Sad but true: unfortunately we are forced to call off the workshop that was scheduled for the end of April in Tbilisi, Georgia. We are very sorry for this inconvenience and beg pardon to all those who were planning to attend that workshop.
But there are also some great news! The AAS College in Thessaloniki, Greece, will host a new workshop, starting June 18. The instructor will be Antoine Abi Aad of Lebanon. If you live in Greece and you’re a student, a designer or a NGO professional and you would like to participate, send an email at dmd (at) posterfortomorrow.org. You will receive a text based form to fill in and send us back.
 

Draw Me Democracy is a series of poster design workshops organized by 4 tomorrow, the same association that founded and organized poster for tomorrow since 2009. This new project is one of the few global projects that UNDEF, the United Nation Democracy Fund, has ever financed.

The aim of DMD is to help young artists, designers and communication professionals in taking an active role in the democratic process and human rights advocacy initiatives in their own country. It aims to do so by helping them to find their inner creative voice and strengthening their knowledge in the fields of design, social communication and advocacy advertising.

In short, the workshops will empower today’s communicators to make them part of their country's future.

Some may call this plan too ambitious. We call it brave. We call it necessary.

Here are some details: next April and May, Draw Me Democracy will set-up and roll-out 12 workshops, all free of charge and held by outstanding professionals, in 12 cities across several countries in Africa and Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Would you like to take part in one of the workshops or are you just eager to know more? Check out the Draw me Democracy website and register online to one of the workshops.

We finally let it out! It’s the catalogue of our 2011 edition. Opened by a foreword from Irina Bokova, Unesco’s Director-General, designed by dutch maestro Ingrid Van Der Meulen and written by celebrated English author Will Georgi, it makes an outstanding holiday season gift.
What are you wainting for?! Click here to read more about the book and its content, browse the gallery and have access to the online shop.

UNESCO joins poster for tomorrow as a partner for the 2011 exhibitions dedicated to the "Right to Education".

Poster for tomorrow is delighted to announce the new partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This partnership represents a fitting climax the current edition of the contest, which is devoted to the “Right to Education”.

In the words of Irina Bokova, Director-General of Unesco:

“This contest has mobilized some 2700 participants throughout the world and among their contributions 100 posters have been selected which will make it to a catalog book e a globe-trotting exhibition.
This is a great opportunity to wear the colors of education as a fundamental human right in a way that will reach a new and different audience.
It is also a way to send a strong message of solidarity that emphasizes the importance of education. Education is an empowering tool that makes each and every child, boy or girl, man or woman stronger and in so doing enables them to lead an authentic and dignified life and to participate fully in the world around them.
I congratulate poster for tomorrow and each participant for this wonderful initiative.”

The exhibitions will open all around the world on the same day, to celebrate the International Day of Human Rights, with UNESCO as a global partner.

Exhibitions in Bolivia, Botswana, Colombia, Ecuador, Georgia, Ghana, Germany, Guinea, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Marocco, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, Venezuela, Ukraine and USA are already confirmed.

The Poster for tomorrow 2011 “The right to education” catalog book

The book comes in three languages: English, French and Spanish, with a preface by Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. It features the 100 posters selected for the global exhibitions, plus chapters on the Pan African Workshops that poster of tomorrow has been promoting and organizing in 2011 as well as news about our future project “Draw me Democracy” funded by UNDEF (the United Nations Democracy Fund) that will kick off next year.


About UNESCO

UNESCO works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values. It is through this dialogue that the world can achieve global visions of sustainable development encompassing observance of human rights, mutual respect and the alleviation of poverty, all of which are at the heart of UNESCO’s mission and activities.

Today 15th September has been declared International Democracy Day by the UN. No other day would be better for us to announce that Poster for Tomorrow is going to launch a new project: “Draw me Democracy!”, with the financial support of UNDEF, the United Nations Democracy Fund.

This challenging project will span over two years and involve a number of countries around the world, from Latin America to Africa to Asia. It's one of the very few global projects that the UNDEF has ever financed since its foundation. To accomplish its ambitious objectives, the project has been funded for a total of 175.000 USD.

In these countries, we're going to run 12 workshops with the aim of empowering designers and civil society organisations by developing their communication skills.
To read all about the project, please download one of the press release PDFs below, available in a number of languages.

Click to download:
English
French
Spanish
Arabic
Georgian

We are proud to announce that the Council of Europe (Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs) has, for the second year running, granted its financial support to poster for tomorrow.

Having received the Concil of Europe Patronage since its creation, we see the renewal of financial support as a sign of confidence in our actions.

Poster for tomorrow needs your support more than ever. You can become a member of 4 Tomorrow association, buy our iPhone App or simply make a donation.

Nous sommes fiers d’annoncer que le Conseil de l’Europe (Direction Générale des droits de l’homme et des affaires juridiques) a accordé son soutien financier à poster for tomorrow pour la 2e année consécutive.
 
Avoir obtenu le patronage de l'Organisation des 47 depuis la création du Concours, nous voyons dans le renouvellement de son soutien financier un signe de confiance en nos actions.
 
poster for tomorrow a plus que jamais besoin de votre soutien. Vous pouvez devenir membre de l’association, acheter notre l’iPhone App ou tout simplement faire une donation.

This week we've held workshops in South Africa and Tunisia: at the Durban University of Technology, led by Leandro Castelao and at École Supérior des Sciences et Technologies du Design, led by Florence Robert. 

You might have noticed we're doing our best to keep you posted about our activities in Africa. Now we decided to go to the next level and we put together a 90 seconds video to make it easier to understand what we're trying to put together, and why we'd really appreciate people to lend us a hand.

In case you'd like to help us and a donation is out of your budget, please share the video through your Facebook or Twitter account. A single click might get us a long way.

So here's the video. Many thanks go to ESAV Marrakech students, who not only designed the posters featured in the stop motion sequence, but are the clip's protagonists too. Shout-outs also to video editor Fadi Azzi, and voiceover speaker Johanna Worton.

If you were thinking of putting together a blog entry about our project (thank you, we owe you one) you might as well be interested in checking out our new galleries on Flickr. All the pictures are available in high resolution upon request:
Poster gallery and photo gallery of the Morocco workshop held at ESAV, Marrakech.
Photo gallery of the Ghana workshop held at KNUST University in Kumasi.
Poster gallery and photo gallery of the Ghana workshop held at ISAG, Dubréka.

Here's also a little update about the workshop schedule.

Upcoming workshops:

Nairobi, Kenya
Buruburu Fine Arts Institute, 13-19 June
led by Antoine Abi Aad

Gabarone, Botswana
Maru-a-Pula School | 16-20 May
led by Joel Holland

Durban, South Africa
Durban University of Technology, 9-13 May
led by Leandro Castelao

Stellenbosch, South Africa
Academy of Design and Photography, 16-20 May
led by Ruth Klotzel

Harare, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts, 16-20 May
led by Götz Gramlich

Den Den, Tunisia
École Supérior des Sciences et Technologies du Design, 9-13 May
led by Florence Robert

Cities where there are schools that would like to host our workshops,
but we lack fund to do it:

Bamako, Mali
Ouagadoudou, Burkina Faso
Jaunde, Cameroon
Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
Windhoek, Namibia
Johannesburg, South Africa
Kinshasa, Congo
Luanda, Angola
Lusaka, Zambia

In case you'd like to know it, the music we used as a soundtrack for the video comes from 74 year old Ghanian national Ebo Taylor, who recorded it for his first international release: "Love and Death". The track is available as a free download, and the album is worth every penny. Please check it out at: http://www.ebotaylor-loveanddeath.com/ 

At the start of the week we heard from Vincent Michéa, who's just finished his workshop in Dubreka, Guinea. It's fair to say that he's had a slightly different experience to the previous workshops in Morocco and Ghana.

Internet contact was limited, there was no water or electricity for the duration of the week and temperatures were from 30° to 35° plus humidity. The 28 students made their posters by hand and or finished them in Word (that's Microsoft Word).
Click here to check out the poster gallery we posted on our Facebook page. 
 

This was Vincent's brief report:
"The conditions were very tough and without Souleymane's help, things would have been even more complicated. Everything finished as well as was possible, but the students need everything. There's no material, no budget, nothing."

All of this brings home the reality of what we're doing in Africa and why we feel it's so important to do.

We would like to thank Vincent, Souleymane and everyone who helped put the workshop together and we'd like to remind you that you can still donate to make other workshops in Africa possible this year. Please.

Natalia Delgado has just completed her workshop at the Kwame Nkrumah University. It's quite an incredible story. The long and short of it is that she led two workshops of 75 students over a week, but it's a story that can be told much more eloquently by the series of photos we'll attach to this post and this piece of feedback from a student:

"Poster for tomorrow has really been an eye opener. I was really inspired and enlightened about design in general. I think there is a difference between getting stuff in ones head and being able to teach and getting the stuff and finding the appropriate process to teach it. Natalia was able to deliver and to me is the best teacher and designer I have met so far. Her process and technique really work for me. I hope to seeing her some other time with more stuff. It was really fun having her around. Now that she is going I know I can face the challenge out there. I know that."

To say this is why do poster for tomorrow is perhaps stating the obvious, but, well, these sorts of comments are really heartwarming.

We'd like to thank Natalia for her time and effort, her students for their enthusiasm and congratulate everyone on a great week.

In other news, Vincent left for Guinea on Friday. There hasn't been any water or electricity in Duberka since last tuesday, so we wish him and everyone all the best at a difficult time.

 Our Pan-African workshops are rolling…

Today, May the 3rd, has been designated by UNESCO as World Press Freedom day. A free press enables all of us to defend our rights by asking for accountability and transparency from governments and businesses and by exposing corrupt and criminal organisations.

According to Reporters Without Borders, 9 journalists have sacrificed their lives to defend this right since the start of 2010. That’s two journalists a month.

It's an ongoing battle that can have tragic outcomes in those parts of the world where governments are more oppressive. At times it's a subtler phenomenon that nonetheless has a tremendous effect in manipulating public opinion in more consolidated, or “liberal”, democracies.

The focus of our current poster competition "Death is not Justice" is the universal abolition of the death penalty. Although the link might not seem obvious, it's only through the free circulation of information that violations of a citizen's basic human rights, such as State ordered execution, can be brought before public attention and openly debated.

According to Amnesty International's statistics and projections, the death penalty is still largely undocumented in the countries where it is practiced with greater frequency, such as Iran and China. The impossibility to track the phenomenon with precise numbers - and names - poses an enormous obstacle to tackling the issue in an open manner.

On UNESCO's website you can find an interesting interview with Mónica González Mujica (as seen kneeling in the photo taken from amdoc.org, as she was being arrested in 1984), the latest World Press Freedom Award laureate.

Her inspiring investigative journalist work can be also found in Spanish on her association website, CIPER Chile (in Spanish), that promotes investigative journalism to empower Chilean society.