Poster Design for a Photo Exhibition
Context
“Side Effect” is an exhibition exploring archival materials from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The project presents an artistic perspective on historical photographs and documents from the nuclear age. The exhibition was held at sehsaal in Vienna as an independent curatorial initiative. For the exhibition, I designed a series of posters that were displayed across the city and also informed the visual atmosphere of the show itself.
Concept
Modern exhibitions are often presented within the “white cube”, a minimalist environment designed to isolate artworks and remove external context. Exhibition graphics frequently follow the same logic: neutral typography, restrained color palettes, and structured layouts that avoid interpreting the content. The posters for Side Effect deliberately adopted this principle. Rather than adding another interpretive layer, the design works as a framing device. The visual language is built directly from the exhibited archival photography, allowing the historical material to remain the primary focus. In this case, graphic design functions less as expression and more as structure, creating a quiet frame around the content rather than competing with it.
