The cities of Berlin, Buenos Aires, Kobe, Montréal, Nagoya, Shanghai and Shenzhen invite Montréal designers to enter one or more of six international poster competitions aimed at defining and promoting the identities of these UNESCO Cities of Design.
What CODE defines each city?
Every metropolis has its own visual identity, an individual CODE. This competition aims to stimulate creation of posters that, through symbols, forms, colours and stories, express the singular characteristics—the codes—of Berlin, Buenos Aires, Kobe, Montréal, Nagoya, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
About the CODE competition
The idea for the competition originated with Montréal agency Sid Lee, which, inspired by the theme “Montréal, UNESCO City of Design,” designed and produced a series of posters celebrating that designation in 2006. At the urging of Sid Lee, Create Berlin organized a similar project in 2009, on which the current competition is largely based.
The success of the Montréal and Berlin initiatives has prompted all the UNESCO Cities of Design to repeat the competition, as their first-ever joint project, and to showcase the winning entries in a group exhibition to be held in each city between September 2010 and December 2011.
Entry in each city’s poster design competition is free, anonymous and open to graphic designers, illustrators and photographers—professionals and students—living or working in one of the seven UNESCO Cities of Design. Since Berlin has already held its own competition in 2009 and the winners have been selected, the city is not issuing a new call for entries. Berlin-based designers are, however, invited to submit poster designs to the other cities’ competitions.
Jury
In each participating city, a jury of five design experts (including one international expert from another UNESCO City of Design) will select 10 finalist designs, including a Grand Prize winner, among the submitted works.
Awards and recognition
The 70 selected poster designs will be included in a group exhibition displayed for at least two weeks in each UNESCO City of Design between September 2010 and December 2011. They will also be showcased on the websites of the participating cities.
In addition, each of the seven Grand Prize winners will receive a cash award of US$2,000 and a UNESCO medal.
For further information or to enter, visit the websites below:
BERLIN - Martina Zeyen
[email protected]
www.create-berlin.de
BUENOS AIRES - Javier Gonzalez King
[email protected]
http://code.buenosaires.gob.ar
KOBE - Ritsuko Nagao
[email protected]
www.ithinkobe.jp/kobe-code
MONTRÉAL - Melinda Pap
[email protected]
www.buildingmontreal.com
NAGOYA - Eriko Esaka
[email protected]
www.creative-nagoya.jp/code
SHANGHAI - Qilin Zhang
[email protected]
www.scic.gov.cn
www.021ci.com
SHENZHEN - Yao Zhenghua
[email protected]
www.shenzhendesign.org
About the CODE MONTRÉAL competition
Registration is free but mandatory.
Each entrant must complete the form no later than 5 p.m. local time on June 28, 2026.
Download the competition regulations here.
Entries must be received electronically no later than noon local time on July 29, 2026 (instructions available upon completed registration).
Prospective entrants who have questions must submit them before July 5, 2026 by e-mail to:
Melinda Pap, [email protected]
The members of the CODE Montréal jury are:
- Matthieu Dugal, host, Tout le monde s’en fout, Canal Vox
- Raphaël Daudelin, graphic designer, Studio FEED
- Hélène Godin, Creative Director and Partner, Sid Lee
- Philippe Lamarre, graphic designer, co-founder of Toxa and Urbania, Vice-President, Société des designers graphiques du Québec
- An international expert appointed by one of the seven UNESCO Cities of Design
Marc Choko, professor at the School of Design, Université du Québec à Montréal and the author of several works on poster design, will sit as an international expert on a jury in one of the six participating cities.
The CODE MONTRÉAL poster design competition is organized by the Design Montréal office of the Ville de Montréal, and co-ordinated by Melinda Pap of Atelier Punkt. It is part of the Building Montréal, UNESCO City of Design project.
About the UNESCO Creative Cities Network
Established in October 2004, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network seeks to facilitate and promote exchanges of best practices and know-how among cities that have creativity in common and, as a result, help spur their development via international networking.
About Building Montréal, UNESCO City of Design
Building Montréal, UNESCO City of Design is an initiative of the Design Montréal office of the Ville de Montréal and the UNESCO Chair in Landscape and Environmental Design of Université de Montréal. The $1.2-million project is being funded in equal parts by the Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine, the Ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l’Occupation du territoire, the Conférence régionale des élus de Montréal and the Ville de Montréal.