Zupagrafika was founded in Poznań in 2012 by David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka. The Spanish graphic designer, fascinated by the Polish Poster School, settled in Poland and, after having met Sobecka, they together started creating poster and book designs, as well as whole visual identities. Their clients include renowned institutions as Stary Browar, the Malta Festival, and even the Chancellery of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, for which they designed a cut-out with the characteristic, round building of the Sejm.
One of their most recognisable projects is their series of DIY buildings, which ensured them a prestigious award MustHave at Design Festival in Łódź in 2014. Their Blokoshka reproduced this success. It’s a collection of four models of blocks of flats, inspired by housing developments from Poland, Moscow, East Berlin, and Prague. What’s more, you can put one in the other, kind of like traditional Russian matrioshkas. Navarro is absolutely taken by Polish blocks of flats, commenting:
These are the things that get engraved into my memory when I visit Poland, not these pretty Old Towns or Old Markets. Blocks of flats, as well as the funny ticket-puncher from Mielec and advertisement posts, are iconic to your country.
Brutal London, their collection of cut-outs, became a basis for the book of the same title, which was preceded by an introduction by Norman Foster himself. The publication conjoins short essays about 9 selected buildings with the cut-outs that are to resemble them after being assembled from pieces.
The topic of brutalist architecture was once again taken up in the project Paris Brut. This time, the designers selected 6 projects which, according to them, envision the unrealised modernist dreams for the French capital, from La Corbusier’s Plan Voisin, to Cité des 4000.
In 2015 they took part, and consequently won, the Pamiętać o Dziełach Utraconych competition [trans. Remembering Lost Masterpieces], which aimed at commemorating works of art that were stolen from Poland during WWII. Zupografika proposed a set of miniatures that you discover by yourself by removing strips of foil, thus revealing the titles and authors of various works of art.
They also worked with the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, designing a series of merchandise based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet which includes various notebooks, cut-outs, pencils, and stamps available in Polin's giftshop.
Among many local projects connected with Poznań, besides the aforementioned modernist buildings cut-outs, is the visual identity for ForForm gallery, based on an optical illusion of interfusing morphemes. What’s more, they proposed decorating blocks of flats on a Poznań estate with designs inspired by the original mosaics with which they were odorned.
Selected exhibitions and awards:
2016
- Budapest Design Week 2016, Budapest, Hungary
- Golden Bee 12. Moscow Global Biennale of Graphic Design. Moscow, Russia
- Zupagrafika Posters. Festival of Urban Space. City Gallery, Rzeszów, Poland
- Che 30 + Fu 5. International Poster campaign. 4th Block. Kiev & Kharkiv, Ukraine
- Zupagrafika Posters. KATO. Katowice, Poland
- Places of Origin: Polish Graphic Design in Context. Reykjavik Design March, Iceland
- MustHave 2015, Łódź Design Festival, Łódź, Poland
- Final of DOBRY WZÓR 2016. Institute of Industrial Design, Warsaw, Poland
2015
- Graphic Design Festival Breda 2015. First award in Poster Project competition
- Taiwan International Graphic Design Award. Distinction
- DOBRY WZÓR 2015 final. Institute of Industrial Design
- First prize Remembering lost masterpieces Ministry of Culture, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
- Zupagrafika Posters. Institute of Design. Kielce, Poland
- Taiwan International Graphic Design Award 2015. Huashan 1914 Creative Par, Taiwan
- Italian Poster Biennal. Finale Ligure, Italy
- Graphic Design Festival Breda, The Netherlands
- Second National Logo Exhibition. Gdynia, Warsaw, Wrocław. Poland 2015-2016
- Mut zur Wut. Heidelberg, Germany
- Do it Your Way. Polish Design in Pieces, Milan Design Week. Ventura Lambrate, Milan, Italy
2014
- +48 Social Club Tokyo Designer Festival. Vacant, Tokyo, Japan
- Design in Poland, London Design Festival. Tent London, Great Britain
- MustHave 2014 Łódź Design Festival, Poland
- Paper City Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, Poland
- 24th International Poster Biennale, Warsaw, Main Exhibition
- DOBRY WZÓR 2014. Institute of Industrial Design
2013
- Project of the year 2013. Kuratorium Gallery, Warsaw, Poland