The Anderson and VCUarts are pleased to announce a call for submissions for the upcoming Graphic Design Juried Student Exhibition, The Medium is the Mess. This show invites designers to think outside their computers, and challenges them to get messy. The jury will consist of a group of VCU Graphic Design faculty, and applicants will be adjudicated based on creativity in response to the prompt and design fundamentals. Fifteen artists will be accepted.
The exhibition is scheduled for September 25 – October 17 in the Sponge Gallery on the top floor of The Anderson, with an opening reception on September 25. Exhibitors are expected to deliver their own posters to The Anderson. Please note that the Anderson is not equipped with an elevator.
This exhibition is organized by Jamie Cox, Graphic Design ’27 (coxje@vcu.edu) and Lian Wasser-Goren, Graphic Design ’27 (wassergorel@vcu.edu).
Parameters & Prompts:
- Use a quote from The Medium is the Massage as the content of the poster (see details below)
- Posters must be wall-mounted, and arrive install-ready, including the hardware needed for hanging
- i.e. hooks installed on the back of the work, d-rings, or a French cleat for a wooden poster.
- Unframed works on paper may be hung using clips or pinned to the wall by the organizers which will create holes through the paper, unless another install option is provided by the artist.
- Can explore materials such as fiber or wood,
- Explore texture, cutout, or low relief
- Explore printmaking methods including letterpress, linocuts, risographs, and cyanotype
- Photocopying, zine-making processes, and collaging are encouraged
- Do not use digital editing software
- Lean into experimentation and new processes
- Eligibility: This exhibition is open to VCUarts Graphic Design majors enrolled in the Fall 2026 semester.
- Limit one submission per person.
- The application will be reviewed on overall understanding of the requirements and creative liberty taken.
Theme:
“The Medium is the Massage: An inventory of Effects” is an experimental manifesto created in collaboration by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, produced by Jerome Agel. It was published in 1967 and became widely acknowledged by creatives and influential within design history. The title comes from a phrase that McLuhan often used, “The medium is the message.” McLuhan changed “message” to “massage” to signify the ways in which various types of media can stimulate human consciousness. The book itself experiments with graphics, photography, and typography, while expressing both commentary and ideation on society’s interactions with media. It also plays with physical creation techniques like collaging.
The Medium is the Massage aims to show the human connections to mainstream media and the ways in which it is used as an extension of human senses. Media has the essential abilities to both ground us in a physical sense, to serve as a tool to perceive and interpret the world around us. This show, The Medium is the Mess, is about pushing the boundaries of how a poster is conceptualized. We want artists and designers to create outside of the digital space, use their hands, and get messy. Think beyond a piece of paper in terms of the poster format, experiment with materiality, texture, and composition, while still maintaining typographic fundamentals using a chosen quote from the book.
Timeline:
5/15 Submissions open. All VCUarts undergrad students, enrolled in the Graphic Design department for the Fall 2026 semester are eligible to apply.
8/30 Submissions close at 11:59pm
9/4 Selected artists notified
9/15 Artwork drop off
9/25 Exhibition opens, reception 5–7pm
10/17 Exhibition concludes
10/19 Artwork pickup
Questions can be directed to Jamie Cox, Graphic Design ’27 (coxje@vcu.edu) and Lian Wasser-Goren, Graphic Design ’27 (wassergorel@vcu.edu).
