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One more film? Or just lying down in the grass, letting the summer atmosphere carry you away? The visual identity of this year’s Summer Film School (LFŠ) in Uherské Hradiště perfectly captures that irreplaceable feeling of freedom, togetherness, and cinematic flow. The author of the illustrations accompanying the entire 51st edition of the festival is Jan Šrámek – visual artist, illustrator, and lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology (FFA BUT).The central element of the visual is the Hvězda cinema with its distinctive neon sign. | Author: CTKJan Šrámek is a two-time winner of one of the most prestigious design awards, the Czech Grand Design, in the Illustrator of the Year category. His works are regularly exhibited in galleries and showcases around the world – from London to New York, Amsterdam, Seoul, and Beijing. His visual style is unmistakable. He combines detailed drawing with graphic stylization, working with rhythm, figure, environment, and subtle humor. In his audiovisual work, he focuses primarily on experiments with animated film, vector graphics, illustration, and exploring the relationship between static and moving images. He creates illustrations for books, exhibitions, and personal projects – whether they’re for children, exploring retro aesthetics, cultural heritage, or futuristic motifs.How the visual for LFŠ came to be, who made it in, and what excites him, what he creates and what he teaches, we discussed with Jan Šrámek in the middle of the festival – right among the illustrations that bring it to life.
What is the LFŠ 2025 visual about? It’s about atmosphere
“I’ve been coming to the Film School for a long time, about 20 years,” says illustrator and FFA BUT lecturer Jan Šrámek. In the past, he also performed here with audiovisual shows, played with the band Midi Lidi, and created a previous visual for LFŠ together with FaVU BUT Dean Filip Cenek. His illustrations are everywhere – featured on merch, badges, and festival venues. They capture the vibe of the main festival street, a cinema with its signature neon sign, and familiar faces – including LFŠ Director Radana Korená, the town’s mayor, or “the culture guy,” an elderly gentleman in a black suit who’s been attending since nearly the beginning. “Some of the drawn people are my colleagues and students. The overall vibe was meant to be positive and evoke a sense of ease,” the author adds.
The initial impulse came from David Huspenina, who oversees the festival’s graphic style and wanted to change it – to capture the atmosphere of the Summer Film School. Together, they took hundreds of reference photos and searched for the perfect angles, which formed the visual concept. “The actual work on the visual lasted about a month and a half, though we started last year. It involved a lot of edits and character redesigns. The hardest part was placing people into the drawn background – considering perspective, shadows, and proper scaling, especially with the wide-angle style,” Šrámek explains.The graphics also appear on festival merchandise. The most popular items are backpacks, tote bags, and T-shirts. | Author: Vincent StránskýIn addition to the LFŠ visuals, Jan Šrámek is exhibiting illustrations from the book How to Enjoy a Film, which he created with Pavel Ryška, in the foyer of the Hvězda cinema. The exhibition runs from 16 July to 26 August 2025. The book, nominated for the Golden Ribbon and the Most Beautiful Czech Books of the Year, is aimed at young readers and introduces film principles in a playful way. It follows up on the author’s earlier successful projects focused on technical and cultural topics, such as That’s the Metro, Mate!, You Can’t Stop Progress, Mate! and Apolenka from the Blueprint. “*That’s the Metro, Mate!* is our most successful one, with almost 10,000 copies sold. Its illustrations were selected for a prestigious exhibition at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2020, which is a major recognition for children’s illustrators,” Šrámek adds.The central theme of the visual style is the festival’s atmosphere, which gradually comes to life through the details of the illustration. | Author: Kamila ŠmídkováTechnique as Inspiration
Besides creating illustrations for younger readers, Šrámek also focuses on technical subjects such as bridges and architecture. He has collaborated with Czech Railways in the past, and his work for Czech Post will be unveiled soon – a stamp design featuring the Bechyně Bridge “Rainbow”. “I enjoy technical topics and have no problem illustrating them,” says the artist, who often prints his work using risograph technique. He appreciates its eco-friendliness, distinct raster, and nostalgic feel. He also used it in his long-term project Endangered Species, dedicated to post-war architecture, which was exhibited, among other places, in Le Corbusier’s building in Marseille. The set of prints took five years to complete and often involved cooperation with heritage preservation groups.At FFA BUT, Jan Šrámek leads the Video Studio together with Martin Mazanec, and also teaches illustration-focused courses, such as Authorial Illustration with Karel Bařina, who manages the bookbinding workshop. During classes, he encourages students to think independently and to find topics they genuinely care about. “The most important thing is for them to find a topic that interests them and that they want to explore. I try to encourage them to experiment with form while also providing context within the contemporary art scene, both local and global,” he explains. He also helps students print their projects using the risograph or develop their illustration work.
Among his upcoming projects are a book titled About Farting Dinosaurs and Skateboarding, a mural design for the Brno embankment inspired by the architecture of Ivan Ruller – which he plans to submit to a public art competition – and a sci-fi animated film titled The Last Shift.