The making of the Victory Day poster (2014)

Each year there are less and less veterans and more and more over-the-top enthusiasm. This year it’s going to be no different. But this holiday has to be about the people. Let’s drink to the dead.

Art director: Not cool.

Then let’s think of the living. They will also suffer: in traffic jams, on crowded metro stations and closed-off streets. Maybe let’s make a warning for Moscow citizens—where not to go on May 9 and during parade rehearsals? It will come in useful.

Art director: The poster is not for Moscow only.

What else? Back in the day it used to be a spring holiday celebrating life and future.

Art director: Nope. But we can use the ribbon. Maybe tie it around the finger?

But it’s not a Russian thing. In Russia in order not to forget something we “cut it on the nose” or “write it on the forehead”. Note paper to remember?

Art director: The ribbon looks good, is versatile and has a hint of our signature irony. And this looks like a pile of newspapers.

The finger looks fun, but nobody will understand the joke. It’s a foreign tradition. Oh! We can tie a knot instead.

Art director: I don’t understand.

Maybe make it about the graffiti on the Reichstag building? Russian soldiers wrote “Vasya was here” on its walls, and we’ll make the graffiti look like modern hashtags.

Art director: Could be. Or simply write “дошли” (rough translation: “We’ve made it”).

Putting it all together.

Deciding to make a pseudo-historical collage.