Friday One Sheet: Trieste Science+Fiction Festival

The 24th edition of the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival gets a gorgeous illustration and design from Italian cartoonist Zerocalcare. Parasols, lanterns, and a jackhammer frame the characters from vastly different walks of life as twin moons fade off into the distance. 

As Zerocalcare explains: “The poster tells the story of the distance between how I imagined science fiction as a kid and how my expectations have evolved: we used to think that in the future machines would do the alienating and exhausting jobs, leaving humans free to dedicate themselves to the arts. Today, quite the opposite, the evolution of artificial intelligence shows us a possible dystopia in which machines replace us in drawing and writing, while people continue to wake up in the morning to go to their worksite.”

The design has a warm and comforting palette, even as it hints at a dystopia. The elongated "E"s give it both a hand-made, as well as a foreign-language feel, appropriate to both the type of festival, science fiction, as well as brilliantly filling the negative space to contribute to the busy and creative energy.  

The Trieste Science+Fiction Festival runs October 29 through November 3 in Politeama Rossetti and Teatro Miela, and showcases science fiction productions from around the world, from horror to classic sci-fi.