Much of Cuba’s iconic graphic design is instantly recognizable the world over. But alongside the familiar image of Che Guevara, Cuban artists have produced uncompromising design and illustration to deliver Cuba’s revolutionary message around the world.

Designed in Cuba: Cold War Graphics was the first major exhibition of graphic design from Cuba’s ‘golden age’. It brought together 100 posters and 70 magazines distributed across the globe by OSPAAAL: Fidel Castro’s Organisation of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America, an organisation founded to promote cooperation between socialist countries and liberation movements.

Throughout the Cold War, artists including Alfredo Rostgaard, Helena Serrano, Rafael Enríquez and Gladys Acosta Ávila produced provocative posters and bold editorial design for Tricontinental, an illustrated magazine that featured articles by radical public figures, both expected – like Che Guevara and Malcolm X - and unexpected, like Jean-Paul Sartre and Jane Fonda.

The works in the exhibition were produced by 33 designers, many of them women. All were created between 1965 and 1992, reframing the familiar story of the Cold War through a wholly unfamiliar angle.

Selected reviews and articles

★★★★★
"Brilliantly designed and hard-hitting... Fantastic exhibition, a must-see."

Londonist

."A fascinating visual snapshot of Cuba’s communist history."

Creative Review

All graphics © the artists, from The Mike Stanfield Collection
All photographs © Paul Grover

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