Fellini project started as an idea in year 2018 when I was invited to participate in a group exhibition titled We All Could Be Heroes organized by Idea X Factory gallery in Springfield, Missouri. I consider Fellini one of my biggest heroes because I grew up with Fellini’s films, which, I am sure, unconsciously shaped the seeds of my visual culture. For that exhibition, I created a portrait of him made of 3D stickers of googly eyes. That work received a lot of positive reactions and feedback from my colleagues and gallery visitors. When someone asked, “What do you plan to do next?” I almost said, loudly, “I plan to make an exhibition dedicated to Fellini,” but I did not. It was just a brief thought, and as time passed, it faded away…

After retiring from teaching in the summer of 2019, I found myself with extra time to do more personal work. During that fall, I began transforming the 3D artwork of Fellini into  a two-dimensional poster. Slow and meticulous work, but I had patience and plenty of time. A search of the internet provided a better reference portrait of Fellini, and by chance, I discovered that January 2020 was the 100th anniversary of Fellini’s birth. I thought this was the perfect time for someone from the design community to do a project dedicated to this anniversary, and I would be ready with my contribution.

I searched for planned events celebrating Fellini and could not find any initiatives that aligned with this event. Additionally, with the global spread of COVID-19 in 2020, all already scheduled festivities and cultural events dedicated to Fellini’s centennial celebration were cancelled and postponed for the foreseeable future. I started sharing ideas about a prospective Fellini posters project with my wife, iwona rypesc-kostovic and a few friends, eduard cehovin and philippe leduc. These ideas went beyond the poster exhibition. I started dreaming about possible installations and performances on the streets of Rimini… all these dreams were shared and resulted in a lot of support. Still, I had that moral question: “Is it appropriate to invite colleague designers to participate in the project dedicated to Fellini in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when there are more urgent needs for designs that would help us to learn about the disease, how to fight it, and survive this evil?” At one-point steven heller told me: “I think it’s important to get our minds off the pandemic from time to time”. His words eased my concerns, and iwona and I began to verbalize the idea for the international invitational posters action, which will include not just two-dimensional formats but also animation. Our wish was to give designers with expertise a chance to explore motion design as well. We planned to invite and gather creatives from three generations: designers who are already legends in our field, designers already established and worldwide recognized, and emerging designers of the younger generation. When the list was finalized, we formulated the project concept and established the submission rules. michael frizell helped us with editing our first draft, and at the beginning of April, the project Fellini 1920-2020 took off…

The designers’ response was beyond our expectations. Among invitees, we discovered many Fellini fans and many emails stating that this project was helping them make their days of isolation more meaningful. Despite COVID-19 and other challenges, of the 126 invited designers from all over the world, over 115 responded to our call, and we ultimately received over 100 posters and nine animations submitted by 98 designers. Steven wrote a short foreword, john dengler and carol shoptaugh made final editing of all texts and captions. iwona created a beautiful website that featured all posters and submitted animations. The project was renamed to Posters for Fellini, and in July 2020, the website went live.

In the meantime, we contacted some world-renowned film festivals and poster biennials, as well as Rimini, the birthplace of Fellini, with the hope that they would take this opportunity to present the project during their events. More pressing COVID-19 issues pushed design events like ours to the side.

Still, thanks to the initiatives of our participants, we were able to show Posters for Fellini at:

29th Paraguay Film Festival
celeste prieto presented it in digital form.

ranko novak,initiated and selected a limited number of posters that were presented on the streets of Ljubljana, Slovenia, on digital displays. Thanks to kristina ravnikar the project was organized by the Slovenian Cinematheque and supported by the Italian Cultural Institute in Ljubljana, and Europlakat.

In summer 2021 our dear friend giulia ruggiero wrote beautiful essay about her personal experience with Fellini and Giulietta.

pekka loiri nitiated and coordinated an exhibition that was planned for 2023 at the Lahti Poster Museum in Finland, but a newly selected administration of the museum gave up that plan.

Today, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to all of you who dedicated your talents and expressed your support to make this book possible.

cedomir kostovic & iwona rypesc-kostovic
Krakow, Fall 2025