Poster Artist Luba Lukova Opens ‘Designing Justice’ At MODA

Forced out of the capital city, she started designing posters for a theater company in a smaller city, learning how to minimize complex concepts into something clever yet accessible.

After being invited to Colorado for a poster exhibition, she moved to New York in 1991 and promptly got a job with the New York Times creating artwork for book reviews and op-eds.

Now, she creates these simple yet profound posters about all sorts of social justice issues. Her work is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art, and she has shown her posters in exhibits across the country.

Lukova’s work is in an exhibit at the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) called “Designing Justice” that continues through Sept. 3.

“You have to feel empathetic to really feel for those who are suffering,” she said about her process in an interview with Lois Reitzes. “Also, don’t fall into cliché imagery that will make it look boring. A third effort is to do it in a simple and concise way so it can have that iconic look that people can easily remember and take seconds to understand but it will stay in their heads.”