Project: 1st International poster competition
Category: Graphic Design
Agency: Kostas Kanellopoulos
Client: Graphic Stories Cyprus
Description: “Graphic Stories Cyprus” invites higher education students and professionals visual communication designers to create and view printed their own card postal and also to take part in the international poster competition entitled “Nicosia, the city of Utopia”. The competition is part of the 3rd Visual Communication Designers Meeting in Cyprus that will take place the weekend between 10-12 of March 2017.
The project presents inspiration, as a “Flash of light”. This is captured, through a design reminding an explosion of gold colour, as a sign of success, achievement and triumph and all this is enriched with an outline abstract design and geometric harmony of the city plot, featuring city’s timeless image. The work has been chosen to be exposed to the poster exhibition under the same title.
The Creative idea: The creative idea, conserning the design of the poster, is based on the unique architectural identity of the fortification walls of Nicosia. The castle that surrounds the city was built by the Venetians, in the form it has today, based on Julio Savorgnano’s plans during the late Renaissance era. The circular structure of the walls and the geometrical harmony of the final version of the design imply unity and fullness of the city and define the fundamental space not only for the sacred, but also for the popular buildings. During that era many similar structures, such as the walls of Palmanova in north-eastern Italy, were based on the idea that beauty and harmony of the design of a city could enhance the well-being of a community.
The designer’s expectations did not include only the military protection of the city but also the creation of suitable conditions for the promotion of the well-being and equality of citizens, the preservation of the knowledge gained and its hand over from generation to generation. The basic principles of this utopian foundation of a society are reflected in the design of the Renaissance Nicosia.
