INDUSTRIAL DESIGN ENGINEER/PRODUCT DESIGNER
I was born in Athens in April 1983 and grew up in a
middle class neighborhood of the city. Even though during my school years I was
not much into studying, since my interests rather focused on music and other
creative activities, I succeeded in graduating from a technical school with a
Graphic Design orientation. Following the directions given by some of my
teachers, I followed the Industrial Design courses of Technological Institute
of Kozani were I gained engineering background and fell in love with Design.
By the end of my studies I moved to Thessaloniki, Greece, in search for new
professional and personal experiences. During the first six years of my stay I
was employed by various companies; from furniture to urban equipment and from
playground toys to metal constructions and dental equipment. During my
employment I also worked on personal projects with my main focus concentrating
on furniture and gadget design. The first international recognition of my work
came through the international Industrial bench design competition Athens
Benchmark. By winning the first prize I not only had the opportunity to
produce a small quantity of benches and have them installed in the center of
Athens, but also to promote myself in the Greek press. Apart from that, I have
also been included in articles by some international Industrial Design blogs
and magazines, the most important of which was the annual Design and Design
book.
By the end of the summer of 2011 I moved from Thessaloniki to Utrecht,
Netherlands, making, for one more time, a brand new start, aiming at new
employment opportunities, studies, and interaction with interesting people.<o:p></o:p>
I was born in Athens Greece in April, of 1983, I completed my upper secondary studies at the Technical Lyceum of Kesariani with an orientation in Graphic Design and in 2001 I got into the Industrial Design School in Kozani where I graduated in 2006. Since then I have worked in various companies where I got significant experience.
Design has always been part of my life and I am totally convinced that it is the only job that can offer me satisfaction. However I have been employed in various fields much different from design (from builder to waiter in high class restaurants). I love furniture -both interior and exterior- and architectural constructions; my favorite materials are natural materials –from raw stone to all kinds of wood. In addition to this architecture, technology and sustainable design are my new passions.
I have strong skills in concept orientation, problem solving and the presentation of projects. What is more I am much capable of dealing with numbers such as cost definition. In my ideal employment I would be part of a design team with customers from many different fields. My moto about design is: if a product is a blank piece of paper and the user is the real artist, my goal is to create products that interact with them and excite their imagination.
Regarding my personal interests, I love collecting LPs, CDs and cassettes and in general I have a passion for music. I play the electric bass and I was member of the cult late 90s early 00s experimental punk band POSTBLUE and later of the art-pop band MASINE LIKE KOMA. Apart from music I like movies, books and dance. I am member of the Lindy Hop community of Thessaloniki and co-founder of the urban style blogs MONBIJOUX and YAOURTA. Finally, I travel as much as I can and I like to host people who like doing that too.
Immediate need leads to solution and innovation.
Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light), is a sustainable lighting project which aims to bring the eco-friendly Solar Bottle Bulb to disprivileged communities nationwide. Designed and developed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Solar Bottle Bulb is based on the principles of Appropriate Technologies – a concept that provides simple and easily replicable technologies that address basic needs in developing communities.
I fell on this excellent short animation film and I was amazed by the fact that, talent and a good idea are enough. More or less some of the best things is arts were done with low budget, am I right?
This was the Grand prize at AnimaSyros, the creators are, Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovis
Even in the days of crisis, some people still (thankfully) use creativeness as medium to express themselves and give some more beauty and inspiration in the web. Addio Citta, Goodbye City is the work of Emmanuil Papadopoulos...
Have you ever wondered where you can find a Daft Punk helmet? For those who don't understand what I'm talking about watch this for all the others there are some good news, you can make one by yourself!
"I made this for my Halloween costume this year.
It's a 16x5 LED matrix installed inside a cheap motorcycle helmet I found on Amazon. I used the Arduino to program all the animations.
The LEDs are on cardboard, so I punched holes between every single LED and some larger slits around the sides in order to see out."
If your are intrested to learn how to make beautiful interactives constructions like the above and you are settled in Thessaloniki there is a seminar in DYNAMO gallery. For more info press this.
This is my new portfolio. Check and comment.
It's been more than two years since my last post and probably most of the readers (if there are any) would think that YAOURTA is an abandoned blog with many crap postings and no interest. This post is made in order to remind that I'm still here.
In order to make a new start I'll delete all previous posts (most of them written in greeklish, something really uncomfortable, specially for foreign readers) and begin with some fresh & new staff.
Poster I made for my girl's DJ set. Photo of instalation/collage & acrilic on cardboard