This series of graphic posters created for Kult magazine turns the tables on lazy stereotypes and looks deeper into the cultural norms of Asia.
A is for Asian plays on the idea that Asians "all look the same", drawing a parallel with the notion that all sans serif fonts look the same.
If you're looking to design a poster (opens in new tab) then this new series from Kult magazine (opens in new tab) will provide a blast of offbeat inspiration. Using everything from minimalism to realism, photography to typography, this diverse series of posters attempts to get beyond stereotypes and go deeper into what really makes Asian culture tick.
Under the title 'Asian Subconcious', the series features designs from a range of artists ranging from emerging to established talents, with contributors including Foreign Policy Design, Mojoko, Anonymous, Jonathan Yuen and Djohan Johari.
"Drawing influences from Asian architecture, typography, packaging and food, the artists expressed undercurrents of contemporary Asian culture in their designs," the magazine explains. We love the high level of originality and imagination that have gone into these posters, making for an impressive series that speaks with a wide and eloquent design vocabulary.
Jonathan Yuen tranlsates the British 'Keep Calm and Carry On’ meme into two pictographs
Made from characters taken from Chinese, English, Malay, and Tamil, these new characters are "familiar yet alien, suggestive of future possibilities"
This design finds "the lowest common denominator between the races" through romanticising the trades of those who laboured in an earlier era
Deconstructed strokes of Chinese characters and Latin letters are used to express the idea of Asian integration and disintegration with the Western world
The words 'brain' on the right and 'stomach' on the left are written with black sticky rice in Laos script to convey the idea of the stomach being the 'second brain'
Based on packaging for Chinese medicine, this visual juxtaposition of Eastern and Western culture symbolises the obsession with food
The typographic poster embraces the diversity of architecture across Asia
The Mandarin characters for Homesick allude to a sense of loss of identity that comes with rapid modernisation
You can purchase these posters on the Kult (opens in new tab) website.
What do you make of these posters? Let us know in the comments box below!
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Sammy Maine was a founding member of the Creative Bloq team way back in the early 2010s, working as a Commissioning Editor. Her interests cover graphic design in music and film, illustration and animation. Since departing, Sammy has written for The Guardian, VICE, The Independent & Metro, and currently co-edits the quarterly music journal Gold Flake Paint.
