Ten Images for Ithaca 2010

Ten images for Ithaca is an international poster competition that started nine years ago. It began as a small local event but now Ten Images for Ithaca is one of the most important poster design competitions worldwide. Last week it was announced this year's theme, prizes and deadline:


Theme: Labels
1st prize 1000 €, 2nd prize 600 €, 3rd prize 500 €
Deadline: 21 May 2010

"A label is any kind of tag attached to something so as to identify the object or its content. Labeling means naming. It is human instinct to group things with what they are most similar and name them as a whole. We live in a world filled with labels antagonising each other to win our preference. There are labels associated with consumer products and fashion. People voluntarily label themselves in order to have a sense of belonging to a group, but there also labels that people use to categorize others stemming from feelings of racism and xenophobia, political and religious discrimination, etc. What is the role of these labels in your life? How can a label describe the world you live in? Can a label give the infinite set of experiences, beliefs and desires that summarise each human being? All of the above are just a few of the many ways one can approach this year’s competition theme “Labels”."

The ten best entries will be printed into banners with dimensions 200 x 60 cm and will be hung along Ithaca’s promenade for the entire summer of 2010. Their creators will have free accommodation in Ithaca on the weekend of the exhibition’s opening (July 2010).

More info here.
Poster design by the design shop.

Thousands of years old

Nick Howard is an artist based in Minneapolis U.S.A. For his work he uses pens and ink, creating dark figures without a face, alien creatures with hairy tentacles, landscapes smothered in grass and portraits of ancient men. The vulnerability, darkness, beauty and humor that is entailed in being human, are the main concerns in Nick Howard’s art. The portrait Thousands of Years Old focuses on a detail of the human face, in order to comment on the importance of the passing of time and our obsession with beauty.

This work is going to be exhibited in Anarchy vs. Order, an exhibition curated by the design shop, part of the Design Walk 2010 / Poles Apart.

Design Walk 2010 / Poles Apart

Since 2007 there has been a distinctive reason to come to Athens in February and wander around the historic center of the city: the Design Walk. Each year, graphic design studios open their doors to visitors, inviting them to follow a trail that brings them closer to the most functional and everyday applied art.

The walk takes place in the most vibrant area of the city next to the Acropolis, leading the visitors between cult shops and hip bars to discover works by award-winning graphic designers. For the 2010 walk, double-decker, the London-based curating agency, is challenging 13 Graphic Design Studios to create a piece of work inspired by the contradictions / oppositions with which every designer has to deal, and which arise from fundamental questions in design methodology. The resulting exhibition, POLES APART, will give a unique visual insight into the creative process – as well as its curious contradictions.

Participants: 3 in a Box, Bios, The Design Shop, Designpark, G, Geometry, I AM Design etc., Indyvisuals, Mums Design, Pi6, Poor Designers, Sereal Designers, The Switch Place Identity.

For more information visit the official Design Walk site of the Facebook Design Walk group.

Picture by Alexandros Gavrilakis during the press conference in Bios.

Diary 2010

The Athens based design agency "the design shop" has just released a diary for 2010 with the title "Journeys in Time". For every month, a different destination is suggested. From Turkey to New Zealand and from Brazil to Cape Verde. The diary is designed by "the design shop" in collaboration with Konstantinos Trichas. Design wise, the diary is purely typographic. The typeface used is called Neutraface in its Greek edition by Cannibal Fonts. If you want to order the diary you can send an email here.

Istanbul as felt by... (revisited)

Back in 2007, I participated in a poster exhibition in Istanbul in which the theme was the city itself. The poster I had created then intended to show the warm feeling I had in Istanbul and the overlapping of different cultures and different time periods, all apparent in modern Istanbul.Because of the sharp triangles I had used the poster had a hostile feeling... Next week I'm going back to Istanbul for another exhibition and I want to fix this mistake. This is the new version of the poster.The exhibition is part of Grafist, the annual International Design Week of Istanbul, organised by Mimar Sinan University.

Contrast

Today is my birthday so I decided to upload one of my posters. This is a poster I did for a video projection project organised by the Greek Designers Association in the occasion of the first European Design Awards in 2007. For more work check the design shop.

Ten Images go Silver!

I said that in this blog I'm going to share images I find on the net. Well, this one I didn't find on the net, I found it in our studio (the design shop). The catalogue we designed last year for the Ten Images for Ithaca exhibition, won this years Silver Award on it's category at the European Design Awards in Zurich. We also got to Bronze Awards (for this and this). We are very happy!

Ten images for Ithaca

I have to admit that I am sentimentally attached with this competition. Apart from that though Ten Images for Ithaca is a poster design competition that has gained international reputation. Check the website to see some brilliant posters - winners from the past years. This year's subject is "I", a very challenging theme! The deadline is on the 20th of May and the first prize 1.000 Euros. For more info click here. Poster design by the design shop.