The Graphic Design Museum believes in design, and posters, as a medium to inspire social change. What you create as an artist, graphic designer or art director can inform, provoke emotion and motivate people to action. It's a great gift. And a gift you can use to inspire change in the world.
They believe the death penalty is a violation of human rights and that it has no place in modern society. And that's what we want to change in 2010. Working with Amnesty International, the Council of Europe, Reporters Without Borders and the World coalition against the Death Penalty to raise awareness of the cause. One poster is a start. But hundreds, thousands, become a movement that cannot be denied.
Bianca Jagger: "As Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador for the Abolition of the Death
Penalty, I am pleased to support poster for tomorrow. Artists are an integral part of the fabric
of society; and if they choose to, they can have a great impact on people's hearts and minds.
They can vividly illustrate the horror of capital punishment. I urge artists to participate in the poster for tomorrow initiative."
Creative Brief
It's simple. The death penalty is a violation of human rights. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
How does that fit with beheading, stoning, hanging, lethally injecting or shooting someone?
The problem is that there's no going back on a death sentence. And in a world where every judicial system makes mistakes, it's inevitable that innocent people will be executed. Which is simply not acceptable. More than two thirds of countries in the world agree, and have banned executions. Sadly, shamefully, 58 still persist in killing people in the name of "justice."
In 2009, countries with the highest number of executions were Iran (with at least 388 executions), Iraq (at least 120), Saudi Arabia (at least 69), and the United States (52).
In China information regarding the death penalty remains a secret, but estimates show that China executes more people than the rest of the world combined.
But there is hope - the number of people being executed around the world appears to be declining. And in December the United Nations will vote on a universal moratorium on the death penalty. It's a vital step towards abolishing the death penalty once and for all.
No matter whether you live in a country that practices capital punishment or not, we have to raise awareness across the whole world that the death penalty is a violation of human rights that has no place in modern society.
Message
The death penalty is not justice. I don't want it done in my name, my country, or our world.
International jury
Michel Bouvet, France
Chen Fang, China
Kiko Farkas, Brazil
Zelda Harrison, USA
Ayse Karamustafa, Turkey
Yossi Lemel, Israel
Alain Le Quernec, France
Saki Mafundikwa, Zimbabwe
Ahn Sang Soo, South Korea
Parissa Tashakori, Iran
Lucille Tenazas, USA
Mieczyslaw Wasilewski, Poland
Call for entries dates
10 April: call for entries opens.
18 July: call for entries closes (noon pacific daylight time).
Awards
poster for tomorrow will reward the best 100 designs (as selected by the jury) by including them in the "Death is not Justice" exhibition, to be held in 100 locations worldwide on October the 10th, 2010. A book about the exhibition will be published. Ten designs, as chosen by the jury, will become part of the permanent collection of a number of prestigious design museums worldwide.
For more information about the awards, please visit the website.