Your School. Your Paper. Since 1936.

The Suffolk Journal

Your School. Your Paper. Since 1936.

The Suffolk Journal

Your School. Your Paper. Since 1936.

The Suffolk Journal

Artist Luba Lukova speaks at NESAD

Article By: Eleanor Kaufman

From the series "War and Peace" by Luba Lukova
From the series "War and Peace" by Luba Lukova

Red-faced students and faculty packed into the steamy computer lab to listen to the Bulgarian-born artist Luba Lukova speak about her work. Lukova is known for her beautiful and politically pungent posters and illustrations, which have been featured in publications and spaces such as The New York Times, the “Hope” exhibit at President Obama’s inauguration and recently the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. The presentation was truly inspirational and the NESAD community is lucky to have had Luba Lukova share her work in our space.

Gasps and sighs could be heard as each image was shown on the screen. Lukova’s work is characterized by her bold use of color and her use of simple lines and shapes. Her illustrations are minimalist and bold, her message, clear and simple. She creates posters and other graphic design pieces by scanning in her illustrations, which she often paints and adds color to beforehand.

“I can say I never think about style”, said Lukova, who clearly has quite a naturally unique and beautiful style of design.

She is inspiring to designers because she uses her fine art as a tool to create graphic design, whereas much of the graphic design word now is relying more on computer-generated images which looses the raw, handmade beauty. With the emergence of advanced computer applications and tools, graphic design is slowly transforming into computer-heavy field that utilizes less hand-done illustrations and artwork. The most powerful graphic design is that which uses the hand to create it. Lukova’s work is a prime example of this and is an inspiration to all Graphic Designers.

Much of Lukova’s work comments on social injustice and topics relating to war and peace. She is passionate about the power of art and its ability to change people’s views about the world. She utilizes irony and satire in order to achieve a message, often times using provocative images and bold statements. One poster entitled “Sudan” is a figure of a man’s distressed face as he is screaming; his mouth wide open. Filling up the space of his open mouth is a nutritional fact label that reads all zeros. She told the crowd that many times when she submits pieces, she is convinced they will be rejected because of their controversial content. To her surprise, she finds that people are more open than she thought to her politically potent art.

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Artist Luba Lukova speaks at NESAD