II National Cultural Festival of Students

The poster announcing the 2nd National Cultural Festival of Students in Gdańsk in 1961 combines geometric abstraction with a background composed of black-and-white photographs of the city. In the central part of the composition, vertical stripes in vivid colors—red, blue, yellow, green, and pink—are set against a blurred backdrop of Gdańsk landmarks such as the Neptune Fountain and the Long Market. Diagonal black lines run across these colorful fields, adding a dynamic, almost constructivist rhythm to the design. The entire composition is set against a black background, which highlights both the color palette and the typography, where red and white in the title echo the national colors of Poland. The poster was created by Rosław Szaybo, one of the most important Polish graphic designers of the 20th century.