Zgraf – the international exhibition of graphic design and visual communications will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary from June 10 to 24, 2025 by organizing exhibitions in the French Pavilion SCZG, the newly opened Serbian Cultural Center in Preradovićeva Street, the AMZ Gallery in Pavla Hatza Street, and educational programs at Algebra Bernays University and other locations in Zagreb. The call for entries to exhibit at Zgraf 13 is open until March 27, 2025.
ZGRAF BEGINNINGS
The initiators of Zgraf in 1975 were the then agile members of ULUPUH; Ivan Picelj, Alfred Pal, Bernardo Bernardi, Nenad Pepeonik, Vladimir Straža, Fedor Kritovac, Mitja Koman, Vahid Hodžić and many other young members at the time. Conceived as a triennial manifestation of graphic design and visual communications, Zgraf has produced thirteen editions in its fifty years of existence, with occasional breaks caused by political turmoil, pandemics and earthquakes. From 1975 until today, the world has become a different place in many ways, and as an event that managed to maintain continuity, Zgraf remains a point of reference and a witness of time, both in design and in the culture of everyday life.
Posters awarded at Zgraf ‘75 – authors Petar Šalić (1) and Slavko Henigsman (2)
One of the first participants of Zgraf ’75, still active in the world of graphic design, Mr. Slavko Henigsman states that the first exhibition had two posters and that the visual identity came from the project of Petar Šalić. All of this, including the work of Mila Klarica, originated in the creative agency Ozeha, where they were employees at the time. One of Zgraf’s posters was exhibited in the selection of the 6th International Biennale of Posters in Warsaw in 1976. Little known information is that, along with Alfred Pal, the co-author of the catalog cover was Goranka Dragnić, who was employed at NAMA at the time, in the marketing department. A detail of her poster on the topic of ecology was used for the cover of the catalog.
HIGHLIGHTED DESIGNERS
Many prominent Croatian and international designers have presented their work at Zgraf’s exhibitions, including Alan Fletcher, founder of Pentagram, the world’s largest design company, Shigeo Fukuda, known for his graphic illusions in his posters, Stefan Sagmaister, known for his provocative design projects, as well as collaborations with pop culture icons, such as the Rolling Stones and Lou Reed. There are also Boris Bučan, Mihajlo Arsovski, Studio Imitacija života and numerous other local authors who have largely shaped Croatian culture over the past decades. The visual identity of Zgraf 13 is signed by studio Kuna zlatica.
Stefan Sagmeister, Lou Reed, album cover, 1996
INVITED DESIGNERS
Again this year, among the numerous invited authors will be some of the biggest names of the world design scene, including: Jessica Walsh, American designer and owner of the creative agency &Walsh, which makes them one of the 1 % of creative agencies owned by women, whose style has been described as bold, emotional and provocative with occasional surrealist flourishes, Neville Brody, known for his typographic experiments and innovations, collected in the series of one of the most widely read graphic publications, “The Graphic Language”, and the well-known Mirko Ilić.
Jessica Walsh, Aizone Campaigns 2011-14
THEME: PLEASURE TO ALL
The umbrella theme of Zgraf 13, “Pleasure to All” discusses the dimensions or prerequisites of the idea of satisfaction and pleasure. What makes us satisfied as individuals compared to what makes us satisfied in professional groups or interest communities? What is it a pleasure to do and how is it a pleasure to participate? What are the priorities of personal and collective satisfaction and do we have them at hand or do we have to create them? Bojan Dmitrović Krištofić postulates satisfaction as the basis of happiness, and happiness for everyone, where design has the role of raising awareness of “a time that, as just one of the planetary communities, we no longer have much of or none at all”, where “design can also participate in achieving happiness, but by no means only for those who live from design or for design.” On the other hand, Boris Greiner discusses the aspects, but also the ethics of achieving professional satisfaction, as well as the different ways in which individuals reach it as part of creative activity: complete indulgence versus restraint and postponement of pleasure.