marc choko poster design
This project was created for the 2024–2025 Marc H. Choko Poster Competition by the Société des Designers Graphiques du Québec in collaboration with Humanité & Inclusion, themed Pour un monde sans armes. The brief was to design a striking, thought-provoking poster that reflects on armed violence and advocates for a world without weapons.
The concept explores how militarization can become normalized from childhood. The iconic green plastic army toy served as a symbol of how war imagery is introduced early and often presented as harmless play.
The intervention also speaks to the way armed violence ultimately destroys the very innocence these toys represent. A figure originally associated with play and imagination is transformed into a quiet commentary on the loss of childhood — how war, when translated into reality, replaces curiosity and play with fear, absence, and irreversible harm.
By interrupting this familiar object, the design aims to expose the tension between innocence and indoctrination. The intention was to transform a recognizable childhood symbol into a moment of reflection, prompting viewers to question what is absent and why.
The toy soldier image was printed and its weapon physically torn from the photograph, creating a literal rupture in the image. The print was then crumpled by hand to produce organic texture before being scanned and digitally refined to enhance shadow and depth.
The tear functions as a visible wound in the image, turning disarmament into a physical action rather than an abstract idea. The title was handwritten by my young niece and nephew to amplify the tension between innocence and indoctrination, while adding a personal touch to the poster.
Rather than depicting violence directly, the poster communicates through subtraction: removing the weapon becomes the gesture that imagines a different future. A world without weapons begins by refusing to normalize them.
Credits
Photography
Saifee Art (unsplash)
sdgq.ca
musee-mccord-stewart.ca
Mockups
unblast
