Last year’s challenging question for the competition was “What is a poster?” The works submitted were assessed by comparing their format, illustration or typography, their scope and effect or their freedom of decision-making concerning the content, in order to find possible answers. The jury summarised the aim of the “100 best posters” association as follows: “In the end, it’s always simply about works with an outstanding design that succeed in bringing new angles to the traditional medium of posters.” Every year anew, the quality of the posters is filtered out of the submitted work, and each time the discussion arises as to how commercial they may be, and whether large advertising campaigns also meet comparable criteria. Finally, the competition is a comprehensive representation of the status quo, of current trends in graphics, photography, illustration, and typography in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

The panel adjudicated 384 submissions (of which 212 were from Germany, 136 from Switzerland, and 36 from Austria). An overview of all the winners can be found on the competition’s website.

For the first time, individual posters can be scanned with Artivive, the augmented reality application, which offers expanded layers with animations. In the exhibition, as in the catalogue, motifs are presented in which also a digital, moving version is hidden. After the launch of the exhibition in Berlin, the winning posters will also be on show in other locations, including Nuremberg and Essen in Germany; Vienna in Austria; and Lucerne, Zurich, La Chaux-de-Fonds, and Geneva in Switzerland.

Accompanying the exhibition is the new yearbook, “100 beste Plakate 17” published by Verlag Kettler for 29.90 euros, which is available in bookshops or the online shop from 15 June 2018.