7th International Reggae Poster Contest – Winners Announced

7th International Reggae Poster Contest

2020 Winners Announced

The International Reggae Poster Contest is pleased to announce the top 100+1 winners of the 7th Contest. Six hundred and sixty-seven designers participated this year, sending 1100 posters from 79 countries. The broad range of countries represented confirms yet again the global reach of Jamaican culture. For example, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Chile, China, Cyprus, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. Four designers from Jamaica submitted 7 posters but, this year, they were not among the winners. The 100+1 posters can be viewed at the International Reggae Poster Contest website.

The Contest comprised Professional and Student categories. Of the 100 winners, 60 are in the Professional category and 40 are Students. The winners in the Professional Category are Fonzo Moto from Germany, first place; Sem Smirnov from Russia, second; and Sebastian Aravena from Chile, third. In the Student Category, Zhang Jiaxin from China took first place; Jyri Mattsson from Finland came second, and Juliette Fogra from the USA was third.

The Grand Winner is Naandeyé García Villegas from Mexico, with her brilliant poster “One love.” She earned her undergraduate degree in Design and Visual Communication from the Faculty of Arts and Design at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM); and her postgraduate degree in Visual Arts and Multimedia at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. In 2013, Naandeyé García Villegas founded Anlab, which was conceived as a “visual laboratory dedicated to articulate analogue and digital methods for editorial and graphic design, web development and other experiments.”

Naandeyé García Villegas also teaches undergraduate courses in design theory and web development at the Colegio de Estudios Superiores de México (CESM) and at SAE Institute México. Her posters have been widely exhibited, for example, in China, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Dubai, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Taiwan and the United States. She has won several awards in international design competitions. In 2019, she was one of the winners of the Posterheroes contest on the theme, “Integration, Immigration Policies and Diversity In Contemporary Society.”

Thanks to all 667 designers who submitted entries to the 7th International Reggae Poster! Your commitment inspires us. On the platform of the Contest, we will continue to spread our vision of a Reggae Hall of Fame Museum in Kingston, Jamaica. And we collectively affirm support for the campaign to heighten awareness of the distinctive legacy of the Alpha Boys’ School and the amazing work of the Help Jamaica non-profit organization. Nuff rispek due!

Maria Papaefstathiou
Co-founder with Michael ‘Freestylee’ Thompson
International Reggae Poster Contest