The International Theater Festival (MESS) was first created in 1960 under the name, Festival Malih Eksperimentalnih Scena Jugoslavije (Festival of Small and Experimental Scenes of Yugoslavia). Today MESS is the most prominent theater festival in Southeastern Europe. The festival itself is actually comprised of several different programs and this year they wanted to put more focus on Children MESS intended for youngsters, so they asked me to design a poster for it. Unfortunately, none of the posters were selected.
Each year the poster for MESS is designed by Sarajevo designer Bojan Hadzihalilovic and his independent agency Fabrika. This year they created a most entertaining poster with Donald Trump. Of course my first instinct was to design a poster for Children MESS with baby Trump. It seemed like a perfect fit.
Official poster for the 56th International Theater Festival MESS designed by Fabrika
Poster for Children MESS (Mali MESS) designed by me.
But the idea with baby Trump didn't sit well with them, so I created another two posters. One that was socially engaged and points to the question of Syrian refugee children, and the other that was more childlike and imaginative with two
letters M for Mali (Small) MESS and an illustration done by Sarajevo illustrator Rikardo Druskic.
Photography by Sedat Suna
Illustration by Rikardo Druskic
