Sad Black
Award
Gold

Item

115803_dfp22_01.jpg

Description

The poster was designed to follow the nature of the design competition, using a design tool to depict the war as sad and dark in a simple way.

I used the typical "Pantone palette" mark for black to emphasize the dark side of war. Instead of the name "Pantone" I wrote "Ukraine" in an identical font as an association with the name of a well-known paint manufacturer, but also marked the place of suffering. I also printed the name of the color "black" in an identical "Pantone" way. Instead of typical color descriptions like Rich, Dark, Classic, Process... I wrote "Sad" black.
Wanting to give the poster depth and clarity in the communication of fear and destruction due to war, I inserted war photos from Ukraine in place of the black square to evoke sadness. I inserted them in such a way that the overall graphics retain a distinctive design-coloristic approach and emphasize darkness and black color. This was also done to communicate the inevitable geographic distance in relation to the war. Namely, the further we are from the war (from the poster), the more abstract and principled the sadness and blackness of war, like flat blackness. By getting closer to the poster (war), the black color of the poster becomes more concrete, gaining clearer contours of people and ruins. Our involvement is growing. But never to the end because we are still far from the destruction of war.

The poster succeeded if, through a design tool, it indicated the sadness and compassion we as designers feel regarding the suffering in Ukraine. He succeeded even if he made it known that from the corner of our distant warm homes, we can never fully know the extent of suffering, sadness, and fear that the population of Ukraine is currently experiencing.

Creator

Stjepko Rošin

Date

2022

Collection

Gold

Citation

Stjepko Rošin, “Sad Black
Award
Gold,” Graphis Designers for Peace, accessed February 10, 2026, https://library.csusm.edu/context-library-series/designersforpeace/document/40.