The Kyiv Posters project was conceived and implemented as part of the exposition at Kyiv design week 2023, organized by Design4Ukraine. We asked talented creatives to make posters with Kyiv’s inscription, in which the artists would reflect their idea of the city: impressions, memories, and reflections on the past, present, and future. This project was demonstrated at the event in Kyiv and Zurich.

This work is a part of the comic “The Plan” which was created at the request of MoMA just two weeks before the full-scale war in Ukraine started. It’s a short personal story about life in Ukraine with the fear of an upcoming big war.

This work was created in Riga for the project “With the little help from my friends”

third illustration of the serie

second illustration of the serie

The publication, edited by Kateryna Mishchenko, includes critical essays by Ukrainian journalists, artists, and researchers reflecting on political and cultural life from 2013 to 2018. The design concept is a transformation of the graphic pattern originating from the avant-garde Ukrainian artists Narbut and Krychevskyi. Through sharp shards, pattern is transforming into a dynamic sound waves, referring to the phenomenon of post-Maidan Rave culture.
Format A3, 24 p.
Photo: Maxim Bilousov

Visual identity of Mala studio, feisty business-minded design collective bringing the commercial and experimental projects to life, on and off the scale. Mala is business-minded, cross-skilled, inter-disciplinary, curiosity-driven, result-oriented, forward-thinking, non-fiction…multi-functional, game-changing… full-service creative crew. But that’s the default) The most important thing is the creating ongoing partnership where people admire each other and don’t wait a minute for the call to end.

Visual identity of Mala studio, feisty business-minded design collective bringing the commercial and experimental projects to life, on and off the scale. Mala is business-minded, cross-skilled, inter-disciplinary, curiosity-driven, result-oriented, forward-thinking, non-fiction…multi-functional, game-changing… full-service creative crew. But that’s the default) The most important thing is the creating ongoing partnership where people admire each other and don’t wait a minute for the call to end.

Visual identity of Mala studio, feisty business-minded design collective bringing the commercial and experimental projects to life, on and off the scale. Mala is business-minded, cross-skilled, inter-disciplinary, curiosity-driven, result-oriented, forward-thinking, non-fiction…multi-functional, game-changing… full-service creative crew. But that’s the default) The most important thing is the creating ongoing partnership where people admire each other and don’t wait a minute for the call to end.

Ukraine is a blooming country. Flowers are the symbol of the country, this is also the symbol of everyone who lives here. In the heart of Ukrainian people there will always be blooming flowers, kindness and love

Ukraine is a blooming country. Flowers are the symbol of the country, this is also the symbol of everyone who lives here. In the heart of Ukrainian people there will always be blooming flowers, kindness and love

On the poster is an image of the famous rooster, a symbol of indomitability and indomitability of Ukraine. Iron fragments fly at him, but he stands, not looking at anything. The idea arose after a photo of the wall of a destroyed house in Borodyanka, on which a kitchen cabinet with a clay sculpture of a rooster hangs, circulated on social networks. The work was printed in Kyiv metro

The poster is dedicated to the Independence Day of Ukraine, which depicts a monument located in Kyiv -Mother Ukraine (Ukraína-máty). The statue depicts flowers, and sunflowers with a necklace, symbols of Ukraine, and elements of our homes in blue. Mother seems to blossom and protect our home.

The circles on the hatch imitate a spiral. In a sign system this denotes the Universe (Hatch = Universe)

Cigarette butts are the dirt people fill the universe with. This is a well in which they spit, and from which they will have to drink

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe” – (Albert Einstein)

Conclusion: Infinity of Human Stupidity

Canvas, carcoal, oil paints, wood.
100×100

It is difficult to realize that the life of Ukrainians will never be the same as it was before the war. Each of us who became victims of these events will never again feel as safe and peaceful as in those times when we did not know what it was like to hear explosions. The war took lives, houses and much more irrevocably.

The poster is dedicated to the Independence Day of Ukraine, which depicts a monument located in Kyiv -Mother Ukraine (Ukraína-máty). The statue depicts flowers and sunflowers with a necklace of symbols of Ukraine

Illustration “Save the flowers of Ukraine” for support of the project dedicated to the preservation of the modernist building Kvity Ukrainy “Flowers of Ukraine” from 1985, located in Kyiv. In 2021, it was partially destroyed by a developer.

Illustration “Save the flowers of Ukraine” for support of the project dedicated to the preservation of the modernist building Kvity Ukrainy “Flowers of Ukraine” from 1985, located in Kyiv. In 2021, it was partially destroyed by a developer.

This work is a statement against objectivization and maltreatment of women. The patriarchal society is accustomed to treat women as a decoration, always demanding of them to be pretty, well-groomed and pleasant to the eye. But this is not what a woman is made for. She is not a toy, she is fed up with having to live up to somebody else’s standards. The image of a faceless woman with lipstick and nail polish that rather look like signs of torture, illustrate the severity of the problem.

Poster design. Work speaks of the shelter as a place where safety can be found. And also about the loss of identity when you, as a refugee, are permanently in a “safe place”.

Illustration “Save the flowers of Ukraine” for support of the project dedicated to the preservation of the modernist building Kvity Ukrainy “Flowers of Ukraine” from 1985, located in Kyiv. In 2021, it was partially destroyed by a developer.

Mariupol is a city in the south of Ukraine, but it was almost completely destroyed by the Russians and is now under occupation. Russian bloggers come there to take an extravagant photo.

Poster for the exhibition of the Kharkiv School of Photography “Kharkiv 18+”. Curated by Sergiy Lebedynskyy. Photo used on the poster: Sergiy Solonsky.