The Mandela Poster Project (MPP) is part of the Design is for All exhibition at Cape Town City Hall, in the space former-president Nelson Mandela made his first public speech just hours after his release from prison in 1990.

“Mandela is an icon for peace, freedom, leadership, activism, determination, statesmanship, forgiveness, strength and justice. The power of visual communication through the use of universal symbols and icons is that it has the ability to connect with anyone no matter their level of education or literacy skills, transcending any language barriers,” says Sune Stassen, City Hall and education programme manager.

The poster project started off as an initiative by two South African designers and produced more than 700 entries from around 70 countries across the world.
The entries were curated and a selection of 95 (representing Madiba’s 95 years) was first exhibited at the University of Pretoria in July. 

“The poster project offered many different narratives and interpretations that, in some cases, were a clear representation of the history and social structure of their countries or origin.” explains Jacques Lange, one of the initiators of the project. “The different countries had legacies of poster design, such as Poland, Cuba and Mexico, where posters were used in the past to change political structures.”

Sponsored by the SABS Design Institute, the collection can be viewed as a digital publication at the MPP official website: www.mandelaposterproject.org