Monday, 2:00pm
22 September 2025
Graphic matters during wartime
Festival Eastern European Design (FEED)
29 August to 7 September 2025. Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine. The founders of Network Eastern European Design (NEED) are Design-Crit studio, Polish Graphic Design Foundation, Pictoric and 6pt Conference.Despite Russian drone and missile attacks, the third FEED festival went ahead in Kyiv
Despite Russian attacks, the third Festival of Eastern European Design (FEED), a celebration of design and illustration, went ahead in Kyiv. The previous festivals, also organised by NEED, the Network of Eastern European Design, took place in Warsaw (2023), see ‘FEED’s big vision’ on the Eye blog, and in Vilnius last November (2024).
Right. Mystetskyi Arsenal.
Top. PIC Illustration Conference volunteers from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture. All photos by Nastya Telikova and Andrii Tsykota.
The 2025 Festival, which took place at Kyiv’s Mystetskyi Arsenal, opened with the ‘PIC Illustration Conference’, featuring Jesús Cisneros (Spain), Ana Margarida Matos (Portugal), Barbora Müllerová (Czech Republic), Stephan Dybus (Germany) and Tania Yakunova (Ukraine).
Visitors to the PIC Illustration Conference at the exhibition in the Mystetskyi Arsenal.
On Sunday (31 August) there were workshops with Cisneros and Zosia Dzierżawska (Poland) and portfolio reviews given by Anna Gavryliuk (Ukraine), Yakunova, Müllerová and Dybus. Ukrainian illustrator Jenya Polosina, acclaimed for her vivid illustrated accounts of civilian life under Russian bombardment, moderated a panel discussion about ‘Visual Stories’.
Page from Safe Place by Jenya Polosina.
Other participants included visitors from the Welformat Graphic Design Festival, (Switzerland), the Baba Jaga Fest and Industrie Fluviali (Italy), Ecaterina Corneeva (D-Spirit, Molodova), Susanne Schroeder (Le Signe, France), Robert Aleksić (Fluid Dizajn Forum, Montenegro) and the German Comic Association.
Exhibition of the Ukrainian ‘Best Book Design’ competition.
On the night before the main conference (Friday 28 August), large drone and missile attacks struck Ukraine and the capital Kyiv in particular. Despite this pressure and many other challenges, the city’s first big international festival of design and illustration went ahead without serious disruption. A similar bombardment by the Russian aggressors took place on 7 September, the final day of the accompanying exhibition, which featured illustrations, posters, animations, installations, book designs and more.
Work by Jesús Cisneros from his book The Tempest.
This show, also at the Mystetskyi Arsenal, included: Missing Bubbles from LUSTR festival (Czech Republic), Beyond Paper Plane (Czech Republic), The Tempest by Jesús Cisneros (Spain), No one ever comes here by Tania Yakunova (Ukraine), A Love Letter to Future Archaeologists by Barbora Müllerová (Czech Republic) and ‘Best of Pictoplasma 2025’ (see Eye 62). It was curated by several different organisations and festivals across Europe
Meetings, exchange of experience, presentations, reports, workshops took place between professional communities of creative industries. Among the participants were: Svenja Kolly, Michèle Raez, Mia Gujer and Svenja Kolly (Welformat Graphic Design Festival, Lucerne, Switzerland), Alessio Trabacchini (Baba Jaga Fest, Rome, Italy), Gabriele Scorzoni (Industrie Fluviali, Rome, Italy), Ecaterina Corneeva (D-Spirit, Molodova), Susanne Schroeder (Le Signe, France), Robert Aleksić (Fluid Dizajn Forum, Montenegro), Axel Halling (German Comic Association, Germany), etc.
Portfolio review during NEED. Participants included: Stefan Dybus, Anna Gavryliuk, Tania Yakunova.
There were also many more meetings, workshops, exhibition tours and ‘networking’ opportunities throughout the festival, which was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
Partners and co-operation: Mystetskyi Arsenal, Book Arsenal, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Polish Institute in Kyiv, Czech Centers, Goethe Institute, Postman, Kuš!, NAFAA.
Curators: Olena Staranchuk, Anna Sarvira, Oleg Gryshchenko (Pictoric) and Rene Wawrzkiewicz.
Cooperation: Agne Dautartaite Krutule, Laurynas Marciulaitis, Marta Kowalska, Jan Diehl Michalowski.
Illustration: Anna Sarvira, Klaudia Kozińska.
Curator-led tour of the exhibition with Oleg Gryschenko (Pictoric) and Yulia Kozlovets (Mystetskyi Arsenal).
PIC Illustration Conference exhibition.
Exhibition of animation and poster collection from Pictoplasma (Berlin).
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