The jury of the 21st International Fair Poster Competition has announced the 2017 winner of this prestigious, one-of-a-kind design competition.
Even in today’s age of digitisation, posters still play an important role in the promotion of the exhibition industry. Organised by UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, and International Fair Plovdiv (Bulgaria), this unique competition has been honouring exemplary contemporary poster art that promotes the international exhibition industry since 1997.
For this year’s competition, trade fair organisers from all over the world submitted more than 100 posters and series of posters promoting specific shows in 17 countries. The jury evaluated all eligible posters based on the following assessment criteria:
• Interpretation of the exhibition topic;
• Design concept;
• Integrity and original presentation of the event’s technical parameters, dates, venue, exhibition name, etc.
A series of posters presented by Bologne Fiere (Italy) and designed by photographer Olivero Toscani Studio, was unanimously chosen as the Grand Award winner 2017. This winning series of six posters was created to promote Cosmoprof, an exhibition targeting professionals in the cosmetics industry in several different countries. The jury considered this series of posters particularly creative.
The complete list of awarded posters is as follows:
Grand Award winner
Series of posters: Cosmoprof by Bologna Fiere (Italy), designed by photographer: Olivero Toscani Studio.
2nd Place
Poster: International Green Week 2017 by Messe Berlin (Germany), designed by creative agency Butter Berlin.
3rd Place
Poster: Vietnam International Café Show – A cup of the world (South Korea), designed by EPPN
Thе Runner up:
UBM India (India): India Nuclear Energy 2016.
At the 84th UFI Global Congress that will be held on 1-4 November 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Grand Award winner will receive a unique statuette created by the Bulgarian sculptor, Yanko Nenov, in honour of their winning poster series. Certificates of recognition will be provided to all winners and the runner-up.
2018 International Fair Poster Competition
The annual International Fair Poster Competition celebrates the most remarkable posters produced by tradeshow organisers 
around the world.
Each year, the competition offers an award for the top posters promoting a specific exhibition, while every other year, industry professionals are also invited to submit their artwork promoting the entire industry as a whole for a second award. In 2018, both of these awards will be given during the competition.
Promoting the power of exhibitions is at the heart of global campaign: Global Exhibitions Day (GED). Since its inauguration in 2016, GED has triggered support from key industry players in more than 70 countries across the globe. For the 2018 International Fair Poster Competition, the organisers have decided to dedicate the award promoting the exhibition industry as a whole to those posters that are produced to promote the power of “Face to Face” in the context of Global Exhibitions Day 2018.
