On July 30, 1993, Poznań and Chinese Shenzhen officially signed an agreement on friendship between the cities, becoming twin cities. In 2023, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of signing this agreement. On this occasion, two curators, Eric Zhou, director of the Fringe Shenzhen festival, and Mateusz Bieczyński, director of the Poznań Art Week festival, invited 10 designers (5 from each city) to a joint competition for the logo of the cultural exchange program. The anniversary of the signing of the partnership agreement is an excellent opportunity to express hope for further cooperation between the two municipalities in cultural exchange and dissemination projects, further strengthening mutual relations and deepening exchanges in the field of art, design and cultural education.
The event is co-organized by the University of Arts. Magdalena Abakanowicz in Poznań, Poznań Art Week on the Polish side and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center and the Guan Shanyue Art Museum.
About the concept of the design competition for an invitation in the “5+5” format
The aim of the design competition was to showcase the ideas of designers from both cities, deepen mutual understanding and explore the future direction of design through collaboration in the field of culture and art. During the competition, “1+1” design pairs were selected, which will work together to develop a form of artistic dialogue. The creative output of the “5+5” project collaboration will be presented in a series of cultural events covering a 3-year cultural exchange between the cities. The inauguration of the cooperation began on May 6, 2023 with a competition for the design of the “Shenzhen-Poznań Sister Cities 30th Anniversary” logo.
Specially Invited Designers:
Poznań:
Agata Kulczyk
Wojciech Janicki
Piotr Marzol
Marcin Markowski
Grzegorz Myćka
Shenzhen:
1983ASIA
杜峰松 (Du Fengsong)
廖波峰 (Liao Bofeng)
黄扬 (Huang Yang)
王粤⻜ (Huang Yuefei)
(A) Scenario:
Participants: This event started with the invitation of 10 designers (5 from Shenzhen and 5 from Poznań). Works: Each invited designer provided 1 logo design project.
(B) Process:
(1) Invited designers from both cities independently completed their creations within a specified time and submited them to their respective organisations via email.
(2) On the day of the judging, invited designers from both cities holden an online meeting. The submitted logo designs work were voted on by the invited designers and juries to select the best work.
(3) On the day of the judging, the invited designers introduced themselves and explained their work concept. Afterwards, the anonymous voting phase took place. The votes of the invited designers and juries were counted and a comprehensive review was conducted. The final list of selected work was announced.
(4) Each invited designer have had three votes. The three votes were ranked according to preference, including the first (3 points), second (2 points), and third (1 point) choices, and can only be used to vote for other designers’ works.
(5) The two juries from both cities have had two additional voting rights.
(6) The best work was designated as the official logo for a series of subsequent events. All logo works participating in this event will be exhibited to the public online and offline, and used to create related souvenirs.
(C) Results:
- Agata Kulczyk
- Wojciech Janicki
- 1983ASIA
Wojciech Janicki
Agata Kulczyk
Contest participants:
