Festival Poster Competition

As part of the London Festival of Ideas, we invited all Londoners to participate in the festival poster competition, responding to the provocation ‘When I imagine strong communities this is what I see’. Using the template created by artist and illustrator Monique Jackson, over 40 people responded, sharing their creative ideas of what strong communities look like to them.

A big ‘Thank-You' to everyone that participated in the poster competition, all the designs that were sent through were a brilliant reflection of the creative and imagination of Londoners across the city. The Festival of Ideas partner group had the difficult decision of narrowing it down and selecting three winning designs. Take a look below and be inspired by our 3 winning posters.

Winner

The winning entry to the poster competition was from Sarah Mirkin, a 7 year old, who in her spare time is an author and loves nature and animals.  During lockdown, she also took up weaving with Ankara.

Sarah shared with us her inspiration behind the winning design:

“There was a time when people would come together and dance around the May pole.  A strong community is a kind community and each of my ribbons links everyone.  There is a nurse and a rainbow that represents the NHS.  The computer stands for thriving businesses.  In the bottom corner, is education - people are reading and debating, learning from the elders and an old man is singing. A boy is caring for his Grandma.  In another corner are those tending to plants and animals, such as bees and cats. There is also me recycling.  Lastly, a strong community is a healthy community and we look after our health and exercise. Thank you for joining me in my dream.”

Runner Up 1

The first runner-up is a year 6 student from Rokesly Junior School in Haringey.

This is what they said inspired their poster design:

“My idea to build a creative community is a communal area for children. This area will be a large open space decorated with greenery, pot plants, bushes and trees. Schools can reserve the area for their students to do art workshops on wood placed on some of the surrounding fences. Benches and wooden toadstools scattered in the area will also be decorated. On certain days of the week the public will be allowed to go there as well.”

Runner Up 2

The second runner-up was a group of people from a community group, who worked on the poster during their weekly community lunch.

They said “During lockdown we had to suspend our regular lunch and delivered meals to people's homes. Recently we have been able to re-establish a distanced lunch and celebrated by sharing our ideas about the community.”

The three winning designs will be published in the Festival of Ideas Zine, which will be digitially available from October 2021. Check back here for further information on the next steps for the Festival of Ideas and how you can be involved as we explore the insights and ideas collected during the festival.