This project originated in 2016 with a ten-poster exhibition in a small Portuguese town. Each piece offered a window into Ukraine, telling stories of the Carpathians, local marshrutkas, coffee kiosks, street vendors, and the Exclusion Zone. Our aim was to showcase a fascinating, unvarnished side of Ukraine, share our favorite places and customs, and approach everything with self-deprecating openness. Yet, our desire to tell visual stories about Ukraine could not be confined to just ten posters — the project continued to evolve, change, and branch out, expanding into new themes and welcoming more artists.
The first exhibition of the Yellow&Blue project. 2016, Góis (Portugal)
Market
Marshrutka
Today, the Yellow&Blue illustration series includes around 130 posters, broadly grouped by themes: modern Ukraine, customs and traditions, places and cities, history, art, and cuisine. This thematic approach allows every viewer to find stories that resonate with their interests and, most importantly, discover something new about Ukraine. At first, the project targeted an international audience, aiming to ensure that Ukraine would no longer be a blank spot in the visual arts and culture as a whole. Exhibitions have taken place in Berlin, Turin, Kraków, Helsinki, Prague, Budapest, Riga, and many other cities.
The Yellow&Blue exhibition at the Torino Print Days Festival. 2021, Turin (Italy)
In Ukraine, the project’s posters have also gathered many fans — these familiar stories have become even more relatable to Ukrainians thanks to vivid, original imagery. At exhibitions, visitors seek out posters featuring their hometowns, discuss what they would depict themselves, and exchange ideas. Fostering this kind of discovery is one of the project’s main goals: encouraging people to rediscover Ukrainian culture, find uniqueness in the familiar, share experiences, and launch new initiatives. As a result, the main themes of the new works have become, on the one hand, the presentation of contemporary Ukrainian culture (such as rave parties or modern fashion), and on the other, a modern reinterpretation of Ukrainian traditions (Koliada, music, and symbolism).
We also brought together the best Ukrainian illustrators for this project, each using different styles to tell stories about the various corners and unique features of our country. We follow this approach in most of our work: as we promote Ukrainian culture, we also showcase contemporary illustration and its diverse graphic styles. Today, illustration is among the most effective forms of visual art, appearing on everything from postcards in people’s hands to large billboards on city streets. For example, an illustration of Ukrainian borshch appeared on the streets of Paris, while hundreds of postcards found their way home with visitors to international cultural fairs.
Ukrainian Borshch by Oleg Gryshchenko on the facade of the Ukrainian Center. 2026, Paris (France)
A modern approach to illustration, original imagery, and a variety of graphic techniques have given this project — which aims, above all, to promote Ukrainian culture — significant artistic and collectible value.
With the onset of full-scale Russian aggression, the Yellow & Blue project, together with the SupportUkrainePic war posters, became an ambassador for Ukraine at solidarity events and exhibitions raising funds for charity. The posters were featured at leading festivals and cultural fairs — such as the Frankfurt Book Fair, where tens of thousands of visitors saw them. For us, at such events it is important not only to display posters depicting the tragedies and heroism of Ukrainian defenders, but also to showcase a vibrant Ukraine and the identity we are fighting for.
The Yellow&Blue exhibition and SupportUkrainePic at the Frankfurt Book Fair. 2022 Frankfurt (Germany)
Throughout these exhibitions, we focused on posters showcasing Crimea and ancient Ukrainian history, drawing attention to cultural heritage currently under temporary occupation. The new posters also address the Ukrainian resistance and the defenders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Over its ten-year run, the project has become a chronicle of Ukrainian cultural development, reflecting current challenges and themes through visual stories from 2016 to today.
Looking ahead, we see an inexhaustible range of topics in Ukraine yet to be explored. New, talented illustrators are emerging, and we are eager to invite them to join us. We intend to keep developing interactive elements that allow people worldwide to discover Ukraine through contemporary illustrations. For instance, we have already created a chatbot with a quiz based on the posters’ themes for international exhibitions. At the same time, after countless exhibition requests, we realize it is time to offer special sets of Yellow&Blue prints, so anyone interested can display these works at home or give them as gifts. This is the universality of illustration — its power to promote Ukrainian culture and bring people joy.
