EXPLOSIVE MESSAGE WON THE COMPETITION
Berghs student Isabella Wretman took home the first prize in the PrintPower Awards 2024 with her bold interpretation of the theme “freedom of speech”. Her poster “Sprängkraft” (“Explosive Power”) stuck out in an impressive way among the 184 competition submissions. Isabella was awarded the prize of 10 000 SEK.
Hi Isabella! Congratulations on winning the PrintPower Awards 2024! This is a poster competition. What’s your relationship to posters?
- Thanks! I think that the format of the poster is a very strong means of communication. It’s effective and has great potential to arouse feelings and thoughts for a broad public.
This year’s competition theme was “Freedom of Expression”. Tell us how you interpreted the theme?
- Reporters Without Borders’ freedom of press index was the starting point of my idea. The index shows that the state of press freedom and the possibility of working as a journalist is bad in approximately 7 of 10 countries. That’s why I wanted to create a poster that highlights freedom of speech as both a strong force and asset at the same time as the pressure also conveys the threat that freedom of speech is facing in many countries.
How do you hope that your print will be received?
- I’m hoping to be in direct communication with the audience through the motive and visual language of my poster. I want it to stir feelings and thoughts about the value of freedom of speech and that we can never take it for granted.
You’re a first year student in the Communication Design program at Berghs. What attracted you to study design?
- I’ve always had a great interest in visual creation and known that I wanted to educate myself in that subject. I started by studying art and design in high school and that’s where my interest in visual communication and graphic design grew strong. After high school, I worked for two years before I decided to apply to the Communication Design program at Berghs.
What’s ahead for you?
- I still have another year of my program at Berghs and many interesting courses that I look forward to. And right now I’m off to do my first internship period of the program. After graduation, I hope to work with a variety of design projects where I can test different things and continue to develop my skills and be creatively challenged.
PrintPower Awards were held on April 11, 2024 where the competition’s 10 finalists were highlighted.