“Designing a Good Poster is a Dark Art” – Highlights from This Year's INTL Poster Competition - Devoured

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“Designing a Good Poster is a Dark Art” – Highlights from This Year's INTL Poster Competition

The 2026 INTL Poster Competition reveals a shift toward 'unprofessional' aesthetics, layered textures, and 1990s-inspired collaged typography.

What: The exhibition in Glasgow displays 190 posters from 200 designers, highlighting a trend of deliberate naivety and playfulness as a reaction against the visual homogenization caused by accessible AI tools.

Why it matters: It reflects a cultural pivot in design where creators are explicitly rejecting digital polish in favor of visceral, tactile, and imperfect aesthetics.

Decoder

Brutalist: In design, a style characterized by raw, unadorned, and often jarring visual elements that prioritize function or stark contrast over aesthetic refinement.

Original article

This year's INTL poster competition drew 2,670 entries from 78 countries, with 190 posters by more than 200 designers on display in Glasgow from November 12–22. Co-founder James Gilchrist calls a great poster near-impossible to design and singles out three trends: layered surfaces, 1990s-inspired collaged typography, and deliberately unprofessional, playful work.

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