What do you think are the most important posters in Casa de las Américas's collection?

During its almost 50 years of existence, Casa de las Américas, a prestigious Havana cultural institution, has produced many posters. The posters created in-house are certainly important, but besides this, we have a small but very high-quality collection of Cuban political posters from just after the triumph of the 1959 Revolution. We have copies of some rare, important posters, the type on normally finds only at the National Library
in Cuba.

 

What is your favorite poster in the collection? What makes it so appealing?

Hard to say. Right now I would chose Revés en Victoria, a political poster from 1970. Designed by a woman called Eufemia Álvarez for the States' propaganda department (C.O.R.), it is a wonderful example of effective communication with the minimum of elements - in this case, only type. The visual solution (its color and composition) is very strong.

 

About Pepe Menéndez

José Alberto (Pepe) Menéndez is a designer, lecturer, and curator. He studied Graphic Design at the Institute for Higher Studies of Design (ISDi) in Cuba from 1984 to 1989. From 1989 to 1993, he was Professor at ISDi. His postgraduate studies - the International Course of Graphic Design at the Graphic Media Development Centre (GMDC) in the Netherlands - were completed in 1995. His work has been published in TM Magazine (Switzerland), Visual Magazine (Spain), Druck Magazine (Netherlands), Idea Magazine (Japan), Communication Arts Magazine (USA), and Font Magazine (USA), among others. He is Vice President of the Prográfica Cuban Committee, a member of the Cuban Writers and Artists Association (UNEAC), and a member of the Cátedra Conrado W. Massaguer at Havana University. Mr. Menéndez has been the Design Director at Casa de las Américas for the last eight years.