Posters without Borders is an invitational poster exhibition organized by Eric Boelts, Antonio Castro, and Erin Wright showing work by artists from all over the world exploring the topic of immigration.

Images of the earth sent back from space present a planet devoid of the arbitrary borders that define the nations of the world today. Yet, those very borders not only define national boundaries—they define us. We categorize ourselves by our nationality, American, Chinese, Mexican, Lithuanian, etc. and see people from outside our borders as different or “other” even though we share the same ancestors from the earliest Homo Sapiens that migrated from Africa across entire continents 200,000 years ago.

People are still migrating, and, for many of the same reasons that the earliest humans did—to find a better life for themselves and their families. Whether it is to escape persecution, war, famine, disease or just to find a job that will provide the means to live, the basic instinct to survive means there will always be immigrants.

How does immigration affect our human condition? Is it a threat to our security? Does it change the meaning of nationality?

What about the immigrant experience? What does it mean to someone to leave their home and everything they know to go to a strange land, especially one that may not welcome them? Will they be leaving one set of problems, unemployment, hunger, etc., for another—language barriers, persecution, exploitation, victimization, etc.

Openings: Birmingham, Alabama Space One Eleven Friday, September 7, 2013 Reception 6 – 8PM

Tucson, Arizona The University of Arizona Confluence Center Date TBA

El Paso, Texas University of Texas, El Paso Date TBA

Here are the desginers who participated and their amazing posters. Enjoy them here but make sure you wont’s miss the shows !!!

Antonio Castro

Antonio Castro H. is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at The University of Texas at El Paso. He received his BFA in graphic design with a printmaking minor at The University of Texas at El Paso and his the MFA in Visual Communications at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Aside from teaching, Castro has been producing successful design solutions for companies such as Bravo Networks, Independent Film Channel, American Movie Classics, El Paso Chile Company, Cinco Puntos Press, Stanley and Gerald Rubin Center for The Visual Arts among others. Prior to this Castro worked as a Graphic Designer for Mithoff-Burton Partners in El Paso Texas and as a Senior Designer/Art Director at Parham Santana in New York City.

Antonio Castro’s work has been published in various graphic design publications such as, Graphis “New Talent” book, Print Magazine, among others. Castro has also participated in several international poster events such as, the 2nd international Poster and Computer Animation Competition “Anti AIDS-Ukraine”, the International Poster Biennial in Bolivia, the International Poster Biennial in Mexico, and most recently his work was in included in the Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition (CIIPE) and Graphic Advocacy: International Posters for the Digital Age 2001–2012.

Eric Boelts

Eric loves posters – especially creating them. After getting a B.F.A. and a M.B.A., both from the University of Arizona, Eric spent some time teaching in Arizona and Colorado while running several design businesses. His current venture, Brain Bolts, LLC, affords him the opportunity to create all facets of design and advertising, from logos to brochures, and interactive projects to posters for a variety of industries including technology, aviation, healthcare, and the arts. Eric currently resides in Boulder, Colorado and is married with two children, runs long distances, paints with watercolor, is addicted to basketball and can both draw with a pencil and use a spreadsheet.

Erin Wright

Erin Wright earned his Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design and Illustration at the University of Arizona and his BFA in Graphic Design at Colorado State University. He has taught design at LSU, the University of Montevallo, and is currently a Professor of Design and former Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

He has over 25 years of experience as a designer and teacher winning several local, regional, national, and international awards for design. Wright’s work has been exhibited at the Society of Illustrators Museum in New York first as a student and then as an educator. Under the nom de guerre Asylum his work has appeared in nationally and internationally competitive design annuals and compendiums such as PRINT Regional Annual, Creativity, New Logo World (published in Tokyo), and American Corporate Identity.

Erin has also designed posters shown in competitions and exhibitions around the world including: Warsaw, Poland; Brno, the Czech Republic; Kyunggido, South Korea; the Bienal Internacional del Cartel en México; the Mark X International Poster Invitational in the Republic of China; the Golden Bee in Moscow, Russia; the Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition (CIIPE); the Bienal del Cartel Bolivia BICeBé; the Trnava Poster Triennial in Slovakia; the International Invitational Poster Festival in Turkey; and the 56th Annual Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington Show in Washington, D.C. as well as Graphic Advocacy: International Posters for the Digital Age. He was asked by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad to submit 5 posters to the “Sailing in Qingdao Poster Annual” as part of the celebrations leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games.

He has been awarded Honorable Mention at both the 2nd and the 3rd International Socio-Political Poster Biennale in Auschwitz, Poland.

His posters are in several collections including the Robert Irwin archive at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; “Fourth Block” International Triennale of Eco Posters in Kharkov, Ukraine; and The International Poster Collection at Colorado State University.

Erin has also won several Gold and Silver ADDY Awards including Designer of the Year and Illustrator of the Year at the Birmingham ADDY Awards.

Alejandro Magallanes

Alejandro Magallanes, Born 1971 in Mexico City, graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas (UNAM) and works as an independent graphic designer. His practice specializes in doing books, posters, animations, museography, web design and illustrations for cultural institutions. Alejandro has written nine children’s books and published the book ¿Con qué rima tima? as part of a poetry collection for Almedía Publishing House. There have been published three books of his design and poster work in China, Spain, and Germany. He has been a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale since 2004.

Andrew Lewis

Andrew Lewis is an internationally recognized Canadian art director-designer acknowledged for award-winning corporate identities, branding, packaging, poster art and multi-media applications. A wide-ranging portfolio of prestigious clients includes such well-known companies as Perrier, Starbucks Coffee, the Converse, and VISA. Andrew Lewis has had his work included in numerous international collections, including the French National Library, the Permanent Collection of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., the International Poster Biennial in Mexico City, and the Merrill Berman Collection in New York City. He has also been a guest speaker at various design conferences, poster biennials and universities in Canada, the USA, Central & South America, Europe and Asia. To date, Andrew Lewis Design has designed over 675 posters,150 brands and continues to work from his studio on Vancouver Island, Canada.

Audra Buck-Coleman

Associate Professor of Design at the University of Maryland.

Buck-Coleman’s professional design work has been exhibited across the United States and abroad and has been recognized by AIGA, the American Advertising Federation, Graphis, HarperCollins, and the University & College Designers Association, among others. Her design research focuses on social innovation and the ethical considerations of today’s design practice.

Buck-Coleman has written, art directed, curated, designed, authored, and directed numerous design projects, including Sticks + Stones, an international multi-university collaborative graphic design project that investigates stereotyping and social issues. She has presented her research across the world including the 2009 Icograda IEN Conference in Beijing, the 2010 Icograda Design Education Manifesto Conference in Jinan, China, the 2012 Participatory Innovation Conference in Melbourne, Australia, and the 2012 Design Research Society conference in Bangkok, Thailand as well as several locations in the United States including the 2007 College Art Association’s conference in New York and the 2010 AIGA Design Education conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. She recently co-curated Network of Mutuality: 50 Years Post-Birmingham, a traveling exhibition that presents provocative works that address the injustices of 1963 and today’s contentious-yet-critical issues of race, representation, and otherness.

Before joining the faculty at University of Maryland, Buck-Coleman taught at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a Bachelors of Journalism from the University of Missouri.

Bircan Ak

Bircan Ak graduated from Izmir Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Buca Education, Department of Graphic Design. She worked as a graphic designer in Izmir, as an art teacher to several middle and high schools from 1992 to 1999. She was also a member of Sivas Cumhuriyet University Faculty of Education, Department of Fine Arts as a lecturer in graphic design. She started to work at Istanbul Marmara University in 2004. She finished masters program at Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts Department of Graphic Design and her thesis was published in 2008.

She still works in Istanbul Marmara University where she is also a doctoral. student. The title of her thesis is “Gender in Graphic Design”.

Ak has participated in many national and international exhibitions. She also studies monoprints and has planned an exhibition of her monoprints in Turkey. She has designed many posters about social topics.

She lives in Istanbul, Turkey.

Carlos Manuel González Manjarrez

Graduated in Graphic Design and master in Advertising with a research titled: In search of Mexican graphic design identity. His professional experience is related to creative art direction in advertising agencies and professor in 12 Mexican universities. Actually he is a creative director at his own company: CG Design.(www.cgdesign.com.mx) and Director of Design and Visual Communication at Marist University of Querétaro.

Some awards include: Silver prize in Nagoya Design Do! 2002. Gold in poster at the XII Quórum Prize. Winner among 10 best Photos: magic of Nature, organized by Epson. Selected 5 times at International Poster Biennial in Mexico. His work has been published in design magazines and newspapers.

He had exhibited in collective and individual exhibitions in 35 countries all over the world with exhibitions such as: Social Designers, Agitators of our conscience. Commitment in graphics, Voices in Freedom, Graphic Imperative: 25 Years of International AIDS Awareness Posters 1985-2010.

In 2007 he coordinated exhibition of Mexico and Japan: Unite for Children, Unite Against Aids and HIV with support from Organization of Advertising Creation (OAC), UNICEF, International Design Center (IdcN) and International Poster Biennial in Mexico (BICM). Recently he organized with Mexico poster biennial a world design congress in 2012 at Querétaro. He had been jury of several design and poster competitions in Mexico.

Cedomir Kostovic

Born 1952 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He earned his BFA and MFA degrees from the Sarajevo Academy of Fine Arts, where he taught graphic design until 1991. Invited as an Artist in Residence, he spent one year at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Since 1992 he has been teaching graphic design and illustration classes in the Department of Art and Design at Missouri State University, where he now holds the position of Professor.

In addition to teaching, Cedomir’s professional activities include: creative graphic design in commercial, cultural and social contexts; organizing international poster exhibitions; publishing critical essays and articles on graphic design, and presenting lectures and workshops at various institutions.

He has been active on the international poster scene since 1980, and has exhibited at most major poster events in Poland, France, Belgium, Finland, Russia, Check Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Israel, Mexico, Japan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, China, Iran, Taiwan, Turkey, South Africa, New Zealand, Brazil, Great Britain, Argentina, Bolivia and the USA.

His work has been awarded with over hundred national and international prizes and featured in many books, catalogs and periodicals, which deal with contemporary graphic design.

Cedomir’s posters are included in prestigious poster collections worldwide.

Chaz Maviyane-Davies

Chaz Maviyane-Davies has been described by the UK’s Design magazine as “the guerrilla of graphic design”. For more than three decades the award-winning, controversial designer’s powerful work has taken on issues of consumerism, health, nutrition, social responsibility, the environment and human rights. He has studied (MA, the Central School of Art and Design in London) and worked in Britain, Japan, Malaysia, the US and Zimbabwe, his country of origin. From 1983 until recently he ran the renowned design studio in Harare, Zimbabwe, The Maviyane-Project.

Due to adverse political conditions in his homeland and the confrontational nature of his work, Maviyane-Davies moved to the USA in 2001, where he is currently a Professor of Design at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. As well as being published in numerous books, international magazines and newspapers, his work has been exhibited extensively and is included in several permanent collections at various galleries. In 2009 he was conferred an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Elizabeth Resnick

Elizabeth Resnick is a Professor and Chair of Graphic Design at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, Massachusetts USA. She earned her B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Professor Resnick served on the chapter board of AIGA Boston from 1989–2005 organizing numerous public events. From 2003–2005 she served on the AIGA National Design Education Steering Committee. She received AIGA Boston’s 2007 Fellows Award in recognition to her service to her community.

Professor Resnick is a passionate design curator who has organized six comprehensive design exhibitions, most with co-curators: Russell Mills: Within/Without (1991) with Teresa Flavin; Dutch Graphic Design: 1918-1945 (1994) with Alston W. Purvis; Makoto Saito: Art of the Poster (1999) with Jan Kubasiewicz.; The Graphic Imperative: International Posters of Peace, Social Justice and The Environment (2005) with Chaz Maviyane-Davies and Frank Baseman; Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of International AIDS Awareness Posters 1985–2010 with Javier Cortés (2010); and Graphic Advocacy: International Posters for the Digital Age: 2001–2012 (2012).

Her publications include catalogs for the exhibitions mentioned above; “Design for Communication: Conceptual Graphic Design Basics” for John Wiley & Sons Publishers (2003), and “Graphic Design: A Problem-Solving Approach to Visual Communication for Prentice-Hall Publications” (1984). A new book “Developing Citizen Designers” is currently in process.

Professor Resnick writes occasional commentaries, event reviews, and has published interviews with prominent designers and design educators, published in EYE Magazine (UK), AIGA Journal of Graphic Design (USA), Graphis Magazine (USA) Graphics International Magazine (UK), TipoGrafica Magazine (Argentina) and IDEA Magazine (Japan).

Fang Chen

Fang Chen is a professor of graphic design at The Pennsylvania State University. He graduated with a Bachelor of graphic design from Hubei Institute of Technology and received his MFA in graphic design from Hubei Academy of Fine Arts.

Chen’s work has been exhibited worldwide, and he has won several awards, including first prize at the 9th Chaumont Poster Festival of France, top prize at the 11th Colorado International Poster Biennale of the United States, grand prix at the 4th Trnava Poster Triennial of Slovak Republic, gold award at the 1st Hong Kong International Poster Triennial of China and first place at the 4th International Patio Brasil Environmental Humor Show of Brazil, etc. His work is in the permanent collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, Die Neue Sammlung in Munich, The Museum of Modern Art in Toyama and many others.

His work has been published in hundreds of periodicals and books including Art Actuel (Paris), Communication Arts (Palo Alto, CA), Graphic Design History (Bratislava), Kak (Moscow), Design Issues (Cambridge, MA), Design Trend (Shanghai), DESIGNnet (Seoul), Proyecto Diseño (Bogota), Revista Wide (Rio de Janeiro) and The UNESCO Courier, etc. Feature articles about Chen have appeared in China Photography and Art & Design (Beijing), World Graphic Design (Merrell publishers Ltd, London), New Masters of Poster Design (Rockport publishers Inc, MA), Idea (Tokyo), Novum (Munich), Print and Graphis (New York).

Finn Nygaard

Born in Denmark 1955. Finn Nygaard has created posters, illustrations, graphic design and corporate identity programmes and colour consultings for Danish and international companies.

Workshops, lectures, and member of international juries around the world. One-man exhibitions in major galleries and museums all over the world, most important IdcN, Japan; Modern Art Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia; The Danish Poster Museum, Denmark; Galleri Fine-Art, Nagoya, Japan; National Museum Poznan, Poland; Pallfy Palais in Bratislava, Slovakia; The Danish Museum of Art & Design, Denmark; The Museum of Printing History, Houston Texas, USA; Galleria Universidad Maristara Querétaro, Mexico; Milli Reasürans Art Gallery, Istanbul Turkey.

Finn Nygaard is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale, AGI.

Frank Arbelo

Frank Arbelo is a Cuban graphic designer/illustrator who lives in La Paz, Bolivia. In 2003, he won first place in the category C at the International Poster Biennial of Bolivia BICeBé and in 2006, he won first place in the category D at the International Poster Biennial of Mexico.

In 2007, Frank Arbelo won first place for the design of a logo commemorative of the 200 years Anniversary of the Independence of Bolivia.

In 2009, Frank Arbelo was one of the jurors at the 3rd International Poster Biennial of Bolivia BICeBé and participated in the poster competition poster for Tomorrow, his work was amongst the 10 finalists. He also won the bronze medal for a poster he designed for the contest of Autism Posters in Italy.

Frank Arbelo’s work was published in the books, Latin American Design (2008) and Illustration Now 4 (2011) both published by Taschen.

In 2011 and 2013, Frank Arbelo’s work was included in the Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition (CIIPE).

n 2013, his work was amongst the 10 finalists at the International Illustration Contest COW in the Ukraine.

Most recently, Frank Arbelo illustrates Bolivian Newspaper La Razón.

Jackson Boelts

Jackson Boelts has been an artist educator, designer and for over 30 years, and he has won over 400 awards for his work as an artist and designer. He has exhibited his work in Moscow, Mexico City, Berlin, Warszawa and numerous locations nationally.

Joe Scorsone and Alice Drueding

Joe Scorsone and Alice Drueding (Scorsone/Drueding) have been designing posters together since 1986. Joe Scorsone has a BFA from The University of Buffalo and a MFA from The University of Illinois, both in Graphic Design. Alice Drueding has a BA in Art History from Brown University and a BFA in Graphic Design from Tyler School of Art of Temple University. Both are faculty members in the Graphic & Interactive Design program at Tyler School of Art of Temple University. Their posters have appeared in many national and international publications and exhibitions including Graphis, Print, How, “The Design of Dissent” by Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilic, “Green Patriot Posters” edited by Edward Morris and Dmitri Siegel, the International Poster Bienniale in Warsaw, Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition, The International Biennial of the Poster in Mexico, Graphic Advocacy: International Posters for the Digital Age 2001–2012; Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of International AIDS Awareness Posters 1985–2010; Got the Message? 50 Years of Political Posters; Up Against the Wall: Posters of Social Protest; The Graphic Imperative: International Posters for Peace, Social Justice and The Environment 1965–2005. Their work has received numerous awards, and is in permanent collections around the world.

John Gravdahl

Master of Fine Arts, Syracuse University Bachelor of Fine Arts, Colorado State University. Professor Graphic Design, Department of Art, Colorado State University. Co-Director, Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition. Owner/Designer/Illustrator, Propeller Press

Creative focus on poster design and book illustration. Recent work includes poster art for cultural events and social awareness and two children’s picture books.

International exhibitions: Beijing, Bolivia, Brno, Lahti, Mexico City, Moscow, Pecs, Rzeszow, Sofia, Taipei, Trnava, Warsaw, Graphis, Icograda Galleria.

John Stobbe

John Stobbe is an MFA student in the School of Art’s Visual Communications program at the University of Arizona. His work is situated at the intersection of art and information, exploring how the materiality of everyday life can be meaningful and beautiful. His thesis project, The Things They Carried, highlights the ordinary, humble, and personal items carried by migrants who have perished while attempting to cross one of the world’s harshest landscapes. John has won numerous awards and his work has been displayed at the University of Arizona and the Washington Office on Latin America. When not tinkering on a design project, John enjoys skateboarding, watching zombie movies with his wife, and playing with his dog. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Keith Dixon

Luba Lukova

Internationally recognized, New York-based Luba Lukova is regarded as one of the most distinctive image-makers working today. Whether by using an economy of line, color and text to pinpoint essential themes of the human condition or to succinctly depict social commentary, her work is undeniably powerful and thought provoking.

Lukova’s work has been widely exhibited internationally and in the United States. Solo exhibitions include UNESCO, Paris; DDD Gallery, Osaka; La MaMa Gallery, New York; and the Art Institute of Boston. She has received commissions from Time, Sony Music, Canon, and Harvard University. Her many awards include the Grand Prix Savignac at the International Poster Salon in Paris, the Gold Pencil from The One Club in New York, and Honor Laureate at the International Poster Exhibition in Fort Collins, CO. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; the Library of Congress; and the World Bank. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Social Justice poster portfolio containing visual reactions to many of the pressing issues of our time. Her new book, Graphic Guts (Clay & Gold), featuring her social commentary art will be published later this year.

Lukova holds an honorary doctorate from the Art Institute of Boston.

Mark Mitchell

Mark Mitchell is a copywriter/designer living in Boulder, Colorado. Prior to pondering the significance of shadows on the wall, he was Creative Director at mph Strategic Brand Communications. He now inhabits the dank bowels of the night digitally lamenting the loss of graphic design’s role in popular, advertising and corporate culture – an escalating loss powered by the emergence of graphics for nothing and clicks for free.

Marta Granados

Marta Granados is a Colombian graphic artist who graduated from the Universities Javeriana and Los Andes in Bogotá. She pursued further studies at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and the Saint Martins School of Arts in London. Upon returning to Colombia she completed major projects for the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Museum of Modern Art in Bogotá, The Iberoamerican Festival of Theater, The Bogotá Poster Biennial CCB, The Graphic Group Op, and The Philharmonic Orchestra of Bogotá. She also worked with the Mayor’s office of Bogotá, Antanas Mockus.

Her inspired chromatic work is closely linked to the cultural development of her country, and provides an exemplary visual demonstration of Colombian identity.

Her work has been featured in a major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá. She has served as a member of the international jury for poster biennials in Chicago, México, Teherán, and Warsaw. She has been a participant in most of the leading poster biennials in the world including Poland, Finland, Colorado, Toyama, and Russia.

For many years Marta has held the Chair and Professor of Design at the Fine Arts Faculty of the National University of Colombia and has published two books of her work.

Matthew Bouloutian

Matthew Bouloutian is an award-winning designer and illustrator. He is the creative director of Modern Good, a design studio near Philadelphia, specializing in identity development for clients ranging from the arts to finance.

Matthew established his freelance practice in 2003, while working and teaching in New York City. His clients have included Metropolis Magazine, New York Magazine, USA Networks, Museum of Arts and Design, Stewart Tabori and Chang, Penn Mutual Life Insurance, Pig Iron Theatre Company, The Mann Center for the Performing Arts and BalletX. He taught design as an adjunct professor at The School of Visual Arts and Parsons The New School for Design. Previously, Matthew worked at Platinum Design as a co-creative director, working with Saks Fifth Avenue, Pantone Inc., and ESPN. Matthew is a proud graduate of Tyler School of Art where he graduated with the top portfolio award in 1999.

Matthew believes that a healthy design process should open a designer’s heart.

When not designing he plays a mean game of wiffle ball with family and friends and struggles to communicate to the non-skateboarding world how beautiful an Ollie is.

Michael Thompson aka Freestylee Artist Without Borders

Freestylee is a graphic designer and artist, who was born in Jamaica. He studied graphic design in the early 1980s, at the Jamaica School of Art in Kingston, Jamaica. He is founder of the successful International Reggae Poster Contest along with co-founder Maria Papaefstathiou.

Freestylee is described as a “Creative Activist” due to the many social topics his poster art captures. His emphasis on “Social Design” as a powerful tool to achieve his goals – embracing positive ideas, messages, and outside the box solutions. His poster art are a constant reminder that art can help spark change. Michael uses his art effectively with social media to stimulate awareness globally; to engage conversation about the pressing issues affecting mankind; clean water crisis, war, poverty, migration, inequality, the environment and many more. He also design posters celebrating and promoting the positive impact Jamaican popular culture, in particular Reggae music and has started a global campaign to establish a Reggae Hall of Fame museum for Kingston, Jamaica.

Michael’s poster art have attracted much international attention and have been exhibited Internationally; Reggae Movement Exhibition at YAAM, Berlin, Germany 2011, Freestylee – artist without borders at the Drum Art Center, Birmingham UK 2012, Rototom Sunsplash Freestylee Exhibition 2012 Benicàssim, Spain, Green+You, South Korea, Dumlupınar University, International Invitational Poster Festival, Turkey, Graphic Advocacy, Pratt’s Manhattan Gallery, NYC, Allentown Art Museum and at the National Gallery of Jamaica.

In addition to Michael social design activities, he is also a design consultant and have worked with major clients including Fortune 500 companies and civic organizations; Eastée Lauder, Clinique, Citi Bank, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, News about Sanofi-Aventis, National Urban League, and Americans for the Arts.

You can learn more about Freestylee’s poster art at www.freestylee.net.

Pekka Loiri

Studio Original Loiri Oy Graphic Design Studio

Studio Original Loiri Oy specializes in designing graphical identities for corporations and organizations, design of corporate signs, labels and logos as well as designing books, packaging and posters.

Apart from graphic design, Pekka Loiri has been a pioneering teacher in his sector. Loiri was teacher and headmaster at the MG-School for Advertising Graphic Designers in Helsinki and for twenty years served as senior lecturer at UIAH, The University of Art and Design in Helsinki.

Loiri has worked as a visiting professor and offered lectures and workshops at art and design schools all over the world, for example China, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Taiwan and all the Nordic countries.

Pekka Loiri has staged dozens of solo exhibitions around the globe and additionally his works are part of numerous international collections. He has also worked as a jury member for several international exhibitions and competitions. Furthermore, he is listed as graphic designer in the reference book “Who’s Who in Graphic Design in the World”.

Loiri has been awarded international prizes, i.a. at the International Poster Biennale in Lahti, ISPA Playbill Exhibition in New York, the Colorado Poster Biennale, the Osnabrück Theatre Poster Exhibition, the Mexico Poster Biennale, the Prague Solidarity Exhibition, the AUG-Virtual Biennale in Prague, the Trnava Poster Triennale, the Humour and Satire in Arts Biennale in Gabrowo, and the Ningbo International Poster Biennial.

Loiri is a Icograda Excellence Award winner. He’s awarded the Finnish national Design Prize and a prize by the Finnish Culture Foundation. He has also been elected the Finnish Graphic Designer of the year. Graphic design organization Grafia has honoured him the Platinum Top award.

In 2010, Pekka Loiri received the Pro Finlandia medal from President of Finland Tarja Halonen.

Phil Risbeck

Phil Risbeck was born in the United States and teaches graphic design in the Art Department at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, where he is a University Distinguished Professor. He received BFA and MFA degrees from the University of Kansas, and worked with Herbert Bayer in Aspen, CO. He is co-founder and co-director of the Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition. He has won medal awards in competition, and has had solo exhibitions in Moscow, Paris, Riga, Porto, Warsaw, Beijing, Wuhan, Cerveira, Havana, Bogota, Rosario, Rio de Janeiro, Aspen, Denver and Fort Collins. His work is included in permanent collections of poster museums in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. He has exhibited in competitive and invitational exhibitions in Poland, Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Australia, Russia, Japan, Cuba, China, Ukraine, France, Portugal, Bulgaria, Mexico, Bolivia and the US. He has served on juries for international exhibitions in Warsaw, Moscow, Kharkov and Mexico City. He has lectured about his and his students’ work, and conducted master classes and workshops, at numerous venues in the US and abroad.

Renato Aranda

Renato Aranda, born 1970 in Mexico City. He graduated from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City. Renato has taught at various universities. He has imparted several workshops and lectures in France, Venezuela and more than 20 universities across Mexico.

Renato has had several solo shows in Paris, Mexico City, Puebla and Jalapa. He has also participated in several collective exhibitions in Barcelona, Milan, Argentina, Colombia among others. Renato’s work has been selected by the most prestigious poster competitions around the world such as the ones held in Tomaya, Warsaw, Brno, Chaumont, Sofia, Mons, Colorado, Lathi, Bolivia and Mexico.

Renato has been awarded several national and international accolades. To mention a few, in 2005 he was awarded First Place at the 2nd International Poster Biennial in Bolivia, in 2004 the Bronze Medal at the 8th International Poster Biennial in Mexico, in 2003 Award Winner at the 13th Colorado International Invitation Poster Exhibition in Colorado, USA, and in 1998 he was awarded the Bronze Medal at the 5th International Poster Biennial in Mexico. Renato has also been awarded several accolades for his editorial design works.

Renato has been working as an Art Director in the area of editorial design since 2006.

Susana Machicao

A Bolivian designer and visual communicator, Susana runs her own studio and has participated in several design projects and art exhibitions.She is the Coordinator of Bolivia Poster Biennial, BICeBé; of Tipos Latinos Latin American Biennial of Typography in Bolivia and member of the Comittee of the Iberoamerican Design Biennial of Madrid. She is also Founder and Director of Bolivian Graphic Designers and Designers Women project, Juror, Lecturer and Workshop Instructor.

Her work has been published in “Latin American Graphic Design”, “Logo Design 2” and “Stationary Now!” of TASCHEN; “Basic Logo” of BOOK INDEX; “Design Elements: Color Fundamentals” of ROCKPORT PUBLISHERS; “Damn Good” in Hexanine/HOW Publishers and others.

Susana’s posters and work have been exhibited in Mexico Biennial of Poster, Iberoamerican Design Biennial of Madrid, the Biennial of the Islamic World in Iran, International Salon of Art SIART, Gallery of the BUAP in México City as well as in France, South Korea, Poland, Portugal, Italy, USA, India, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Iran and Ukraine among others.

Designer Guest of the CIIPE Colorado Biennial 2011 and 2013.

Ted Mauseth

As the principal of Mauseth Design, LLC, Ted has directed designs for major entertainment & consumer products clients including Pepperidge Farm, Food Network and the Hachette Book Group.

Prior to the formation of Mauseth Design, LLC, Ted studied at Michigan State University, The Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, and earned a Masters in Fine Arts in Graphic Design at The Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Ted established his professional design foundation in New York, holding senior level positions at Rainbow Media Inc. and Parham Santana.

He’s maintained a strong network in the creative community having served as an adjunct faculty member of Parsons The New School for Design and as a chairman of the Type Directors Club. He lives in Hoboken with his wife and two sons.

Yossi Lemel

Yossi Lemel was born in 1957 in Jerusalem Israel.

He is a political poster artist, creative director a lecturer and a teacher, graduated and taught at the “Bezalel” Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem.

Lemel is a partner in the Lemel-Cohen Creative Agency in Tel-Aviv. Among The agency’s clients: Branding for Amnesty International, Greenpeace the Mediterranean. Civil rights Organization Israel, The Museum for Islamic arts, Jerusalem, The Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem, The Ministry of the environment, The Ministry of culture and sport, the National Library and branding for commercial clients such as Altshuler Shaham, Delek Group,

RE/MAX, Dodge RAM, and many more.

Co-curator of the International traveling exhibition and book “Both Sides of Peace” Israeli and Palestinian posters, Museum of Contemporary Art, Raleigh, North Carolina since 1996.

A jury member in Biennials of Moscow, Paris, Venice, Milan, Chicago, Mexico City, and invited guest lecturer in Universities and colleges in Raleigh, Boston, Minneapolis, El Paso ,Seattle, Morgantown, Corvallis, Milan, Istanbul, Athens, Stockholm and more.

Had numerous of social and political workshops in universities around the USA, Mexico, Turkey, Sweden, Italy and Israel.

Lemel has had 18 solo exhibitions in cities such as Berlin, Hamburg , Denver, New Orleans , Istanbul, Casale Monferrato, Poznan, Stockholm and Jerusalem.

Awards include the Grand Prix at the 1st Korean poster Biennale; the Gold medal at Promax Canada; a Gold Medal at the Mexico Biennale; The Golden Bee Award Moscow; silver medal at the Brno Poster Biennale, The Czech republic; 3 silver medals in Mons Poster Triennale, Belgium and 70 others.

A book about his design work “Design+Life” has been published in China (Lingnan Publishing 2003). His works are part of the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Musee de la Publicite, the Palais du Louvre, Paris, the Neue Sammlung in Munich, the Museum fuer Kunst und Gewerve in Hamburg and the National Museum in Poznan, Poland.

Both Lemel parents were Holocaust survivors from concentration camps a fact that influenced him in his career as a human rights and environmental activist.