Within our co-operation with the European Union and the Council of Europe, as one of the grantees on their joint initiative– „Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022“ (Horizontal Facility II), Open Gate organised an open call for young upcoming graphic designers!

Trafficking in human beings is a serious and complex problem and one of the growing forms of organised crime on a global scale.  The process of human trafficking implies a horrendous exploitation of the human body and labour, violating the most fundamental of human rights- from delimiting communication and movement, to violence and abuse.

Graphic design is definitely seen as the art or the modern civilisation – this is why we decided to target young upcoming designers who transferred their creativity into creating effective awareness raising graphic designs which would be part of the campaign – “Opportunity or Exploitation”.

Today we are presenting you Milosh Ristovski, the 2nd place awarded design.

 

A few words about yourself and the motivation to apply for this competition?

My name is Milos Ristoski, founder and co-owner of squareONE Marketing & Advertising, a marketing agency in Skopje. As a creative director, but also a young leader, every day I try to emphasise to my colleagues the importance and role of design in the social life.

This was the motivation for me to participate in this competition, which speaks of one of the most sensitive topics globally. A topic that concerns all of us, regardless of gender, age, nationality or ethnicity.

 

How informed do you think young people are about human trafficking?

I believe that the availability of information on the issue of human trafficking is not the main disadvantage of young people. On the contrary, at least today the flow and speed of information on many social topics is easier than ever thus, making it easier for young people to gain more thorough information on important topic and means of protection.

As a challenge in the educational background of this essential problem among young people is perhaps the focus and lack of awareness, caused by popularising topics and existing problems that may not be essentially significant, but are an integral part of everyday life faced by the young population.

 

Do you think graphic design can be a powerful tool for fostering social change?

As one of the youngest entrepreneurs in our country, whose many years of experience are in the field of graphic design and multimedia, I am sure that design is much more than just a beautiful visualisation. Design is a means of communication whose power can educate, inform and convey a message louder than any word or written thought. For this reason, I often say that design is closely related to the visual literacy of a person, which is the ability to interpret the meaning of a set of information presented in the form of an image.

 

Finally, what is the message you want to convey to young people through your design?

This poster is a work created to attract the attention of each individual and to loudly convey the message that an informed society is the only criterion for combating human trafficking.

 

This interview was produced with the financial support of the European Union and the Council of Europe. The views expressed herein are responsibility of the author and can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of either party.