigold flower, that is considered by Mexicans the “flower of the dead”. This is a very important part of the celebration of the Day of the Dead, where the flowers are put on the altars of death, so the aroma will attract the souls of their dead relatives. The petals are flames in form of skulls, and to make it more evident the center skull is kept in white color. After that you get the flower figure and if you have been in touch with the Mexican death tradition, for sure you will understand that it is a Cempasúchil flower of the dead. “When I was 33 years old my heart stopped for 38 seconds, so I was dead for a while, I can relate in a very intimate way to the theme of death.” says Alvaro.

If you would like to know more of Alvaro Rego and MUMEDI you can visit his web page.

If you would like to submit a poster to be featured on Poster Mondays find all the info you need to participate on our submissions page.

, , , , , , , ,

Highlights from the 13 BICM Mexico Poster Biennial

EXPO 3 Exavier EXPO 1 EXPO 4 confe 3 confe 1 confe 4 expo 6 emrys_diademuertos altar_garciamarquez_lo danzaguslo
Biennial, News |

Highlights from the 13 BICM Mexico Poster Biennial

The 13th edition of Mexico´s International Poster Biennial (BICM) took place from October 27th to November 2nd in Mexico City and Morelia.

Winning posters announcement and opening exhibition was held at the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City. Jury members (Nelu Wolfensohn-Quebec, Arnulfo Aquino-Mexico, Antonio Castro-USA, Ronald Curchod-Switzerland, Mark Gowing-Australia, Laura Llópiz-Cuba, Sophia Shin-Taiwan and Parisa Tashakori-Iran) chose this year’s winning posters which you can view here.

Afterwards, 19 Workshops, 19 lectures  and 15 exhibitions from some of the world´s best designers took place in the beautiful colonial city of Morelia at par with the breathtaking celebrations of the mexican tradition “Día de muertos” (Day of the dead); a perfect date to be in Mexico for all the  international attendees!

So many great activities happen at the same time, it makes it difficult to get a glimpse of all of them at once, so we chose some of the highlights from our attending team member Gus Moraislie:

  • Workshop by Diego “Yayo” Herrera from Colombia. His graphic quality and humour were simply amazing; worth mentioning he is one of the nicest persons in the world!
  • Jazz concert hommage to Martha Covarrubias / BICM
  • Nelu Wolfensonh lecture. In which he told us the “secret formula” to make quickly and easily a great poster.
  • Shino Suefusa lecture about Tama University in Tokyo
  • Laura Lllópiz and Pepe Menéndez lecture about Design in Cuba nowadays
  • Parisa Tasakori and Mehdi Saedi lectures. Both sharing a beatiful and interesting view of Iran
  • Fernando Rueda lecture about Puppets. Closing the event with funny video interventions and a play with all the puppets made by his students during the workshops.
  • Graphic Advocacy, Arnulfo Aquino, and Posters about Death (in collaboration with Ecole Intuit-Lab) exhibitions
  • Night of the death in UNLA University: Altars, traditional food, regional dances, prehispanic rituals, performances and great costumes.

Finally, Gus says: “Last but not least what I love about attending BICM and all the great Poster Biennials is the opportunity to meet new friends and reunite with old ones. A lot of the learning takes place on the lectures and workshops; but outside, enjoying a meal, a coffee or a beer friendships and new poster projects are truly nurtured”.

See you in Mexico in 2016!

Photos: Exhibitions and lectures by Lonnie Ruiz; Day of the dead portraits by Emrys Miller; Garcia Marquez altar and prehispanic ritual by Gus Morainslie.

, , , ,