2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Cultural / Context information for the jury

For decades, Indian farmers have suffered drought, flood and failed harvests. Stories of their poverty, suicides and protests have become daily news. Yet, they remain helpless, hopeless and voiceless. PepsiCo relies heavily on the farming community in India and supports them with programs covering water conservation, women empowerment, youth training and yield and income. So during Baisakhi, the Agriculture New Year, when farmers pay tribute to the Gods for abundant harvest and prosperity, PepsiCo gave these unsung heroes something they truly deserve. A “thank you”. A wise man once said, “When you photograph people in colour, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls.”

Translation. Provide a full English translation of any text.

Your heart fills the sky, your hand shows its might. Guardian of bread, giver of life. You, the true father to mankind. PepsiCo. Every farmer is our pride.

Tell the jury about the typography.

The work of farmers is organic and rustic, labour and craft intensive, rigorous yet fluid, disciplined yet flexible. Each poster's calligraphy reflects exactly that. And celebrates their sincerity and strength with a heartfelt poem handwritten in the Devanagari script. Devanāgarī, (Sanskrit: deva, “god,” and nāgarī (lipi), “[script] of the city”) also called Nāgarī, script used to write the Sanskrit, Prākrit, Hindi, Marathi, and Nepali languages, developed from the North Indian monumental script known as Gupta and ultimately from the Brāhmī alphabet, from which all modern Indian writing systems are derived. In use from the 7th century CE and occurring in its mature form from the 11th century onward, Devanāgarī is characterized by long, horizontal strokes at the tops of the letters, usually joined in modern usage to form a continuous horizontal line through the script when written.