Israel's official Holocaust Day poster designed by HIT student

Yad Vashem’s "Designing Memory" competition was held for the 13th year, and this year, the winner was HIT design student May Nitzan. 
 

May Nitzan, a fourth year visual communication student wins the competition

Designers and design students from all over the country compete for the prestige of having their design used as the official State poster commemorating Holocaust Day.

This year, the theme of Holocaust Day marks "Jewish resistance in the Holocaust commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising." The winning poster will be distributed in schools, youth movements and IDF military bases, accompanied by a lesson plan prepared by the Yad Vashem International School for Teaching of the Holocaust.

May Nitzan's winning poster for the 2023 year

Among the judges were senior designers and design lecturers, who explained the design concept: "Nitzan has drawn a blot of black paint on map-like paper outlining the Warsaw ghetto in one of its configurations. The location of the map on paper and the fact that part of it is in the process of vanishing symbolizes the corresponding disappearance of fundamental values and morality during the Holocaust."

Nitzan herself is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors but says that the issue was not discussed in her childhood home. "The Holocaust was always there, but we didn't talk about it. I learned about the Holocaust at school and even went on a trip to the camps in Poland without knowing that my grandfather was a survivor. To this day, I don't think many people know his story," says Nitzan, adding that even though it wasn't something discussed at home, the Holocaust is evident in many of her works and designs.

The winning poster from 2015 by graduate Julia De Bendetti

This is not the first time that a student from the Visual Communication Department at HIT has had their work commemorating National Holocaust Memorial Day used as the official poster of the State of Israel. 
In 2015, Julia De Bendetti, a design exchange student at HIT, won first prize for the poster she designed for the exact same competition. 

Dean of the Faculty of Design, Prof. David Rawet: "We have an outstanding Department of Visual Communication with extremely talented students. The issue of Holocaust remembrance is something we address throughout the year, in close cooperation with Yad Vashem.

Tzachi Diner, head of the visual communication department: "This is a tremendous achievement and is proof to creativity, talent and hard work. May showed that great design is not only beautiful, but also meaningful and influential, and with her talent, she was able to express the importance of this day while honoring the memory of millions of people in the most professional way. Congratulations for this wonderful achievement!".