25, September 2025

Posters for Peace: Youth, Design and Cultural Memory

VOLUME-11; ISSUE-9; SEPT-2025

Author(s): 1. Ms Arpita Singh, 2. Dr. Sumita Kathuria

Authors Affiliations:

¹ PhD Scholar, Department of Applied Art, University of Delhi
² Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Art, University of Delhi

DOIs:10.2015/IJIRMF/202509014     |     Paper ID: IJIRMF202509014


Abstract
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Background- Posters are among the most enduring forms of mass communication, yet scholarship has primarily emphasized propaganda and protest. Their potential as tools of peace communication remains underexplored.

Purpose- This study examines how contemporary peace posters function as cultural and communicative interventions. It proposes a comparative typology such as youth, professional, and institutional and explores how posters operate with a dual temporality: as urgent interventions in moments of crisis and as enduring cultural artifacts preserved in memory institutions.

Method- Using an interdisciplinary framework that integrates semiotics, peace communication, and visual culture, the paper analyzes three initiatives: the Lions Club International Peace Poster Contest (2024–25), the Designers for Peace: United with Ukraine campaign (2024), and the Posters4Peace exhibition at the Peace Museum Vienna (2025).

Findings- Results show that youth reinterpret universal symbols to articulate resilience, professionals employ minimalist aesthetics to mobilize solidarity, and institutions curate activist works into cultural memory, sustaining peace narratives beyond immediate crises.

Contribution-The study shifts poster scholarship from propaganda to peace communication, offering a novel typology and demonstrating how posters remain democratic, accessible, and relevant media in today’s polarized digital world.

Peace Communication, Visual Culture, Semiotics, Applied Art, Peace Posters, Youth Voices, Design Solidarity, Cultural Memory

Ms Arpita Singh, Dr. Sumita Kathuria (2025); Posters for Peace: Youth, Design and Cultural Memory, International Journal for Innovative Research in Multidisciplinary Field, ISSN(O): 2455-0620, Vol-11, Issue-9, Pp.106-111.          Available on –   https://www.ijirmf.com/

 

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