Green Bay, Protaras

Here's the first glimpse of Green Bay Wakeboarding center's new image (or in this case, first branded image). More to come soon....watch this space!

Dimco RGB Remote

This is the unveiling y'all! As some of you may (or may not know), I've left Pandora Ogilvy & Mather, and now work at Dimco Lighting as an in-house designer. This is the first of many packaging redesigns to come, which arrived at our office last week. This remote (along with the separately sold receiver) allows you to change the colour of LED lights. I opted for something simple and clean on matt laminated card with a rainbow ribbon which wraps around the whole pack. I found gloss lamination made the colours really pop, but the pack looked cheaper. Another more expensive option would have been spot UV on the ribbon and remote. Let me know your thoughts.

When work is fun

Threadless is an excellent examples of Generation Y employers / companies, proving a job doesn't have to be just a 'job' but a lifestyle if the environment is right. Google is also a good case study, where playing games is compulsory. Google has been named one of FORTUNE's Best Company To Work For! while Threadless is a Top 50 Chicago Generation Y Employer. Judging by the results, it seems these employers are onto a new way of thinking about work and as we spend most of our adult lives at work, it's only logic you should enjoy your work and enjoy BEING at work as opposed to doing it because 'you have to'. Happy employees are productive employees. Hope this trend catches on here in Cyprus soon, because employers are using this (psychological) recession as an excuse to threaten employees and make payments cuts, which in turn makes the psychological recession an economic one. Punishing for the sake of punishing! 
A special about Threadless on MSNBC from Threadless.com on Vimeo.

Alpha's ReMade at the Urban Soul Festival

Pauline Kael once said, 'Trash has given us an appetite for art.' This rings true in the case of ALPHA's ReMade recycling project. Products are made using only found materials (printed paper, discarded magazines and dated ad banners). All A5 notebooks and ad bags are handmade, making each individual and unique. ReMade will be paticipating in the Pantheon Gallery's Urban Soul Festival this year, in Nicosia, where the books and bags will be available for purchase. See more of the artsist and musicians involved on the USF's facebook group. Be there of be square!

A6 and A5 booklets from waste paper

Street bags from advertising banners

Urban Soul Festival

25.09.2010

17:00 - 00:00

Tripoli Park - Nicosia

Design & Design International Awards

Three new awards and a showcase (so far - muahaha), to be published in the forthcoming Book of the Year, Vol 3 due to be released Dec 2010. Thank you to the folks over at D&D, you've made me a very proud [temporarily self-admiring] designer.

I [heart] Athens shirt, showcased here.

Awarded 06/10/2010

Awarded 17/10/2010

Awarded 30/09/2010

27 Collectiva

Lots of 'firsts' in the next sentence: Our first proposal for our first client as a collective. You can see our collective site here. For this project the team consists of myself (branding & graphics), Dino Kouyialis (illustrator), Constandinos Economides (Interior & product design) and Dionysis Dionysiou (writing & sales). More to come...

UK Calendar Graphs photos

Last night I had my calendar graphs photographed by Nicos Louka and I'm very happy with the results. I previously posted digital pic here. Just in case you don't remember what the project is about:

The concept was conceived after gathering all the UK’s religious holidays, notable dates and bank holidays. The UK has 32 official holidays, displayed on the A1 circular graph calendars of 2009 and 2010. The relationship between holiday, month, day and type is made using connecting lines of different weights, with thicker lines representing more widely celebrated holidays

WATCH THIS SPACE...

Part of the project was experimenting with different ways to show the information. One of my initial designs was a pic chart which you can here.

Wine Stains

I don't covet, but I am glad to have done it first. One step ahead of a trend perhaps...

Anaïs Gato's version - July 2010

My design for Pambis Diner's house wines back in April 2010.

Anaïs does have some lovely branding work, particularly Mrs. Eaves, Persephone, and the Baskerville poster (also in-book in Design & Design's annual).

More knotty messages

I made a new little poster with my knot typeface, which I'd designed for a poster back in January.

UK Calendar Graph

Ok, I realize is the middle of 2010, but I've decided to post my UK Calendar graphs because I'm preparing the files for submission to some publishers. Next week I'm getting fresh prints (yummy) then off the the photographer for some glossy studio shots. Watch this space...

As you can see I made a few changes from 2009 to 2010 to the colours scheme (simplified) and also use divided colour circles for type of holidays which overlap.

Anti-discrimination campaign

We here at Pandora Ogilvy pitched (and won) for the E.U sponsored Anti-discrimination campaign. The copy reads:

Joy doesn't discriminate.
Passion doesn't discriminate.
Pain doesn't discriminate.
Love doesn't discriminate.
Time doesn't discriminate.
Who are you to discriminate?
Our differences make the difference.

The campaign has gone live for the summer of 2010 - Print, TV and Radio. These are the posters:

General: Love doesn't discriminate is highlighted. Say no to racism is the subheading.

Age: Time doesn't discriminate is highlighted. Say no to age discrimination is the subheading.

Homosexuality: Passion doesn't discriminate is highlighted. Say no to discrimination against sexual preferences is subheading.

Also spotted in an elevator of an age care centre in Lefkosia is a newspaper clipping of the ad.

Tofarco Developers

Ads for Tofarco Developers in Cyprus. Tofarco wanted an image refresh, to separate their four types of properties - Urban apartments,  Classical apartments, Residential houses and Business Offices.

Each category is presented as an architectural book, and altogether as new architectural editions by Tofarco. Each 'book cover' features buildings by Tofarco developers and was branded to suit a theme - example: Home Editions is the residential properties in the suburbs, Urban Dream is the modern apartments in the city centre, Instant Classic is the classic family apartments and 9to5 is the business centres.

The range will expand with each new project released (as below).

Copywriter: Marilena Patata
Account Executives: George Georgiou & Monica Tsekoura
Illustration / Design: Anastasia Gerali
 For Pandora Ogilvy, Lefkosia Cy.

Pambis Diner

Coming very soon, just in time for the summer, I've designed the label for Pambis Diner's house wine.

On following tutors advice

Too often students (myself included) look to their tutors for guidance and advice, and although they may mean well, they don't always know best. I know my tutors certainly had their favourites and did more to help them, and while they may not have believed in me very much, I'm glad I didn't let that affect my decisions. Since graduating in 2008, my portfolio has gone from strength to strength without tutoring, but rather mentoring from creative directors, interviewees, online peers on sites such as Behance. Having read the interview with Alison Charmichael on It's nice That, I'm glad to hear I was not the only one who felt my tutors did not necessarily know what they were talking about. Let's not forget, that while may tutors may be in the industry, as this recession has proven, they cannot predict what is coming in the future. So, my advice is to you, do your thing, keep experimenting long after graduating and keep researching on current trends and designers. I know I'm far from done learning new things and I know I have yet to reach my full potential which is an exciting prospect. I am finding it a bit of a struggle to find like-minded designers and artists in Cyprus, as I would LOVE to collaborate on some personal work, but in the meantime, I'll happily beaver away at personal projects alone with feedback and comments from online peers :)

Peace!