Indyref Poster Competition

Here’s the long-list of entries for our poster competition in collaboration with the Scottish Independence Convention. If you are sharing these images (please do!), please credit the individual artist and @ScotIndConv.

In two weeks we’ll announce the shortlist to go on exhibition as decided by our judges panel: Elaine C Smith, Convener – Scottish Independence Convention, Janie Nicoll, artist, Murdo MacDonald, Professor of History of Scottish Art at the University of Dundee, Joyce McMillan, arts critic, Calum Colvin, artist, Craig Coulthard, artist, Mike Small, editor.

This final top twenty will be made available in print quality for download. A big thanks to everyone who took part – sorry to those who didn’t make the final cut – we hope you all enjoy the images.

YES

Ciaran Murphy

yes MOUNTAIN copy

Rosie Balyuzi

Indyref poster FW print

Fergus Walker

scotland_unchained_martin_s_laird_uncompressed

Martin Laird

Yes To Progress

Gabriel Durnan

poster-design-1

Maxwell McKilligan

6178454903_1d2020cae1_o

William Bryan

Jamie Rose

Jamie Rose

oFZ3nTdr

Dhivya Kate Chetty

Fergus Walker

Fergus Walker

UnicornRJ_aye1

Renate Jephcott

Stewart Bremner

Stewart Bremner

R Campbell

R Campbell

Doug Summers

Doug Summers

Ciaran Murphy

Ciaran Murphy

Dhivya Kate Chetty

Dhivya Kate Chetty

Ritchie Feenie

Ritchie Feenie

Andrew Mac

Andrew Mac

Dougal Barrie

Dougal Barrie

Mairi Strong

Mairi Strong

Ritchie Feenie

Ritchie Feenie

Douglas Kelso

Douglas Kelso

Sally Hughes

Sally Hughes

Ritchie Feenie

Ritchie Feenie

Ritchie Feenie

Ritchie Feenie

Stuart Graham

Stuart Graham

Lillians Kinsman-Blake

Lillians Kinsman-Blake

10379675_905485496135190_7174212793487068452_o

Helena Torry

BELLA_NC_Poster_FC_08

Fraser Croall

gconnelly-poster

G Connelly

out_for_yes

Simon Chadwick

Stewart Bremner

Stewart Bremner

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  1. wwilmawatts says:

    Fantastic! Looking at all this talent and the positivity expressed brought tears to my eyes.

  2. Les Wilson says:

    Many fantastic images there well done to all involved

  3. KiwiDK says:

    Power stuff! Got for it Scotland, unshackle yourselves from Westminster and become a beacon for others throughout the UK.

  4. Nova Scotia says:

    Brilliant! Put them up on every lamppost! YES

  5. Mike Cruse says:

    Wow! Glad I don’t have to pick the winner. There are at least 20 winners there – all very powerful images from very talented artists. I’d be very happy with a collage of all 20.

  6. Mick Pork says:

    All of these are inspiring and some are stunningly good, but Andrew Mac’s butterlies… it’s incredible. So simple, so uplifting and so beautiful. That one makes people stop in their tracks first to briefly puzzle over what it is and then the smile when they realise. It works on everyone. Kids, men, women the lot.

    I so want to see that one up and down the land but all of these are a tribute to the skill, dedication and passion of the artists involved.

    Wonderful stuff. 🙂

    1. brianmchugheng says:

      I have to agree Mick, Butterflies is so gentle and so powerful all at once.

    2. Karmanaut says:

      I agree. That image brought tears to my eyes.

  7. K1 says:

    Same here wwilma, quite choked up by those…just stunning and beautiful…what a people we are.

  8. Iain says:

    Fergus Walker’s Emperor Dave gets my vote, provided we change his spelling of emperor …..

  9. hektorsmum says:

    What a wonderful lot of people we have, loved them all, I do have a couple of favourites but really can we use them all?

    1. Yeh- I feel like they should all be put out there! 😀

  10. Yes Kenny Yes says:

    Fantastic! They’re ALL brilliant.
    Scotland is brilliant – Pure Dead Brilliant!

  11. Wow- well done everyone- these are truly stupendous- so wonderful to have all this creative energy exploding into the discussion!!!!

  12. YESGUY says:

    What a talented lot we are

    Brilliant Bella . Huge thanks to all the artists

  13. Dave says:

    I don’t usually bother to post comments but these are amazing! And so many of them. Still can’t decide on a favourite, though I love the two from Ciaran Murphy – they just look beautiful. The Aye-pad is quite clever and the butterfly image from Andrew Mac sums up everything about independence perfectly. We need to distribute these images as wide as possible – they are genuinely inspirational.

  14. Dave says:

    After the no side stealing our designs for the wee blue stickers – even down the font – this artwork should hopefully distinguish us from the crowd. I honestly think people are beginning to blank the stickers out now anyway, unless you go right up and read them – they could be yes or no stickers.

  15. Reblogged this on charlesobrien08 and commented:
    All very good.

  16. Holebender says:

    They’re all great, but the butterfies poster is outstanding.

    1. Clootie says:

      Agreed – It just captures it all so simply. The genius of leaving that gap is the work of a gifted artist.

  17. Onwards says:

    I like the simple ones the best, especially if used as window posters, where you need the message across in a glance. The more detailed ones are better online.

    Love the adapted ‘Rosie the Riveter’ one with ‘We can do it!’
    Defiance against all the negativity, and appealing to strong female voters also.

    The butterflies one is great, especially if the YES was a bit bigger, to see at a distance.
    Again it depends on where it is used.

    The one with YES written on the key is a nice idea.
    A YES KEY would work well on its own as a car sticker.
    Nicely signifying the opening of doors and possibilities.

  18. A mix of pop urban cartoon you name its there it would make a great gallery show in any part of Scotland

  19. Ame Von K. says:

    Hi, I submitted a poster for this competition and I can’t see mine there…could you let me know if my submission was entered at all.? Thanks.

    1. Same here Ame Von K. Sent one in twice but never heard back?

      1. bellacaledonia says:

        Apologies, all posters were received, sorry we can’t reply to them all, our email traffic is ridiculous

  20. brianmchugheng says:

    Fantastic… I love them all. 🙂

  21. biowrite says:

    What fabulous posters! Some need a wee bit of editing (spelling, missing hyphens, etc.) but they all have something! Well done!

  22. Mark says:

    Bella – get all of these in a book format! I’d buy it.

  23. John Lowe says:

    Love these posters

  24. Martin Laird says:

    If anyone wants to download my one I would suggest getting it from the following link. It looks like it’s been through some colour conversion and jpeg compression up there. The one here should be sharper and brighter:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B73GREDVxCf5clNCSkMyZmcxQzQ/

    The butterflies are my favourite too. Lovely and elegant piece of symbolism.

  25. Martin Laird says:

    If anyone wants to download my unicorn one I would suggest getting it from the following link. It looks like it’s been through some colour conversion and jpeg compression up there. The one here should be sharper and brighter:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B73GREDVxCf5clNCSkMyZmcxQzQ/

    The butterflies are my favourite too. Lovely and elegant piece of symbolism.

    1. Martin Laird says:

      Oops, sorry about the double post!

  26. andygm1 says:

    I like Libertae, Fraternitae, etc. but Butterflies is just unbeatable. It’s the purest of the lot as the image says it all, no words are required. It taps straight into our thoughts and emotions.

  27. M4rkyboy says:

    My favourite piece of art the whole campaign was the Africans for Indy logo-it’s stunningly beautiful

  28. Lee Kindness says:

    Butterflies is incredible. Would make a cracking t-shirt too.
    (a study in negative space!)

  29. Dan Huil says:

    Inspiring.

  30. After looking at them all again, my favourites are:
    Fergus Walker’s
    Richie Freenie’s two; To Imagine Our Nation Afresh, and The Best Way To Predict Your Future…
    Fraser Croall’s Yes For A’ That
    and G Connelly’s AyePad

    They all stand out to me as being pertinent, passionate, intelligent, impactful visually.

    🙂 It is just brilliant to see the bright voices and ideas rising to the top of our melting pot of new cultural awakening!

    Onwards and upwards!

    1. bellacaledonia says:

      Thanks Clare – we’ve had great load of entries

  31. A truly inspiring and diverse range of work here, very happy to make the cut. Larger versions of my entries (plus another 70-odd posters) can be found here: https://postersofhope.wordpress.com/

    https://postersofhope.wordpress.com/ I’m doing one poster a day until #IndyRef. Please help yourself.

    Ritchie

  32. macart763 says:

    Outstanding talent and great imagination.

    We’ll need lots of both from September 19th onwards. 🙂

  33. jdman says:

    For me the one that reaches in and grabs your soul and squeezes it until it hurts is the Butterflies,Ive tried to get a top printed with this for my wife but it would cost a fortune.
    But the one with liber-tae, egeli-tae, franterna-tae has an immediate and punchy qualty that you would get right away if you saw this while sitting on a bus, however then theres the Ayepad, Simon Chadwicks entry, Stewart Bremners, ……………………………….good luck choosing I dont envy you!
    Crowd fund this and get them all out there, they’re all winners. 🙂

  34. shonahelene says:

    Butterflies are a symbol of transformation that is natural and evolutionary. I love the way Andrew Mac’s poster shows that all nations aspire to reach their their potential, and Scotland is rising to join them. A rUK flag among them is a subtle touch. Though a battle lies ahead, this poster expresses, without hard words, why it is worth the effort.

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