Explore the full festival programme and get your tickets on the Forward Festival website: https://www.forward-festival.com/

To mark the 60th anniversary of the first edition of the International Poster Biennale in Warsaw — the first event of its kind in the world — the Polish Graphic Design Foundation is organizing a special anniversary programme dedicated to the Polish School of Posters and its contemporary developments.

One part of the project is the participation of Polish designers in the international Forward Festival Berlin conference: Jan Wojda will give a presentation and a public lecture about his design practice. Jan Estrada-Osmycki will lead the typography workshop “Modularity, Patterning, Rhythm”. The House of World Cultures will also host an exhibition of new Polish posters titled “NEWSCHØØL of PØ5TER”.

The Berlin programme will connect the heritage of Polish poster design with the latest developments in visual communication, including experimental typography, independent graphic design, club culture and digital design methods.

The project is organized by the Polish Graphic Design Foundation and Forward Festiwal and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland from the Culture Promotion Fund.

The Berlin edition of the project is supported by the Polish Institute Berlin.

Programme

Jan Estrada-Osmycki — “Modularity, Patterning, Rhythm” workshop
28 August 2026, 11:00
Forward Stage

Musical compositions will be the starting point and source of inspiration for the workshop participants. Based on these compositions, they will create typographic forms built from modules used as elements of letterforms.

The participants will go through the full process of creating a typeface for posters — from the first sketches to finished font files. The workshop will be an exercise in understanding typography as a way of visualizing sound. It will also provide a practical introduction to digital tools used in type design.

Jan Estrada-Osmycki is a Polish-Mexican type designer, artist, musician and founder of the TEKIO type foundry.

Jan Wojda — lecture
27 August 2026, 19:00
Interactive Stage

Jan Wojda is a Polish visual artist and graphic designer currently based in Rotterdam.

His practice grows from a fascination with graphic archives and science fiction. He is inspired by old zines, archival publications and other printed materials that carry traces of time. In his work, he pays particular attention to imperfection, materiality and the memory of objects.

An important part of his practice is his constantly growing personal archive. Collecting and processing graphic materials shapes both his visual language and his working methods.

Jan Wojda will present his design practice and discuss how he combines analogue and digital methods. He will also show how archives and found materials can become a starting point for creating new visual forms.

“NEWSCHØØL of PØ5TER Exhibition”
27–28 August 2026
EXPO Area

The exhibition in Berlin is a survey of new Polish club posters and independent graphic design. It presents posters, graphic artworks and visual experiments created between different disciplines.

The works draw on the aesthetics of neo-rave, post-internet culture, photocopying and digital grunge. They represent a raw, intuitive and risky approach to design that goes beyond the traditional division between posters, applied graphic design and art.

Participating artists and designers:

Anna Waciawek, Antoni Starzyński, Bartosz Szymkiewicz, Dominik Kowalczyk, Jan Wojda, Julia Fohs, Kacper Ogień, Karl Nesser, Karolina Pietrzyk, Karolina Pietrzyk and Gilbert Schneider, Karolina Pietrzyk and Mateusz Zieleniewski, Karolina Pietrzyk and Tobias Wenig, Karolina Pietrzyk, Gilbert Schneider and Mateusz Zieleniewski, Kasia Mazur, Kornelia Nowak, Kuba Andrzejewski, Kuba Andrzejewski and Nastasja Tuszyńska, Kuba Andrzejewski and Salvatore Maria Sebastiano, Kuba Andrzejewski, Nastasja Tuszyńska and Salvatore Maria Sebastiano, Kuba Mozolewski, Kuba Sokolski, Łukasz Majewski, Łukasz Matuszewski, Maciej Kamuda, Maciej Tadeusz Bykowski, Maria Stożek, Mateusz Zieleniewski, Michał Babski, Michał Kołodziej, Michał Siciński, Milan Ciszewski, Nastasja Tuszyńska, Ola Procak, Patrycja Machota, Radek Górniak, Rafał Wechterowicz, Renata Motyka, Salvatore Maria Sebastiano, Vlad Boyko and Zosia Żarska.

Curators: Kuki Iwański and Rene Wawrzkiewicz