Design News South Africa

Mandela Poster Project excites international interest

The Mandela Poster Project, which started as the idea of two South African designers to honour Nelson Mandela through a simple social media exercise, now involves scores of designers from more than 45 countries and an endorsement of Icograda (International Council for Communication Design), as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations.
Mandela Poster Project excites international interest

As an independent volunteer initiative, it aims to collect 95 exceptional posters from around the world and then donate them to the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital Trust towards establishing a dedicated children's hospital in Johannesburg. It has already received more than 95 entries.

Says Marilena Farruggia, MD of Icograda, "One can truly appreciate the contribution that a person can make through an initiative such as this. In my eyes, this project gives palpable form to words expressed by Mandela himself, 'A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special' ... Someone special inspired something special and it now resonates worldwide in the design community."

Date of unveiling

The collection will be curated with the final selection to be unveiled online on Madiba's birthday on 18 July. The posters will then form part of a travelling exhibition. Invitations have already been received from Brazil, Mexico, the US, South Africa and China.

The initiative is open to all and entrants need to agree to donate their poster(s) without charge to the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital Trust and allow the trust to exhibit and reproduce copies as part of its fundraising programme.

The trust will respect the intellectual rights of all contributors/creators and will not sell copies of the artwork without written permission.

Entries close on 28 June 2013. Submissions can be mailed to Jacques Lange at moc.acirfai@Lseuqcaj (up to 6MB) or send a transfer link via Dropbox or YouSendIt to the same address for larger files.

For further information, contact Lange or Mohammed Jogie at orp.keewevitaerc@om.

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