Student – Socio-Cultural Fortnightly

Jan Sawka’s 1976 poster for the Kraków fortnightly Student splits the image into two starkly contrasting zones, divided by a narrow red pillar. On the left reigns deep darkness; only a pair of tattered, denim-clad legs stand without a torso, as though someone were marooned in a bleak, barren interior. The right half opens onto a landscape beneath a spectacular pink-orange sky, where the torso of a young man hovers above a newspaper, as if knowledge grants him levitation over rolling green fields. The headline letters “STUDENT,” rendered in psychedelic hues, resemble a 1970s neon sign and underscore Sawka’s bold, comic-book style. The clash between the murky stagnation and the luminous space of reading turns the poster into a metaphor for the student’s journey—from immobility toward an intellectual horizon. The whole design radiates rebellious humor and the strong graphic punch characteristic of the Polish School of Poster Art of that era.