Posters from Estonia

When the Nordic Sound opens in the Stadthalle on May 3, 2024, it will be under the patronage of Estonia. In order to visually present itself with the signature of the northern European country, the Nordic Sound has launched a poster competition at Estonian art and design colleges. Students were able to submit designs and had the chance to win a cash prize or a festival weekend of their choice. "The response was overwhelming," says this year's festival director Marko Pantermöller from the Institute of Fennistics and Scandinavian Studies. "We have repeatedly organized similar competitions, but with 41 designs from 33 participants from three universities, this is the record. And once again, the high quality of Estonian poster art is clear."

The results can be admired in an exhibition at the city library. The motifs of these poster designs include the variety of artistic disciplines at the festival, impressions of the Baltic Sea, musical instruments, small town idylls, funny animals or even abstract structures that visualize the sound of sound. The intention of the participants to design for an international festival is clear. Estonia's national symbols barely appear and the colors of the Estonian flag were not referenced either. An eight-member jury consisting of the cultural attaché of the Estonian embassy Merit Kopli, Greifswald graphics experts and the Nordic Sound team made the difficult decision to select the winning poster.

The competition was won by the design of Anna-Liisa Sääsk, who studies media design at Pallas University of Applied Arts in Tartu. The artist says about herself and her work: "I have always been fascinated by creating visual worlds and using them to tell stories. I like the freedom in my work, both in terms of media and choice of subject matter, because it allows me to combine different media and layers of ideas. At the moment I am particularly interested in animation, print and performing arts, but I am constantly learning and discovering new areas that appeal to me and I believe that learning to be an artist is a lifelong journey."

Anna-Liisa Sääsk's poster impressed the jury with its fresh colors, its handmade linoleum print look and its pictorial ambiguity. A tower with roots, an antique diver's helmet, fish and a sun are superimposed in different layers. It makes you curious about the festival.