The Prelude Exhibition of The First Shanghai Graphic Design Biennale – TopoPoster: International Poster Design Exhibition, after six months (June – December, 2025) of planning and preparation, was successfully held from December 13 to December 22, 2025. As one of the larger-scale exhibitions in recent years featuring an international selection of works in China, it showcased over 300 representative poster designs from 153 influential contemporary designers and studios active in the forefront of the field across 28 countries.

刘香成：镜头•时代•人

刘香成个展“镜头·时代·人”的海报设计中，以俄文字体结构为基础重新设计中文字体，形成方正、厚重且极具力量感的文字形态，直接唤起20世纪后半叶社会主义意识形态的视觉联想。海报配色采用高饱和度的橙红与深灰色，呼应冷战时期政治语境中的象征色彩，并强化历史叙事的紧张感与纪实感。下方的黑白摄影作品选自刘香成在中国经济改革初期的影像记录，画面中人物戴着墨镜、神情凝重，既具时代标志性，又暗示个体在宏大叙事中的复杂处境。整体设计以几何分割构成版面，将展览标题、时间与摄影作品有机嵌合，营造出一种跨越国界与文化语境的视觉氛围，呼应艺术家以影像见证历史转折的创作主题。

In the poster design for Liu Xiangcheng’s solo exhibition Lens · Era · People, the Chinese typography is redesigned based on the structural logic of Cyrillic typefaces, resulting in letterforms that are square, heavy, and powerfully assertive. This typographic approach directly evokes visual associations with socialist ideology in the latter half of the 20th century. The poster’s color palette employs highly saturated orange-red and deep gray, referencing the symbolic colors embedded in the political context of the Cold War, while intensifying the tension and documentary quality of the historical narrative. The black-and-white photograph at the bottom is selected from Liu Xiangcheng’s visual records from the early period of China’s economic reform. The figure in the image, wearing sunglasses and bearing a solemn expression, is both emblematic of its era and suggestive of the individual’s complex position within grand historical narratives. The overall design adopts a geometrically segmented layout, organically integrating the exhibition title, dates, and photographic imagery. This structure creates a visual atmosphere that transcends national borders and cultural contexts, echoing the artist’s practice of bearing witness to moments of historical transition through photography.

One Thousand Times

Zhu Sha
Zhao Shoucheng